Cymuned
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cymuned (translated in English as "community") is a Welsh-language pressure group. Established in 2001, the group campaigns for the survival of the Welsh-speaking communities in Wales, perceived to be under threat because of demographic change.
Cymuned has campaigned on issues of housing and social justice, and describes itself as an anti-colonisation and anti-racist organisation.
Cymuned have orchestrated protests outside estate agents in England that sell second homes in Wales to English people. They have also protested against the Welsh train company Arriva Trains Wales for the lack of use of the Welsh language on its services.
Whilst Cymuned's housing protests have gained support, critics argue estate agents are providing a commercial service to the Welsh people who contract them to sell or rent their property in return for market value and that the sharp rise in the cost of property in recent years is not confined to Wales but an international phenomenon of the growing world economy. A new campaign designed to ensure that all new homes should be for locals only is based on planning policy that has already been adopted in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, as well as parts of Shropshire, Devon, the Peak District and the Lake District.
The chief executive of Cymuned is Aran Jones, who has learned Welsh as a second language. Other notable members include the poet and musician, Twm Morys (who won the chair at the 2003 national eisteddfod), Dr Simon Brooks, editor of a Welsh language current affairs magazine, Judith Humphreys, a Welsh actress, and Dr Jerry Hunter, an American Harvard graduate who moved to Wales to learn Welsh and has remained in Wales ever since, working in academic posts at the University of Wales.
Cymuned's campaigns have inspired the painting of graffiti in parts of north-west Wales. [1] [2][3] [4]
