Cornish Solidarity

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Cornish Solidarity (Unvereth Kernewek in Cornish) is a cross party organisation that is fighting for 'Cornish Rights' including the recognition of the ethnic Cornish as a national minority and for more Cornish autonomy in the form of a Cornish Assembly. It was first formed as a pressure group after the closure of South Crofty, the last hard rock mine in Cornwall, in March 1998. It produces "Cornwall First", a newsletter published every two months which is free to members. In a statement issued in 1998 it said:-

"Cornish Solidarity is a cross party organisation, made up of people from all walks of life, who firmly believe that our politicians have failed us. We are uniting for ourselves and more importantly for the future of our children."

In 1998, in a protest organised by the organisation, hundreds of campaigners demanding help for Cornwall's economy staged a protest on the Tamar Bridge. A convoy of protesters, many waving black and white Cornish Saint Piran's Flags from their vehicles, drove to the bridge, and used pennies to pay the £1 toll to enter Devon at Plymouth.^[1] They claimed that Cornwall was experiencing a "youth drain," because young people had to leave the Duchy to get a university degree, and then stayed away because there were few jobs to go back to. They also quoted the disproportionate gap between local wages and high house prices and the lack of affordable housing for the young. The organisers demanded a special status for Cornwall, which would give it the same benefits as South Wales and Merseyside in terms of development grants to businesses. Since this action Cornwall was granted European Union Objective One status in 1999. Previously the Government had statistically incorporated Cornwall with Devon in a process known as "Devonwall". In 1998 Cornwall was recognised by the UK Government as having "distinct cultural and historical factors reflecting a Celtic background" ^[2], thus allowing it to be separated in a regional and economic sense from Devon, a fact that underlines the importance of Celticity to Cornwall in recent years. Many members of Cornish Solidarity are also members of Mebyon Kernow.