Plaid Cymru Youth

Origins

CymruX (the predecessor organisation of Plaid Cymru Youth) was founded in 2005 to merge Plaid Cymru's two existing movements into one new youth movement. The student federation and the youth movement were merged to create a brand new youth organisation available to anyone under the age of 30. A number of young Plaid Cymru members wanted to create a vibrant new movement which would appeal to all young people in Wales. The members felt it important that young people of all ages should be able to take part in the political process together, without a separate movement only for students. This opened up the movement to more people, for example, young people in Wales who are working, and school pupils.

In 2012 CymruX was re-branded as Plaid Cymru Youth / Plaid Cymru Ifanc.

Structure

Plaid Cymru Youth is run by its National Executive Committee, with an election during its Annual General Meeting every year. At community level, the movement is made up of local groups across Wales, namely in Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor, Carmarthenshire, Llanelli Aberystwyth and Neath, which are in turn run by their own committees. The chairs of these local groups are members of the National Executive Committee. Every member of Plaid Cymru Youth is entitled to vote or stand as an officer during the AGM.

Beliefs

As the Plaid Cymru youth wing, Plaid Cymru Youth shares many of the wider party's goals. However they aim as a youth wing to abide by the beliefs of their young members. At its 2013 Annual General Meeting in Swansea, it adopted the following core set of beliefs:

1. Education – at all levels – is a human right and should therefore be free to all at the point of need;
2. Wales, with a strong infrastructure, would be better served as an independent sovereign state in her own right;
3. As citizens of the world, we all have a duty to protect the Earth and to act according to the principle of environmental- and social sustainability;
4. We are all born equal, and we should all, therefore, have the same rights and opportunities as each other, including the right to marry the person we love, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, religion, race, or wealth;
5. Young adults of 16 years of age should have the right to vote, and the education system should equip them with the tools to become fully-fledged, responsible citizens;
6. The Welsh language is a cornerstone of our national culture and identity and we therefore have a duty to do everything in our power to protect, defend, and strengthen the language wherever and whenever we can, so that we have a truly bilingual Wales with two thriving national languages;
7. As citizens of a nation fighting for her own independence, we recognise the struggles of our brothers and sisters from democratic and progressive movements in other such nations across the globe – we support them in their journey towards freedom.

Activities

Plaid Cymru Youth has campaigned against university top-up fees, the Iraq War, and the development of new nuclear arms, for the re-introduction of grants for university students, for affordable housing for young people and for a Yes vote in the Welsh devolution referendum, 2011. Most recently they have launched a campaign to help tackle youth unemployment called "Gwaith i Gymru – Work for Wales" which aims to put pressure on the Welsh Government to help young people into work or training in Wales, and includes a petition to the National Assembly for Wales.

There are also some links with Federation of Student Nationalists and Young Scots for Independence, the student and youth wings of the Scottish National Party, as well as JERC, the youth group of Republican Left of Catalonia. It is a member of the European Free Alliance Youth.