Thread by @POC4INDY

We are a group of people of colour who are supportive of #YesCymru and discussions in #Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 for #independence/#annibyniaeth.

We have created YesCymruPOC to adequately address topics of equality, representation, diversity and race in the #Welsh independence movement. 1/

Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 has a future beyond an unequal relationship in the Union🇬🇧, one that is based on exploitation, poverty and a lack of a developed public political sphere in Wales. 2/

Equally, we acknowledge the monolithic discussions on #independence/#annibyniaeth🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 that have, at nearly every turn, erased the voices+contributions of #PeopleofColour in #Wales and the lived realities of race, racism and the #HostileEnvironment.

We are pro-independence🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿, anti-union🇬🇧 and part of a wider movement to break up the remnants of the British Empire wherever they are found. That break-up includes ungluing ourselves from Westminster and real, radical conversations on equality, equity and justice in #Wales.

There is no visible representation of people of colour in #YesCymru. We do not know of any Yes Cymru groups led directly by people of colour or people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. We find this extraordinarily troubling: there is room for everyone in #Wales

We are 30 years too late for an equality and diversity officer for #YesCymru. But we're not too late to establish a grassroots-led #annibyniaeth group to raise the profile of discussions in #Wales on independence, for independence, to achieve independence.

For example, #DidYouKnow...

📌Despite being "A Nation of Sanctuary", deportations and raids by United Kingdom Border Force operate on #Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿soil to #deport people from #Wales?
📌NO amendments from the #HostileEnvironment report have been implemented in the UK🇬🇧?

📌That Black people in Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 are 7x overrepresented in #Welsh prisons despite making up less than 2% of the Welsh population?
📌There has NEVER been a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic woman elected in #Wales🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 for the #Senedd or #Parliament?

#DidYouKnow that #Wales has its own history with slavery, and with abolition? Or that Wales was once home to the second largest population of people of colour in the UK outside of London? Did you know Wales was home to dozens of Black Marxist groups in the early 1900s?

Wales is, fundamentally, a racist society. If there had never been a white man elected to the Senedd or to Westminster to represent Wales, there would be uproar: but the Senedd is located in a city where 10% of people are BAME women, and nobody bats an eyelid.

It's not enough to be non-racist in #Wales. We have to be #AntiRacist. We must talk about changing hearts, and changing minds. Wales as a small nation has a radical ability to address its history.

Wales is both historically colonised, and a coloniser. We have a radical potential to change Wales and change the world for good: but those conversations must, so importantly, include people from "diverse communities" as much so as those from "non-diverse communities"

We sit at the confluence of these discussions. We're at the cymer. We straddle the 1919 race riots and the prison industrial complex, the growing levels of poverty and Welsh traditions of grassroots radicalism, abolitionism and radical resistance against oppression.

#AnnibyniaethNawr, #IndependenceNow: and #BlackLivesMatter. If the #WelshIndependence movement was inclusive, there wouldn't be a need for a person of colour led #YesCymru group. Our hands have been forced into the creation of this group, specifically, along these lines.

We welcome other people of colour who wish to join us and be a part of our conversations. Importantly, we would love to support others to set up other groups, as we are aware of the homogenisation of "people of colour" built on legacies of anti-Blackness and Afrophobia.

We are non-party political. We are not partisan. We believe in an #IndependentTropicalWales. We are #AntiGentrification. We want to continue the work of the ancestors in the linear dismantlement of the largest Empire on the earth, so that the sun may finally set. #decolonisation