ANEURIN BEVAN AND PAUL ROBE SON: SOCIALISM, CLASS AND IDENTITY Daniel G. Williams National Eisteddfod Lecture, Ebbw Vale 2010 The Institute of Welsh Affairs exists to promote quality research and informed ANEURIN BEVAN debate affecting the cultural, social, political and economic well-being of Wales. IWA is an independent organisation owing no allegiance to any political or AND PAUL ROBE SON: economic interest group. Our only interest is in seeing Wales flourish as a country in which to work and live. We are funded by a range of organisations and SOCIALISM, CLASS AND IDENTITY individuals. For more information about the Institute, its publications, and how to join, either as an individual or corporate supporter, contact: IWA - Institute of Welsh Affairs 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ Daniel G. Williams tel: 029 2066 0820 fax: 029 2023 3741 National Eisteddfod Lecture email: [email protected] web: www.iwa.org.uk | www.clickonwales.org Ebbw Vale 2010 Published with the support of CREW (Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales), Swansea University. The Author Daniel G. Williams is Senior Lecturer in English and Director of the Centre for Research into the English Published in Wales by the Institute of Welsh Affairs. Literature and Language of Wales (CREW), Swansea 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ University. He is Editor of several volumes including a collection of Raymond Williams’s writings on Wales Who First Impression August 2010 Speaks for Wales? Nation, Culture, Identity (University of Wales Press, 2003) and Slanderous Tongues: Essays on © Institute of Welsh Affairs / Daniel G. Williams Welsh Poetry in English (Seren, 2010); and author of Ethnicity and Cultural Authority: From Matthew Arnold to All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, W. E. B. Du Bois (Edinburgh University Press, 2006). He stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any also plays saxophone with the jazz-folk band ‘Burum’. means without the prior permission of the publishers. Cover ISBN: 978 1 904773 53 5 Paul Robeson and Aneurin Bevan photographed at the Ebbw Vale National Eisteddfod in 1958. Contents Intr oduction 3 Introduction Aneurin Bevan was preoccupied with communication in August 1958. In Tribune , the weekly paper of the democratic Left, he discussed the relationship between China and 7 Bevan: Class and Socialism the United States in the following terms: 12 Robeson: Identity and Socialism Communication is the very essence of civilised ways of living. It is a most monstrous offence against this principle that the most populous nation on 15 Class and Identity earth should be cut off from communication with so many nations merely because the vision of the leaders of the United States falls so lamentably 20 Conclusion short of the material power they command. 1 21 References He had expressed similar thoughts a week earlier at the ‘Gymanfa Ganu’ [Congregational Singing Festival] of the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale. ‘The whole lesson of Eisteddfodau is communication’ he stated ‘and unless the people can freely communicate with each other there is no chance for civilisation’. 2 Sitting in the audience with his wife Bessie was the African American singer and activist Paul Robeson who, following Bevan’s introduction, would rise to sing ‘John Brown’s Body’, ‘Water Boy’ and ‘We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder’. 3 In 1950 Robeson’s passport had been taken from him and he was confined to the United States as the madness of Senator Joe McCarthy’s campaign against alleged Communists dominated the political and cultural life of his country. Robeson had just had his passport returned when he visited Ebbw Vale in 1958, and Bevan proceeded to criticize the US government for denying Robeson his right to travel and expressed his hope that the ban would never be reinstated. To obstruct communication between individuals and countries was a threat to world peace, stated Bevan, and while he had heard of the United States’s ambitions to ‘encircle the moon’, ‘they might start off at first by encircling China’. 4 If Bevan had one eye on the world, his thoughts on communication also engaged with the Welsh context. In order for Bevan to introduce Paul Robeson, the Gymanfa Ganu was moved from the last Sunday of the Eisteddfod to the first. The Eisteddfod had not been officially opened, and there was therefore no need to adhere to the ‘rheol Gymraeg’ (the Welsh language only rule), that was introduced in 1950 and would be in operation for the rest of the week: 2 | Aneurin Bevan and Paul Robeson: Socialism, Class and Identity National Eisteddfod Lecture 2010 | 3 I must have my say about the Eisteddfod this evening for I shall be inarticulate York. And following the return of his passport in 1958, he was introduced by Aneurin during the rest of the week... I want to say how much we in Ebbw Vale Bevan at the Ebbw Vale Eisteddfod. It is fitting that the Eisteddfod has returned to Ebbw welcome the Eisteddfod and the visit of the people of Wales, together with Vale fifty years after Bevan’s death and it’s particularly appropriate that Swansea our friends from overseas, to Ebbw Vale. You will find the true qualities of the University and the Welsh Assembly Government have made it possible for Paul Welsh people here in Monmouthshire, even though you may not always hear Robeson’s granddaughter Susan to be with us this week. 8 their sentiments expressed in the language of heaven. 5 Several commentators have used the relationship between Robeson and Wales to support their readings of Welsh history. For some, like Hywel Francis and Dai Having struggled during his career to overcome a stammer, and to give voice to the Smith, Robeson’s connections with the Welsh working class underline the progressive aspirations of his people, Bevan would have noted the strange irony of the fact that, for socialist internationalism of the labour movement, and reflect the diverse and tolerant the remainder of the week, he would be rendered inarticulate in his own constituency. communities of the coalfield. Dai Smith, echoing Aneurin Bevan’s emphasis on His message was clear enough for those willing to listen. 6 communication, states: According to the Merthyr Express , there were in fact over 9000 people packed into the Pavilion on August 3rd 1958 to listen to Bevan and Robeson and to participate South Wales, at its provocative best, contradicted the curtailers of human in the Gymanfa. Paul Robeson understood the nature of the event and, although he was interaction anywhere and everywhere it could. The ideal was, perhaps, often linked to the Communist Party, expressed his pleasure at being able to contribute to a merely, though movingly, emblematic as when south Wales miners arranged religious service: a transatlantic radio link so that Paul Robeson, deprived of his civil liberties and his passport in the USA, could sing at their Eisteddfod; or when Nye Bevan … You may not know it but I was brought up in traditions very similar to yours. welcomed Robeson to the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale in 1958. 9 My father was a Wesleyan minister, my brother is one, and almost every Sunday I have taken part in similar hymn-singings to those you are enjoying It is revealing to compare this reading with T. J. Davies’s description of the Gymanfa tonight. I bring you greetings from my own people, who will appreciate, I Ganu in his Welsh language biography of Paul Robeson. T. J. Davies draws on Robeson’s know, the kind of welcome I have received here. 7 1935 comment that ‘Negroes the world over have an inferiority complex because they imitate whatever culture they are in contact with instead of harking back to their own Robeson had of course already been the recipient of Welsh hospitality. In 1928 he tradition’, to argue that the African American singer touched a: impulsively joined a group of marching Welsh miners singing in London’s West End. The next ten years saw him donating money to, and visiting, Talygarn Miners’ Rest …gwythien ddofn ynom. Ninnau fel y Negroaid wedi cefnu, i fesur, ar ein Home, appearing in many concerts across Wales including an appearance at the diwylliant brodorol a mabwysiadu un Seisnig; eto, ym mêr ein hesgyrn yn Caernarvon Pavilion the night after an explosion had claimed 266 lives at the Gresford gwybod bod ynddo rin a gwerth, a phan ddeuai Paul Robeson i’n mysg, yn Pit near Wrecsam, and, most famously, a visit to Mountain Ash in 1938 for the ‘Welsh lladmerydd huawdl i ddiwylliant dirmygedig, caem ynddo un a roddai lais i gri National Memorial Meeting to the Men of the International Brigade from Wales who a foddwyd yn ein hisymwybyddiaeth….Bid siwr, y mae elfen o dristwch yn y gave their lives in defence of Democracy in Spain’. The 1930s also saw Robeson sefyllfa, y miloedd ym mhabell yr Eisteddfod yng Nglyn Ebwy yn ei establishing connections with the multi-ethnic community in Cardiff’s Butetown, which gymeradwyo am eu bod yn cael boddhad mawr yng nghanu g wˆr a gyflwynai was also home to the political activist and Pan-Africanist native of Philadelphia, Aaron ei ddiwylliant ei hun heb ymddiheuro; eto, yr un rhai, er yn gweld yr hyn a Mosell, an uncle by marriage to Robeson. 1939 saw Robeson playing the role of David wnâi Paul Robeson ac yn falch o’i genhadaeth, yn methu cymryd y cam Goliath, an African American seaman who settles in a mining village, in one of the few gwleidyddol i roi i’w cenedl hwy yr urddas y credent y dylai’r Negro ei gael.