Ensuring real access to the Welsh language is essential
Wales needs a bolder, more ambitious Welsh language policy than aiming for one million speakers by 2050, argues Bethan Ruth
AS CHAIR of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, I’m very proud of the work that we did back in 2016 to achieve consensus among the political parties and civic society over the importance of creating a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
This policy is now an official Welsh Government target and it radically changed the discourse from “maintaining” the language towards its “growth”.
However, it seems as if the government has adopted this headline policy without comprehending the full spirit of our vision.
Over the past few months, we’ve been consulting with people from all over Wales on their views on the position of the Welsh language, discussing different barriers to access it, and the language strategies of the government and public authorities.
Many of the people, including experts, we’ve consulted over the past few months have expressed a desire for the next government to focus on delivering a million speakers, and doing that through focusing on the qualitative ways of achieving that aim.
After three years of aiming as a country towards this goal, there is a consensus that the actions of the current national government and other authorities are not sufficient to achieve it.
We are therefore calling on the next government to be bolder and more ambitious on language policy in our recently published ‘More Than a Million – Welsh language citizenship for all’ document. We call on them to go further and deeper, adopting a more nuanced approach, than the current government target of a million speakers by 2050.
For example, we’re calling on the next Welsh Government to adopt a target to create a thousand new Welsh-medium spaces – from sports clubs to Welsh-medium workplaces – within the next five years, as part of a ‘More Than a Million’ programme.
There is currently a lack of government support for maintaining and creating spaces that are specifically Welsh-medium.
It is too often said that Welsh isn’t an inclusive language, and as a result of this, Welsh speakers and nonWelsh speakers alike are given the false impression that maintaining specifically Welsh-medium spaces – such as geographic spaces, workplaces or events – is somehow unacceptable.
Ensuring real access to the Welsh language is therefore essential to increase the number of spaces where Welsh is the medium of communication.
In other words, Welsh is not an inherently exclusionary language, it’s the structures that are the issue – and that is why we want to ensure that those structural barriers can be overcome and that everyone has access to the language.
Our goal of widening access to the language is a central theme that runs throughout our document. For example, we‘re calling on the next Welsh Government to:
■ Establish a Welsh language digital enterprise;
■ Invest 1% of government spending on projects to promote the Welsh language;
■ Pass a Welsh-medium Education for All Act; and,
■ Establish the right for everyone, regardless of age, to learn Welsh completely free of charge. By adopting these policies, the government would go a long way in widening access to the language.
From the refugee who has recently arrived in our country, to the longstanding eastern European community, or the cleaner in a Welsh school, neither the right structures nor policies are currently in place to ensure that everyone has meaningful access to learn, enjoy and use our national language.
This pattern is a matter of social injustice that must be tackled – Welsh language citizenship needs to be extended so it includes everyone who sees Wales as their home, not just a lucky few.
We at Cymdeithas yr Iaith see the “million” target as an opportunity to redress social inequalities.
As well as aiming to create more than a million Welsh speakers, the ‘More Than a Million’ document also focuses on developing this agenda by increasing the day to day use of Welsh in our communities, workplaces and public services.
We believe that it’s not good enough to just increase the number of Welsh speakers on paper – people also need to have the opportunity to use the language in their day to day lives.
For too long, language policy has not placed enough emphasis on the latter point. Our ‘More Than a Million’ document seeks to rectify this.
To fund these proposals, we propose that Members of the Senedd introduce three new taxes:
■ A tax on AirBnB;
■ A super tax on landlords’ profits and on second homes; and,
■ A levy on broadcasting and telecommunications companies.
We have so far received very positive feedback from members of the public, and we aim to discuss each of the paper’s proposals with the political parties in the upcoming weeks.
Now is the time to go beyond platitudes and secure a strong future for the language that includes all parts of society.
Now is the time to build on the current consensus on creating a million speakers by fleshing it out and developing it further. Now is the time to be bold and ambitious.
In a post-Covid age, with the failure of the current economic system and the rise of the extreme right, it is more important than ever that our language includes people from all backgrounds – the Welsh language can become a weapon for inclusivity against the increasingly reactionary politics of our current times.