To begin at the beginning….

The Red Poets, a collective of comrade poets, writers and ranters emerged over 30 years ago from Cymryu Goch, a Welsh Socialist party which published Y Faner Goch (The Red Flag). 

Founded by Mike Jenkins (Merthyr Tydfil) and Marc Jones (Wrexham) in 1995, the Red Poets is a loose collective, perhaps best described as an elective affinity, a warm, inspirational and comradely gathering bringing together socialists, republicans, anarchists, the marginalised, working class writers, predominantly, but not exclusively, from or based in, Cymru.  Its politics are leftist, republican, feminist, internationalist and, in a tone which is in turn angry, indignant, humorous, touching and compassionate, speaks of resistance, protest, love, hope and change.

I first encountered the Red Poets a few years ago at the Caffi Soar in Merthyr Tydfil, a bi-lingual community centre where they hold open-mic events, readings, music and book launches, supporting working-class struggles, community campaigns, and international solidarity eg Palestine/Gaza.  And, in the interests of full disclosure, I should add that since then I have enjoyed reading with them and contributing to their publications.  I consider myself a Red Poet! 

The Merthyr Rising

Before saying more about the latest magazine, number 32, I want to digress briefly to highlight the special place and significance that Merthyr has in the history of Welsh working class resistance and, consequently, to stress that it is, therefore, no accident that it has become the home of the Red Poets. 

The Merthyr Rising of 1831 was the first time the Red Flag was raised in the British Isles and, in that June, a mass rally led by iron workers turned into an insurrection, with rebels holding the town against armed troops for a number of days until they were defeated at the cost of over 60 workers dead and 70 injured.  More were killed in Merthyr than at the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and yet, outside Cymru, it is less well known. 

For those wanting to discover more about this important page in our history, may I recommend, The Merthyr Rising, by the Marxist historian, Gwyn A Williams.  Finally, a number of Red Poets, including myself, are members of Cymru’n Codi (Wales Rising), an ecosocialist republican organisation which was founded in Merthyr and pays homage to the events of 1831 in its choice of name.

Red Poets 32 – Commemorating the Spanish Civil War:  From Aberdare to Albacete

Last winter there was a splendid IB Cymru (International Brigades Wales) Exhibition at Cynon Valley Museum in Aberdare and, as part of this, in January, the Red Poets performed poems inspired by the International Brigade Volunteers (I introduced and read a short piece by Benjamin Péret, Surrealist, Trotskyist and volunteer in the POUM/Anarchist militias in Spain).  With 2026 marking 90 years since the Spanish Civil War began, it was absolutely fitting that the majority of poems in the 2026 Red Poets magazine commemorate the war. 

As Mike Jenkins writes in his excellent Introduction, these poems show us, ‘the vital role played by Welsh workers (many of them miners) in the fight against Franco’s fascists.  Others deal with the ongoing genocide in Gaza and, of course, there is a link between these two seminal events.  The connection is about international solidarity (p1).

Spread over the 62 pages there are nearly 50 powerful, authentic and lyrical poems telling us how,

They left Welsh mines,

Wresting coal from rock

(From ‘Welsh Heroes of the Spanish Civil War’, by Ifor Thomas, p3)

Describing the Volunteers as those,

Who’d understood the rise of fascism,

Watched its triumph in Germany and Italy,

See Mosely become the press’ poster boy,

Mobilised against his Swansea rally, were

Imprisoned for ‘anti-fascist disturbance’

In Tonypandy.  They fully understood

(From ‘These are the Welsh’, by Carolyn Thomas, p8/9)

Reflecting on sacrifice and loss,

Ramon would never

see Dowlais again.

We lost him in ’37.

And the next year,

After Ebro,

I joined him.

(From ‘A Brigadier’s Message’, by Al Jones, p20)

Remembering the murder by the fascists of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca,

I was killed because the fascists do not love violets,

Grasshoppers, disobedient children, or frogs,

Not to mention dances or bridges that sway in the wind.

(From ‘Meeting Garcia Lorca on the Severn Bridge’, by Dominic Fisher, p30)

Thoughts of the struggle in Palestine,

They stopped my uncle from farming his trees

And later, they burned them

It’s our land, but it’s nothing but black stumps now

And desert sand

(From ‘I cried when we cut down our olive trees’, by Rhoda Thomas, p40/41)

Or

I cannot write about Israeli Genocide, because if I did, I would have to tell you it is genocide aided by Western arms, protected by Western silence.

(From ‘Why I cannot write a poem about Israeli Genocide’, by Des Mannay, p42/43)

And challenging the growth of the far-right,

Flames of division that you fan with your vitriol of violence.

Your flag of St George.

Throw the flag into the flames.

See what phoenix rises from that bonfire.

(From ‘Bonfire’, by Anne Rice-Jones, p56/57)

It should be obvious by now that this is an important collection, one in which the Y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon) breathes fire and the radical voice of Cymru resounds and, in urging you to buy a copy (details below), I will close with the words of Benjamin Péret that I read in Aberdare last January:

Poetry is the true inspiration of humanity… it keeps perpetually in reserve the colourless crystals and harvests of tomorrow…The poet struggles against all oppression.  Every authentic poem issues a breath of absolute & active freedom, even if this freedom is not evoked in its political or social aspect:  in this way the poem contributes to the real liberation of humanity!

Am sosialaeth, y weriniaeth a’r dychymyg!!

For socialism, the republic and the imagination!!

To buy a copy of Red Poets 32 please contact Mike Jenkins – mjenkins1927@gmail.com – at £7 plus £2 p&p it’s a snip, so snap it up!!