17th April 2009
Cenhedlaeth Newdydd / A New Generation
Wythnos diwethaf, sefais ar gornel y stryd yn Washington rhwng 14th a U. Dyma’r lle, ar nos Iau y pedwerydd o Ebrill ym 1968 pan ddaeth y newyddion o Memphis bod James Earl Ray wedi saethu Dr Martin Luther King, yr ymgasglodd torf o bobl o gwmpas canolbwynt masnachol ardal ddu y ddinas. Pan wrthododd perchnogion y siopau gau eu drysau fel arwydd o barch, fe drodd y dorf yn ddig gan ddechrau malu ffenestri a llosgi adeiladau. Ceisiodd Stokely Carmichael – un o arweinwyr y Black Panthers a dorrodd gysylltiad gyda King ychydig flynyddoedd cynt – ddistewi’r dorf ac atal rhai ohonyn nhw rhag defnyddio trais. Ond ofer a fu. Erbyn diwedd y terfysg pedwar diwrnod yn ddiweddarach mi oedd 900 o adeiladau wedi eu dinistrio a bu farw deuddeg o bobl.
Pedwar deg mlynedd yn ddiweddarach a dyma le dechreuodd y dathlu yn yr oriau man ym mis Tachwedd y llynedd pan etholwyd yr Arlywydd du cyntaf yn hanes America. Y wers dwi yn tynnu ydy hyn: mae cenhedloedd yn newid a mae gwleidyddiaeth yn gweithio. Ar hyn o bryd mae’n hawdd iawn i fod yn sinicaidd. Gyda stori ar ol stori am lwfansau Aelodau Seneddol yn llenwi ein papurau dyddiol pwy all feio pobl am golli ffydd mewn gwleidyddion? Ond rhaid bob amser dwyn gwahaniaeth rhwng gwleidyddion a gwleidyddiaeth ei hun. Nawr mwy nag erioed yng Nghymru mae taer angen i bob un sydd a thamaid o ddiddordeb yn nyfodol ein gwlad i ddangos ei lliwiau.
Da felly yw medru datgan bod aelodaeth y Blaid ar gynnydd. Mae hyn yn barod dwi yn teimlo yn arwydd o lwyddiant ein penderfyniad i ymgyrchu yn onest-agored a hyderus ar annibynniaeth – y tro cyntaf i’r Blaid genhadu a chreu cendlaetholwyr newydd dwi yn meddwl ers y saithdegau. Mae Cynog Dafis ac eraill yn Cymru Yfory yn ofni yn ddigon diffuant y gallwn, trwy’n pwyslais newydd ar annibynniaeth, atgyfnerthu y na-ddywedwyr yn y refferendwm pan ddaw hi ar Senedd gyflawn. Ac eto nid 1979 mohoni bellach yng Nghymru, mwy nag yw hi’n 68 o hyd ar gornel 14th a U.
Mae yna Gymru newydd a chenhedlaeth newydd i’w harwain. Ac na, nid son amdanaf i ydw i nawr ond am Steffan Lewis – arweinydd cyntaf y Blaid o Gymoedd Gwent yn ddiau – Morgan Lloyd sydd wedi safleoli’r Blaid ar flaen y gad technolegol, Myfanwy Davies o Lanelli sydd yn Jennie Eirian ein cyfnod ni, y seren newydd Heledd Fychan sydd yn ail-godi’r Blaid ym Maldwyn, a dwsinau ar ddwsinau eraill nad oes modd eu henwi i gyd. Gobeithiaw a ddaw yddwyf, fel dywedodd Sion Cent. Ni wel pawb ohonom Wlad yr Addewid, ond mae pen y bryniau yn dechrau llawenhau.
***
Last week, I stood on a Washington street corner between 14th and U. This is the place, on Thursday the 4th April, 1968, where a crowd of people gathered at the heart of the city’s black commercial area after the news came from Memphis that James Earl Ray has shot Dr Martin Luther King. When shop owners refused to shut their doors as a sign of respect, the crowd turned angry and began to break windows and burn buildings. Stokely Carmichael, one of the leaders of the Black Panthers, who had broken links with King some years earlier, tried to calm the crowd and prevent some of them from using violence. But this was in vain. By the end of the riots four days later, 900 buildings had been destroyed and 12 people had died.
Forty years later and this is where the celebrations began in the early hours of November last year when the first black President in America’s history was elected. The lesson I draw is this: nations change and politics works. At the moment, it’s easy to be cynical. With story after story about MP’s expenses filling our daily papers who could blame people for losing faith in politicians? But we must each time recall the difference between politicians and politics itself. Now more than ever in Wales there is an urgent need for everybody with even the slightest interest in our country’s future to show their colours.
It is good then to be able to state that Plaid Cymru’s membership is increasing. This, I feel, is already a sign of the success of our decision to campaign openly, honestly and confidently about independence – I think the first time that Plaid has missionized and created new nationalists since the 1970s. Cynog Dafis and others in Tomorrow’s Wales are genuinely concerned that we could, through this new emphasis on independence, strengthen the nay-sayers in the referendum on a full Parliament when it comes. But again, it is no longer 1979 in Wales any more than it is 1968 on the corner of 14th and U.
There is a new Wales and a new generation to lead it. And no, I’m not talking about me now but about Steffan Lewis – certain to be Plaid’s first leader from the Gwent Valleys, Morgan Lloyd who has positioned Plaid at the front of the technological battlelines. Myfanwy Davies from Llanelli is a Jennie Eirian for our era, the new star Heledd Fychan who is re-invigorating the party in Montgomeryshire, and dozens and dozens more too numerous for me to name. My hope is on what is to come, as Sion Cent said. Not all of us can see the Promised Land, but the hilltops are starting to rejoice.
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