first published in mid-January 1999 by Roger Warren Evans

These represent a great democratic opportunity, for Labour. For the first time since the Middle Ages, they will give political expression to those regional realities which have for so long gone unacknowledged. In the South, they will mark out the "spheres of influence" of Cardiff and Swansea; in Mid- and and North Wales, the distinctive links with the West Midlands and the North-West of England will surely be cultivated. Regional debates, in these Assembly Committee hearings, will bring the exercise of governmental power much closer to home. These Committees will enrich and enliven Welsh politics

Community Councils

This is the third challenge. Labour in Wales will have the chance to blaze a pioneering trail, in the field of community governance. At UK level, the Party has historically concentrated upon seizing the primary levers of power at Westminster, and on using them to transform society; and in that, Labour has been dramatically successful. But at the level of the province, political horizons will be very different. Devolution will bring into focus Wales' remarkable network of community councils, involving over 5,000 elected councillors and over 600 elected councils. True, many community councils seek to achieve little, regarding themselves as mere adjuncts of their "principal" unitary council. And the functions of community councils vary greatly, often merely as a matter of local historical accident.

BUT the democratic potential of community governance is very great indeed. Under the Local Government Act 1972 there is, specifically for Wales, a code of governance providing for the creation of community councils in every part of Wales, town and countryside, village and city. Each of these can raise its own local taxes, for local community purposes. Wales has already been mapped out, by the Boundary Commission, with some 800 community areas, over 600 of which already have their own elected community councils. No other part of the UK has the benefit of such an effective and comprehensive code. Labour should move decisively to complete the coverage of community councils throughout Wales, and to weave them into democratic fabric of the province.

THE GREATEST untapped political resource in Wales is the power of community. Cymuned. It was community that informed the legendary solidarity of the trade union . community that softened the inhumanities of capitalism in the Welsh Valleys, its myriad indignities. The particular strength of religion in Wales has derived from the sense of community. It is community that has driven the eisteddfodau, the cultivation of Welsh musicality and dramatic talents. Community generated the great drive for education and self-improvement that has become the hallmark of modern Wales.

Those same values suffuse the high regard in which public and community service are held, in Wales. The rich social life of Welsh communities is a living tribute to that mutual care, mutual respect and concern, which underpins that sense of community. Even the sporting loyalties of Wales bear a distinctive communal character, enriching their enthusiasms. Cymuned means a thousand kindnesses, a thousand practical measures of support, a thousand good neighbours.

NO POLITICAL PARTY should seek to claim credit for this inheritance. Yet it goes to the very heart of Welsh socialism, and of the socialist ideal in Wales. Society should be so organised as to cultivate these values, encourage them to thrive. If the principles of equality and democracy seem somewhat formal and austere, they are softened and enriched by the power of community. Cymuned is the socialism of the heart.

LABOUR IN WALES must dig deep, to understand these realities. For the community is the province of the "third sector", of voluntary action. Labour will need all its political skills, to learn from the third sector, without weakening it.

HISTORICALLY, Labour has been ambivalent, even suspicious, about the third sector, about the world of "charity" and voluntary action. To Labour activists, charitable solutions have sometimes seemed an evasion of public responsibility, a capitalist device to avoid statutory commitment. Labour in Wales must set such suspicions aside. The voluntary sector represents a precious resource both of ideas and of distinctive innovative skills, deployed precisely where the compulsion of statutory duty is absent. For the Assembly, the ability to innovate without legislation will be at a premium. And that has been, for two centuries, the province of the voluntary, or "third" sector. In the Assembly, Labour must quickly forge a new alliance with the third sector. For voluntary action will be at the cutting edge of future innovation, in Wales.

LABOUR SHOULD CREATE the environment for a new wave of communal innovation in Wales, comparable with the great creative period the late 19th-century. Community cooperatives in the transport and retail sector could enrich the lives of isolated neighbourhoods. The communal potential of credit unions is enormous. The role of community schools could be greatly extended, as a local community focus. Communal arts initiatives could be fostered, by both statutory and voluntary action. The Assembly should maintain communal healthcare facilities. Communal sporting initiatives should be encouraged, in the face of growing professionalism. Community councils should be promoted throughout Wales, and encouraged to use their . tax-raising powers to develop other community institutions, in partnership both within the community, and between communities. Labour should prepare to build the new socialism of Wales from within, returning to a practical understanding of the socialism of everyday life

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