Last week, on Saturday the 9th of April, Plaid Ifanc held their National Conference at Cardiff Students Union. With over 60 attendees, this was one of our most successful events to date.

Many discussions were had on a wide variety of topics – from the nationalisation of the steel works of Port Talbot, military recruitment in schools, the availability of tampons and towels, our #FreeWales campaign, secularism, FGM, detention centres for refugees and asylum seekers, fox hunting and political education. 7 motions were passed and 2 were rejected.

We also had a discussion on the structure of the movement and a brand new constitution was adopted which included changing our name to ‘Plaid Ifanc’, downsizing the NEC and creating a brand new structure called the National Council. A further motion was passed to adopt Co-Chairs, with at least one of them being a women. One motion was passed to change the mission statement of the constitution. The new constitution will be implemented for the next Conference in 2017.

Every member will recieve an email soon detailing the new constitution and a summary of what was passed and what motions fell during the conference.

We had a fantastic time listening to Liz Musa and Delyth Jewell discussing their experiences as women within politics. Listening to their stories and words of encouragement for women and young people alike to get involved in politics was an inspiration to all who were there. We also had an interesting session with Syd Morgan, one of Plaid Cymru’s leading academics, dicussing Jack White and the Welsh connection with the Easter Rising in Ireland. Thank you to all three for attending our conference and for their continued support towards our movement!

Towards the end of the day, we elected a brand new National Executive Committee, five of whom were women which is a sign of our work to ensure basic gender equality within our democratic structures.

Chair: Emyr Gruffydd
Vice-Chair: Branwen Dafydd
Secretary: Owain Hughes
Treasurer: Sioned Treharne
Communications Officer: Fflur Arwel
Women’s Officer: Angharad Lewis
Campaigns Officer: Osian Owen
Policy Officer: Elyn Stephens
Membership Officer: Rhydian Fitter

It was also a pleasure to have the company of Adrian Fuentes Arevalo from our sister party Gazte Abertzaleak in the Basque Country, and Trefina Kerrain, from UDB Yaouank in Brittany, at our conference this year.  They joined us for socialising during the evening and for campaigning in Caerphilly the following day, and everyone was very impressed with Trefina’s Welsh! It is important for us as a movement to develop a close relationship with our sister parties to learn from their valuable experiences.

Well done to the crew that came to campaign in Caerphilly on the Sunday and for the local branch for being so kind as to provide us with food! We canvassed an entire estate which was a great help to Lindsay Whittle’s campaign.

Our target for next year is to have over 100 young people taking part in our National Conference.

Thank you to everyone for all their hard work ensuring that Wales has a political youth movement that’s ready to fight and campaign for social justice and freedom!