Former Minister recalls his time as a student protestor

Martin Shipton

Former Welsh Labour Education Minister Leighton Andrews has revealed details of Welsh-language student protests he took part in 50 years ago.

Four students were suspended by the University College of North Wales (UCNW), Bangor, as it was then known, in 1976 after taking responsibility for a week of protest actions by Cymric, the students’ Welsh-language society at the time.

Writing on his Substack, Ukania, Andrews states: “On Thursday 11 November, students from Cymric occupied the college’s Academic Office. In the early hours of 12 November, slogans were painted inside and outside ‘Top College’, accusing the college administration of being responsible for the murder of the Welsh Language. On the following Monday (15 November), three members of the Cymric committee were taken before the College Principal. Cymric members staged an occupation of the Finance Office. That evening Cymric members undertook a tour of student hall common rooms to explain the issues behind the protest.

“Four student members of Cymric – Glyn Tomos, Dafydd Meirion, Rheon Tomos and Emrys Wyn – were taken before the Senate Disciplinary Committee. The following day they heard by letter that they had been suspended until the following October.”

Andy Chandler, a friend of Andrews and a fellow history student, recalled: “The College authorities met in a secret, emergency session, and immediately expelled the four members of the Cymric Society named on its membership card, including its minutes secretary and entertainment secretary, the latter of whom had had no involvement or prior knowledge of the action. The injustice of this victimisation was obvious, and the Student Union’s bilingual solicitor in Menai Bridge was immediately called into action to write to the Principal, Sir Charles Evans, following a lengthy briefing with the four students.”

Andrews writes: “I can recall that week in College Road, Bangor, hearing one very plum-voiced college lecturer remonstrating with protestors that the students hadn’t been expelled, they had been ‘rusticated’. I don’t think I’d ever heard the word before – or since.

“Andy and I shared a tutorial on 17th century English history. I remember he wrote a note to the tutor saying that he couldn’t in all conscience attend any academic sessions while students were being unfairly punished, and I subsequently followed suit.

“Following all that, 150 members of Cymric occupied the Main Arts Building. They were locked in by the university administration. The occupation ended on Friday with a march to the Principal’s office to demand the reinstatement of the four. The following Monday, 22nd November, there was a march through Bangor to a rally in the quadrangle of the college, addressed by many distinguished speakers including R.S. Thomas and Dafydd Iwan.

Students Union

“Although the students’ union was sympathetic to the protests, it initially failed to support a motion for a wider occupation. As a result, Cymric members held a general meeting at the Welsh-medium student hall John Morris Jones, and voted to re-occupy the Arts Building. Andy was by then living there, having moved in during October and quickly developed a network of friends among the Welsh learners and student-teachers there, many of whom hailed from south and west Wales.

“A large number of non-Welsh-speaking students, many of them Welsh learners, who had supported Cymric, then agreed to support a Cymric-led occupation of the Maths Tower. Andy recalls: ‘The permanent occupiers were led by Elen Rhys-Tyler. Vaughan Roderick, Leighton Andrews and myself acted as go-betweens for the Welsh learners, Cymric and the Student Union.’

“Early on the morning of Wednesday 24 November, 120 members of Cymric moved into the Arts building, and 50 Cymric members, including Vaughan Roderick, along with Welsh learners and other English-speaking students (like myself and Andy Chandler at the time), amongst them a group of Palestinian students, took control of the Maths Tower. I remember walking to the Maths Tower in the early hours in the company of Andy and alongside former UCNW Student Union President, at the time a postgraduate, Ann Beynon (I wonder what happened to her?!) [She married Leighton Andrews]. A bulletin agreed upon by the members of both occupations stressed that the occupations were Cymric-organised with support from sympathetic English-speaking students and Welsh learners.

“There was one early moment of farce in the Maths Tower occupation. We were occupying the top floor, but had failed to jam the lifts. A couple of hours after we had taken it over, the cleaners arrived in the lift puzzled as to why they couldn’t exit on the top floor to start their work. Andy recalled: ‘After a small group of cleaners were allowed access in the early morning, the stairwell was well-barricaded, and the Tower remained closed for lectures the next day and into the next week, despite the writ being granted.’

“By the time the cleaners arrived, the news of the occupation was being broadcast on the BBC. Vaughan may have had something to do with that…

“There were other moments of farce. One of my housemates walked all the way up the fire exit to the top of the Maths Tower to tell me that the shared cooking arrangements in our house were now suspended as I was stopping her attending lectures and lab work. Some of us came out of the Maths Tower one evening to listen to the Stranglers playing in the Student Union bar. Their lead singer began by shouting, ‘I hear you’ve got a problem with a bloke called Reggie – Reggie-strar!’ The band cost the union about £80 that night. The following year, when we booked them for Freshers’ Week, they’d had some hit singles and cost us roughly a grand.

“On Monday 29 November, an emergency union meeting was held in the College’s P. J. Hall. According to the duplicated ‘Stop Press’ note in the student newspaper, the motion proposed by then Student Union President, the late Mike Trumper, and seconded by Ann Beynon, was carried in support of further action. Over 500 students were in attendance. (Memories vary, and Andy thinks the motion was proposed by the union’s Palestinian Deputy President, Mohammed Abu-Koash. I certainly think Mohammed spoke in support.) Apparently I summed up for the motion, according to the union newspaper, though I had forgotten that. The Registrar had given orders to the Porters not to open the gallery doors to P. J. Hall, and so the votes of those occupying the Arts Building had to be counted separately. The motion of support was carried.

Disruptive

“Andy recalls us leaving the Maths Tower: ‘We left the Tower reluctantly, but of our own free will, a day or so after the writ was issued. This was at the request of Cymric… The Cymric Society also ended the occupation because of a small, but disruptive, group of ultra-left activists in the occupation, who had no real interest in the campaign for a bilingual policy and were advocating a more violent campaign solely on the issue of College victimisation. In reality, we feared that they simply wanted to foment disorder and destruction of property.’

“I do remember SWP members in the occupation whose consistent refrain was the need to leave the building in order to campaign to ‘sustain the occupation, Leighton’, though I don’t recall threats of violence. The whole set of protests had been carried out on principles of peaceful protest.

“Andy recalls the successful resolution of the protest: ‘A few days later, on receipt of written assurances of “good behaviour” from the four, the College backed down, commuting their punishment to a suspension until after the Christmas holidays. …Many lecturers, regardless of their views on the language issues, had been deeply concerned both for these obviously talented students and for the precedent that their continued expulsion would set.’”

Andrews concludes: “As we get older, our memories often mix things up. As the Royal Family’s spokespeople often say on difficult subjects, ‘Recollections may vary’. My memories, Vaughan’s, Andy’s and Ann’s have helped with this draft, but I’d love to hear from others.”

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