page_title: Welsh Language Society
section_title: History and background
hierarchical_section_title: Welsh Language Society / History and background
caption_attribution_description: Teitl Saesneg/English title: Cymdeithas yr Iaith's first protest on Trefechan Bridge, Aberystwyth Ffotograffydd/Photographer: Geoff Charles (1909-2002) Dyddiad/Date:Ionawr/ January 7, 1963 Cyfrwng/Medium: Negydd ffilm / Film negative Cyfeiriad/Reference: (gch19031) Rhif cofnod / Record no.: 003471483 Rhagor o wybodaeth am gasgliad Geoff Charles yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru More information about the Geoff Charles Collection at the National Library of Wales Mae ffotograffau Geoff Charles hefyd yn rhan o Broject Europeana Libraries Geoff Charles' photographs also form part of the Europeana Libraries Project
context_page_description: The Welsh Language Society is a direct action pressure group in Wales campaigning for the right of Welsh people to use the Welsh language in every aspect of their lives. The current Chairperson of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg is Osian Rhys.
context_section_description: The Society was established in name on 4 August 1962 at Pontarddulais in South Wales, but did not have a constitution until 18 May 1963. The formation was at least partly inspired by the annual BBC Wales Radio Lecture given on 13 February 1962 by Saunders Lewis and entitled Tynged yr iaith (The fate of the language). 
  The Society's first public protest took place in February 1963 in Aberystwyth town centre where members pasted posters on the post office in an attempt to be arrested and go to trial. When it became apparent that they would not be arrested for the posters, they then moved to Pont Trefechan in Aberystwyth, where around seventy members and supporters held a 'sit-in' blocking road traffic for half an hour.
  The first campaigns were for official status for the language, with a call for Welsh-language tax returns, schools, electoral forms, post office signs, birth certificates and so on. This was done through the formation of 'cells', the first operating in Bangor in April 1963 by Owain Owain who also founded and edited the Society's only publication, Tafod y Ddraig ('The Dragon's Tongue') and designed the logo.
  Cymdeithas yr Iaith believes in direct action, and in the course of its campaigns over a thousand people have appeared before the courts for their part in various campaigns, many receiving prison sentences, making it Britain's largest protest group since the suffragettes – in terms of fines and the numbers sent to prison.  Typical actions include painting slogans on buildings owned by businesses, and other minor criminal damage. 
  At the beginning of the 1970s Cymdeithas began to campaign for a Welsh-language radio and television service. Radio Cymru was established in 1977, but in 1979 the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher announced that it would not keep its election promise to establish a separate Welsh-language television channel. Some protesters refused to buy television licences and others climbed up television masts and invaded television studios. The government reversed its position and a Welsh-language TV channel S4C was launched in 1982.
  On 24 July 2004 (five weeks after launching), Radio Carmarthenshire's studios in Narberth were invaded by eleven activists from the Welsh Language Society Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. They were protesting against Radio Carmarthenshire's decision to limit the amount of its Welsh-language programming. The offices and studios were stormed during a live broadcast, taking Radio Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire off-air for fifteen minutes. According to Keri Jones (who later branded the members of the group as "terrorists"), his head of sales was injured, and needed hospital treatment for a fractured wrist sustained during the scuffles which ensued. Police arrested eleven activists, and subsequently released them pending further enquiries. The chair of the movement Steffan Cravos was later found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm.
  Cymdeithas claimed that 50% of the population in Carmarthenshire speak Welsh as a first language, but less than 5% of Radio Carmarthenshire's output was in Welsh. As a result of complaints and pressure from the society and individuals, the United Kingdom's broadcasting watchdog Ofcom issued Radio Carmarthenshire with a 'yellow card' warning in late 2004; any further claims of the station not conforming to its licence agreement would result in the station being severely reprimanded by Ofcom.
  In 2015 Cymdeithas began calling for Welsh medium education to be extended to every school pupil in Wales, to 'give them the ability to communicate and work' in the language. This call was supported by the linguist David Crystal and academic Christine James.
caption: The first protest at Pont Trefechan in Aberystwyth, 1963
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