Cover image: Protesters gather for a visit by King Charles last September in Cardiff, Ben Jones.
The coronation of King Charles will be met with anger on the streets of Cardiff over lack of democracy and the huge price rises being inflicted on ordinary people.
Newly formed group Cymru Republic will hold a ‘Not My King’ protest during the Coronation on Saturday 6th May in the city centre.
The action comes after over 500 people protested outside Cardiff castle during Charles’ visit in September last year. Under the slogan ‘Real Democracy Now,’ the event gained international media attention.
One man even grabbed the hand of the new Monarch and said to his face: “While we struggle to heat our homes, we have to pay for your parade.”
This year’s event is expected to be just as explosive.
O’Molemo Thamae, from Cymru Republic, highlighted the fact that whilst inflation was driving working people to food banks, the public werrle being forced to pay a £367M refurbishment bill for Buckingham Palace, which was “granted by government the same year they let Grenfell turn to ash.”
“Not only does Charles insist on a new gold carriage, but the cost of the coronation is estimated to be double that of Elizabeth II, a figure in the £50-100M range,” they said.
Former Plaid Cymru Senedd Member, Bethan Sayed, who helped organise the protest last September, said that the event on Saturday came as anti-monarchist sentiment was spreading in former colonies such as Australia, Jamaica and Canada.
“In the Caribbean, countries such as Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica and others plan to remove the King as their Head of State,” she said. “The tide is turning Internationally, and Wales needs to have a National conversation about this issue too.”
The ‘Operation Golden Orb’ committee is organising the coronation and estimates it will cost around £100 million, double the cost of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, which in today’s money was around £50 million.
Tory minister Oliver Dowden confirmed that the government would pay for the event using public money, saying it has “always been the case that the government has paid for Coronations.”
It comes after his government has forced pitiful pay rises on public sector workers as well as slashing universal credit payments.
Meanwhile, the big supermarkets are looking to cash in on the event by promoting inflated ‘coronation’ products.
Only recently, research by the Unite union showed that while workers’ wages struggle to keep up, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda made combined profits of £3.2 billion in 2021, nearly double pre-pandemic levels.
Ben Gwalchmai, Co-founder of Labour for an Independent Wales and one of the protest organisers, said that the majority of people in Wales were “far closer to being homeless than we are to being millionaires like them [the monarchy].”
Anthony Slaughter, Leader of the Green Party in Wales, which is also backing the protest, added that, “in the middle of a cost of living crisis, with millions of people facing challenging decisions on a daily basis, it cannot be right for the UK Government to be spending tens of millions of pounds on an archaic ceremony of pageantry that should have no place in the 21st century.”
In a dark twist, the expensive coronation will attempt to get members of the public to swear allegiance to the monarchy – including the disgraced Prince Andrew, who was forced to pay an out of court settlement to a woman, Virginia Giuffre, who said she had been sex trafficked as a teenager by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein at the behest of the Andrew.
Those watching the event on television or online will be asked to say the words: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.”
Adam Johannes, an activist in Cardiff People’s Assembly and one of the protest organisers also highlighted the Royal Family’s links to slavery, after it was revealed that direct ancestor of Charles III bought 200 enslaved Africans.
“Instead of celebrating an institution that is a symbol of inequality and grovelling before the rich and powerful we call upon the people of Wales to march for a republic where everyone has the right to adequate food, housing and income.”
Protesters will meet at the Aneurin Bevan statue, Cardiff at 12.30pm on Saturday, May 6 and will then march along Queen Street up to Bute Park stone circle. Once there, they will hold a “big republican lunch,” and are encouraging everyone to bring a picnic.
