Rhisiart Tal-e-bot

Rhisiart Tal-e-bot (born 18 February 1975) is the pseudonym of a far-left political activist from Caerphilly, Wales. He was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party in his earlier years, but increasingly moved towards ethno-primitivism, micro-regionalist and separatist politics. Tal-e-bot speaks across Europe advocating separatist through identity politics in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and elsewhere.
For a while Tal-e-bot was involved in Plaid Cymru in Wales before immigrating to England for higher education. He has been involved in Celtic League since 1999, where his work has mainly revolved around protesting infavour of separatist bombers such as a case in Brittany, France. Since relocating, he has involved himself with the small regionalist party Mebyon Kernow. Much of Tal-e-bot's efforts are put into targetting children and teenagers. He was involved with the European Free Alliance Youth from 2003 and also Kernow X since 2007. Despite his involvement in British politics, he has been living in Spain since 2005 where he works as a children's teacher and has never been elected at any level.
Background
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot grew up in the South Wales mining village of Abertridwr, Caerphilly.
He attended Plas y Felin Infant and Primary School in Caerphilly and later St Ilan Comprehensive school, where his mother was a teacher. He later attended University of Wales, College Swansea.
In 1994 he lived in Cornwall for several months during a gap year in his university studies, which began his interest in issues within and affecting the Celtic countries. After university he returned to Cornwall and trained to become a primary school teacher at the University College Plymouth St Mark & St John, Plymouth. After a brief spell working in Bristol and the Czech Republic, he returned once again to Cornwall until 2005. In 2005 he left Cornwall to work as a bilingual early years teacher in Burgos and in Irunia in the state of Spain.
In 2009 he returned to Cornwall to take up a post as a Lecturer.
Political activity
Background
At the age of 11 years Rhisiart Tal-e-bot joined the Communist Party of Britain, after being inspired by a long standing communist campaigner and family friend, Tommy Hopkins.
In 1991 he stood in the St Ilan Comprehensive school mock elections as a Plaid Cymru candidate and was elected by fellow pupils as school representative. He was elected head boy in 1993, by his peers and chosen to represent the school at different events. At university he was involved in the Socialist Workers Party, but left the organisation following an argument about Welsh independence with a SWP representative and joined the Welsh nationalist political party Plaid Cymru.
Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall
While in Cornwall in 1997, Tal-e-bot joined Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall (MK) and became politically active, standing for election on a number of occasions. He took over the Leadership of MK’s youth movement — MK - BY — in 2001 and was also Secretary of MK’s Truro and St Austell Constituency Branch. In 2003, Tal-e-bot was elected to MK’s National Executive Committee, with responsibility for External Affairs and was re elected in 2004.
He played an instrumental part in MK joining the European Free Alliance and the European Free Alliance Youth in 2003.
Kernow X
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot is the National Secretary of Kernow X, the youth organisation of Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall and has held this position since the organisation was launched in 2007. From 2001 to 2007 Tal-e-bot was the Leader of Mebyon Kernow - Bagas Yowynk (Youth Group) or MK - BY, which preceded Kernow X.
Kernow X was formed by young MK activists who were seeking a more more dynamic, structured and attractive organisation to represent a growing number of politically minded young people in Cornwall who had recently joined MK. The name "Kernow X" was chosen following a discussion between MK — BY and Cymru X members at a conference in Mallorca in 2007.
Tal-e-bot’s main role in the organisation has been to design and manage the Kernow X website, write news items and articles, create and maintain the Kernow X online communities and to help to structure the organisation. He has also been involved in negotiating the position of Kernow X within MK, with the aim of becoming more independent from the Party. Recently Tal-e-bot has been jointly organising a round table event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg with EFAY, planned for 6 May 2009.
European Free Alliance Youth
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot was the first EFAy representative for Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall (MK), after MK became full members of the European Free Alliance in 2003. In 2005, after working closely with the EFAy on a variety of different projects, including the EFAy’s Diversity is Richness seminar (and publication) in Belgium and the Diversity, Regionalism and Youth - Comparison between Central, Eastern and Western Europe seminar in the Czech Republic, Tal-e-bot was elected to the Bureau of the EFAy. As a Bureau member Tal-e-bot helped to restructure the organisation and was responsible for writing news items and articles for the website and compiling a quarterly newsletter. During this time, he also organised and coordinated the successful Cycle for Solidarity Tour across Europe between May to December 2006 to raise awareness of the difficulties in the mobility of Europe’s youth.
At its 2007 General Assembly in Bilbao, Basque Country, Tal-e-bot, was elected President of the EFAy for a two year term, taking over from Lander de Bilbao. After being elected, Tal-e-bot told fellow MK youth members:

As EFAy president, Tal-e-bot continued with the editorship of the EFAy newsletter (EFAy - Newsflash Youth) and continued with the restructuring of the organisation along the lines of a European youth organisation. During his presidency, the EFAy was successful in securing funding from the European Commission to pay for the running and administration costs for the EFAy office for the first time in the organisation’s history. He spearheaded several successful EFAy projects, including the ‘Diversity is Richness’ website, a new EFAy website and making a short film about self determination. Tal-e-bot travelled extensively throughout Europe during his term as EFAy president, speaking and participating at General Assemblies and seminars, in the Basque Country, Corsica, Catalonia, Mallorca, Flanders, Brittany, Scotland, Cornwall, Moravia, Wales and elsewhere.
In his closing address as President of the EFAy, Tal-e-bot said:
At the EFAy’s 9th General Assembly on 26 March 2009, Jezz Anbleydh - also an activist for Kernow X — was elected the new EFAy President.
Celtic League
In 1999, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot became a member of the Celtic League and the following year revived the Kernow Branch of the League, taking over from Peter Wills. He was elected Kernow Branch Convenor in 2000, a position he maintained until 2007. In 2006 Rhisiart Tal-e-bot was elected General Secretary of the Celtic League.
2000 to 2007
During his time as Convenor, the Branch took a prominent and supporting role in the release of Breton prisoners who were imprisoned without trial in 2000, following the bombing of a MacDonald’s restaurant near Dinan in Brittany. Another prominent and successful campaign involved highlighting disapproval of the flying of the St George’s flag and the display of the Tudor Rose on signs in Cornwall. Tal-e-bot also represented the Kernow Branch as a project partner and coordinator in the Council of Europe supported 'Regional Dialogue for Democracy in Europe', in 2003 Denmark. The project involved the presentation of the work of the Celtic League to other European organisations and the dissemination of a booklet throughout all secondary schools and colleges in Cornwall about European perspectives among young people.
2007 to present
At the 2006 AGM of the Celtic League in Landerne, Brittany, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot was elected General Secretary, replacing Bernard Moffatt, who had held the position since 1991. During his time as General Secretary, Tal-e-bot has worked on a variety of campaigns including the rights of prisoners, detainees and those on parole from the Celtic countries, the linguistic and cultural commitment of the police forces that service the Celtic countries, pushing for a NO vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the human/political rights of prisoners and has closely assisted the League's Director of Information, Bernard Moffatt, in the organisation's long standing military monitoring campaign.
Tal-e-bot has also sought to gain wider international recognition and contacts for the League by building on and establishing links in Nova Scotia, USA and Australia and applying for consultative status for the League with the United Nations. He has also built up the League’s presence on the Internet and has lately enthusiastically pushed for a new more dynamic website. He is a weekly contributor to the Celtic League news pages on a range of different issues. After his election, the League stated in a press release:
Movyans Skolyow Meythrin (MSM)
In 2008 Rhisiart Tal-e-bot co founded, with Conan Jenkin, MSM - a not for profit organisation with the aim of setting up Cornish/English language bilingual preschool in Cornwall and advising parents on bilingual education.
MSM is an organisation that was formed specifically to support the development of the Cornish language and much of the drive and initiative behind the organisation comes from this Cornish language root. The organisation is also parent led with the support of advisers and other contributors from the Cornish and other language movements and from within the field of education.
MSM believes that it is important to help children at a crucial early years stage to become more rounded, responsible citizens who identify with their community and Cornwall.
Dotker (.ker)
In 2008 Rhisiart Tal-e-bot co founded the dotker campaign with several like minded Cornish campaigners with the intention of applying for and administering a .ker generic top level (gTLD) internet domain name. Part of the inspiration for founding the dotker campaign came from the other Celtic countries of Brittany, Wales, Scotland and also Catalonia. The campaign was launched in February 2009.
Dotker is a registered Community Interest Company (CIC) and a not for profit organisation with five directors (3 of whom are based in Cornwall). The aim of the campaign is for the .ker gTLD to be used to promote the Cornish linguistic and cultural community on the internet. Rhisiart Tal-e-bot told Eurolang at the launch of the dotker campaign at the end of 2008:

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