Cornish Solidarity (Cornish:Unvereth Kernewek) was aCornishdirect action protest group founded in 1998, campaigning for Cornish issues, principally includingObjective One status for Cornwall and more support for theCornish economy in light of mine closures during the 1990s.[1]
It produced "Cornwall First", a newsletter published every two months which is free to members.[citation needed]
In February 1998, campaigners against the closure ofSouth Crofty, the last hard rock and tin mine in Cornwall, blocked theA30 trunk road intoCornwall using a twenty-car slow-moving convoy.[1][2]
The organisation grew from this protest, and demandedObjective One regional funding for Cornwall, an exclusively-CornishEuropean Parliament constituency, a Cornish university, support for Cornwall's traditional industries and local control over Cornwall's health service; these demands were broadly similar to those being made at the time byMebyon Kernow, aCornish nationalist party that had recently relaunched itself. Cornish Solidarity was consolidated as a pressure group after the closure ofSouth Crofty, the last hard rock mine in Cornwall, in March 1998.[1] Greg Woods was elected the organisation's chairman.[2]
In March 1998, hundreds of Cornish Solidarity campaigners staged a protest on theTamar Bridge. A convoy of protesters, many waving black and whiteSaint Piran's flags from their vehicles, drove to the bridge, and used pennies to pay the £1 toll to enterDevon atPlymouth; Woods claimed that "that's all we've got left to pay with in Cornwall".[1][2]
In July 1998, Cornish Solidarity staged its last major protest, in which over 1,000 protestors blocked the Tamar Bridge.[1]
Since achieving many of its aims, Cornish Solidarity has undertaken a self-imposed hibernation vowing to return to fight any attempt to attack or alter Cornwall's ethnic diversity, boundaries orconstitutional status.[citation needed]
Cornwall was granted Objective One status in March 1999.[1]
In 1998, Cornwall was recognised by theUK government as having "distinct cultural and historical factors reflecting aCeltic background",[3] thus allowing it to be separated in a regional and economic sense fromDevon.
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