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).

[5] 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.

[6] 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.

[7] 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.

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.

In the first rally in Caernarfon in December 2012, the group published its Maniffesto Byw[usurped] (Living Manifesto) which outlined tens of policies designed to strengthen the language.

On 6 February 2013 and 4 July 2013, deputations of the society met First Minister Carwyn Jones to press for urgent policy changes in light of the Census results.

A revised version of the Maniffesto Byw was published in July 2013, following a public consultation and an extraordinary general meeting when a number of amendments to the manifesto were adopted.

Since the 1980s the group has called for a Property Act[usurped] to increase the number of communities where Welsh is the main language of the area as well as tackling income inequality and environmental problems.