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Young Labour should not be blocked from international events

0205cToday young centre-left activists from all over the world will gather for the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) summer camp in Malta for a week of debate, discussion and socialising with comrades from all different walks of life.

However Young Labour will be not be attending the occasion as party staff have once more decided to meddle in the youth section’s affairs and block the National Committee from sending a delegation.

The Labour Party is one of the major centre-left parties in Europe yet Young Labour has been conspicuously absent from international events and had an underwhelming presence in both the Young European Socialists (YES) and IUSY. Recently there has been a push to get the youth wing more involved internationally but this has been met by resistance from Party staff who attempted to block a delegation being sent to the 2013 YES summer camp in Turkey.

Because of this resistance by party staff to Young Labour attending international events, a generation of young activists are being denied an irreplaceable and invaluable opportunity to meet and take part in discussion with comrades from across the world and hear from and great international speakers. This should be a key part in developing the Labour Party’s activists, not blocked by party HQ.

Some have argued that there is an access issue at stake with the attendance at the summer camps as delegates from Young Labour would be expected to pay for their own travel and camp entry. However it is rather ridiculous to make access an issue when the last Young Labour Conference cost £30 plus accommodation for the weekend to attend. The summer camps should be seen as a holiday and at about £100 for a full week’s bed and board they could be a great and valuable experience for young members.

All of this points to a lack of accountability in Young Labour at international level. There are no full reports back at National Committee let alone National Conference on what representatives have voted on at YES and IUSY congresses and bureaus. Indeed Young Labour is apparently aligned with southern European socialists as part of a faction in these organisations but most young members are totally in the dark about these affairs.

Ultimately Young Labour’s role should be to develop the future activists, representatives and leaders of the Labour Party but in not letting young members attend international events it is failing. Todays young Labour activists will one day be called upon to lead the party and, in an increasingly globalised world, have to work within international institutions such as the Party of European Socialists and and deal with politicians across the world. How on earth can they be expected to do that when they have been denied any experience of such matters as they develop as young activists?

2 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies says:

    ofcourse they banned from going their parents the mps dont want em mingling with the real labour this lot are so far removed from labour is the only thing they got similar is that red tie jeff3

  2. Robert says:

    Labour is what, The Labour Party is one of the major centre-left parties in Europe who the hell is center left in labour except about twelve people the rest are the center right Progress party.
    Miliband Ball’s and Reeves are all from the Progress group so is Murphy Byrne and to be honest the whole front bench, are sadly to the right. I suspect when labour sees about six young people wanting to go to Malta they decided it might be a bad influence on Progress.

    The labour party is now a One Nation Progress group which is Tory Lite in nature.

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