Tagged with Young Labour

Young Labour and Gaza: first as farce, then as farce

GazaThe religion of socialism is for me not so much the language of priorities, as  the language of common sense, of right and wrong. So sitting on the Young Labour national committee has been a frustrating experience. At the August meeting, senior members of the committee – including chair Simon Darvill and national executive committee (NEC) rep Bex Bailey – voted a motion on the crisis in Gaza off the agenda. If you’ve read any of my previous reports back from meetings (see footnote for links), you might be forgiven for thinking this sort of behaviour is a Young Labour tradition.

The motion had been proposed by south-east rep Max Shanly to be submitted by Young Labour as its contemporary motion to Labour conference. This is not a secret process – every year, like constituency branches, Young Labour can submit either one topical motion or one rule change. At this time last year, the committee voted to submit a motion on zero-hour contracts. Despite the timetable being plainly evident, committee members moaned that they had not had the chance to consider alternatives, and therefore that the motion should not be heard. Continue reading →

Young Labour: get some fire in your belly, don’t leave politics to the grown ups

The chosen pessimistWhat’s the point in a political committee without any politics?

The duty of the Young Labour National Committee is to represent members’ concerns, help them organise, and, importantly, vocalise our collective politics. But as a committee member, I’ve seen that all too often this isn’t the case.

There is no doubt that the committee is composed of immensely dedicated and diligent members. But too frequently any political discussion is hastily averted. What should be the shout of our young members is quietened down to a whimper. Significantly, the committee voted to render itself an essentially apolitical body in October 2013 – choosing not to debate two motions that had been put before it. Continue reading →

Young Labour demands wealth super-tax and scrapping of ‘right to buy’

Tax the rich and greedyYoung Labour’s first conference with written policy motions has seen delegates vote for radical measures to address the cost of living crisis and kick-start the economy.

The two-day event in Bradford, which concluded yesterday (Sunday) voted to call on the Labour manifesto to include a one off  “super-tax” which would seize ten per cent of the assets of the richest ten per cent of the population. A policy package on housing, including ending the ‘right to buy’, introducing rent controls and a mass council house building programme, was also passed. Delegates voted for the strengthening of trade union rights, renationalising the railways, compulsory sex education in schools and a programme of industrial growth among other measures. Continue reading →

Shock as Young Labour rejects Collins reforms and votes to defend the link

Labour General SecretaryYoung Labour conference today delivered a damning verdict on the Collins Review of the Labour-union link – voting to mandate its delegates to vote against the proposals at the upcoming special conference on 1st March.

The party’s youth wing’s two-strong delegation carries 25,000 votes in the affiliates section of annual and special conferences. Though this is fairly small compared to larger affiliates such as the “big four” unions, today’s decision represents the biggest vote declared so far against the proposals. The reforms have been criticised for their potential to drastically reduce party funding and compromise the historic link between the party and the trade unions, through moving from “opt-in” to “opt-out” affiliation of union members. Party executive member Ann Black has questioned the levels of support claimed by party chiefs for moving away from the status quo. Continue reading →

It’s official: Young Labour can debate policy for two hours every two years

Young Labour on the March for the AlternativeWho could possibly enjoy the feeling of I-told-you-so when the mess you’re faced with offends you as much as anyone, if not most of all? Certainly not me at the last Young Labour national committee meeting. Along with a minority of committee members, I had spent the previous two meetings warning that giving up any say over policy and stance was a bad move for the committee.  Deferring all such discussions to the youth wing’s policy conference would mean issues would be irrelevant by the time they got discussed.

Take the motion Max Shanly put forward to October’s meeting, calling for Labour to bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership if we won the 2015 election. It was party policy anyway, and it might even put a full stop to the privatisation. But months before the policy conference at which it apparently made sense to discuss it, the stockbrokers had moved in and calling on the leadership to act seems an irrelevance. And in December, the motion I tabled that was apparently oh-so-offensive was deliberately conciliatory. It only called on Young Labour to join the campaign against surveillance of students and trade unionists – and called on NEC youth rep Bex Bailey to raise the issue at next meeting of Labour’s executive. Not even a policy issue, arguably, though certainly time sensitive. Continue reading →