Tagged with Young Labour

Young Labour committee votes to discuss policy no more than every two years

Young Labour on the March for the AlternativeAt October’s Young Labour national committee meeting, committee members, including chair Simon Darvill and NEC rep Bex Bailey, voted to reject two motions as agenda items: on the grounds that it was not the committee’s place to pass substantive motions, and that this should be left to the biennial policy conference.

This has a very worrying implication: that Young Labour will never again be able to take a substantive position on the majority of issues as they arise. The central argument for voting against hearing the motions was: Young Labour does not need to have motions in order to do stuff. We can simply organise meetings and campaigns, so long as we mention it at meetings. But to have no proper process for officially endorsing political positions and priorities between conference is surely unsafe. Continue reading →

London Young Labour defends the trade union link

London Young LabourBritain’s biggest regional Young Labour group last night (Wednesday) vowed to defend the link between trade unions and the Labour party, following Ed Miliband’s announcement that he will seek to end automatic affiliation of membership.

The London Young Labour executive committee voted in favour of a motion that also resolved to call on Labour chiefs to publish their report into selection of the parliamentary candidate in Falkirk. It was this selection that sparked a right-wing press sensation over trade union involvement in the selection of Labour party candidates. David Cameron, the Daily Mail and members of Blairite faction Progress all joined the attack on affiliated trade unions encouraging their members to join Labour as full individual party members – despite the scheme allowing them to do so having been introduced by Tony Blair many years ago.

The motion states that “As the mass organisations of working-class people, affiliated trade unions are entitled to use the democratic structures of the Labour Party in order to promote their policies and members who wish to seek selection as elected representatives of the Labour Party.”

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Young Labour chiefs Simon Darvill and Bex Bailey vote against their own pledges

Oxfordshire Young Labour on the March for the AlternativeYoung Labour. Long derided by European allies as “the Blair Witch Project”, but 2013 was the year it was all supposed to have changed. At the organisation’s annual conference in March, delegates were promised by candidates of all the party’s shades that things could only get better.

Even candidates of the right, allied as ever with the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS), pledged their commitment to trade unionism. Victorious candidates Bex Bailey (the youth rep on Labour’s executive – or NEC) and Simon Darvill (Young Labour chair) pledged their commitment to future elections being conducted via a “one member one vote” ballot of members, as opposed to a delegate conference, prone to packing by NOLS. They also pledged to introduce written policy motions. Yet at the first meeting of the new Young Labour National Committee’s term of office last night (19/06/13), they voted against this very principle.

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Only a proper alternative will defeat the “nice guys”

Last Thursday I attended a charity gig run by students from my school. It was a great event: young bands from the local area showcased their talent and the audience was largely made up of fellow pupils – many of whom had recently reached, or were close to reaching voting age. It came as no surprise that amongst the crowd was my Liberal Democrat MP – Greg Mulholland.

It wasn’t his attendance that bothered me. MPs should show their faces at important local events. What did concern me, however, was how by simply being present, Mulholland seemed to be securing votes for 2015. This wasn’t hard-sell campaigning; just mingling and chatting with the young folk of north-west Leeds. Yet, on several occasions throughout the night, I heard proud boasts of how my peers were “definitely going to vote for Greg”. Anyone would think they still had EMA and low tuition fees.

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Young Labour activists call on MPs to defend the right to strike

The following is a statement signed by Young Labour activists – including London Young Labour chair Hazel Nolan and members of the Young Labour National Committee (see below).

The Crime and Courts bill currently approaching its’ third reading in parliament, contains legislation (clauses 12 and 13) proposing to abolish the right to take industrial action for employees of the proposed National Crime Agency (NSA), replacing the existing Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

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