Tagged with Young Labour

Back Olivia Blake for Labour national executive youth place

My name is Olivia and I am standing to be NEC youth representative because I feel strongly about youth issues that can be addressed by the party. I believe Labour should be offering a real alternative for young people and it is my conviction to make sure this comes from us. I am a 22 year old medical biology PhD student from Leeds studying in Sheffield. I am the current vice chair of Sheffield Labour Students and I’ve seen firsthand the hard work young people do for Labour.

Young Labour has not reached its full potential, there are many obstacles that need to be addressed. Young Labour needs to become more independent and stronger to allow it to work effectively alongside Labour Students and the wider party. Continue reading →

Left surge forward in Young Labour – but more at stake this weekend

For the past month, Young Labour members have been voting for their representatives on the youth section’s supposed ruling body – the Young Labour National Committee. When the ballots opened, I did some analysis of who could be considered left candidates, and who would be worth supporting. The results are now in for the regional reps – and among the contested positions, there have been significant gains for the left (see below).

The committee also includes six trade union representatives, already elected, and a number of positions to be elected at the Labour Youth conference next weekend: Continue reading →

Young Labour should set its sights higher

Exceptional things happen under the most adverse of economic circumstances. It’s an oft-told tale in the North East of the humble, unemployed men of Jarrow taking their crusade on foot three hundred miles to London in the 1930s.

Not specifically to argue about the conditions of the working the man, or to argue about the decline of shipbuilding on the banks of the Tyne as such, but to make a pertinent comment on the relationship between Government isolationism and poverty.

Continue reading →

The cost of Young Labour democracy: £30 per person per night

Every year the monster of getting as many members as possible to a conference rears its ugly and expensive head. Hundreds of 14 to 26 year-old members will be heading to Leicester in March for Labour’s Youth Conference, but it’s not really a question of “is there any room at the inn?”

Instead, “There’s very few inns, and they’ve all got massive price tags, so can I really afford to come and vote for my representatives in Young Labour?”

Continue reading →

Young Labour: who are the left candidates?

At Europe-wide conventions of socialist youth organisations, Britain’s Young Labour was known until recently as “the Blair witch project”.

Since the organisation replaced the Militant-dominated Labour Party Young Socialists in 1992, it has been dominated by those on the hard right of the party, maintained by a culture of fixing and until a few years ago, positions being hand-picked. Young Labour’s leadership has been mainly drawn from the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS), notorious for still breaking into chants of “Tony! Tony! Tony!” at conference discos.

Over the coming months, however, the organisation’s national committee is up for election. Some positions will be elected by an online ballot of all members – others will be elected at the Labour Youth conference, 2nd-3rd March in Leicester.

Continue reading →