A manifesto, of sorts.

I am delighted to have been elected unopposed as the Youth Rep to the London Labour regional board. I am really excited to take on the role at what is such an exciting and important moment for young Labour members and Labour as a whole, and work to make Labour more friendly, accessible and welcoming to young members (something that has improved considerably during the time I have been active within the party; but there is still more to be done).

I just wanted to just post my manifesto here, cause although I was lucky enough to be unopposed, I still wanted to put it out there, so there would be something by which I can be held accountable.

Also please check out all the other people standing for various positions if you haven’t already; there are some amazing candidates up for various positions:

http://www.younglabour.org.uk/uploads/8df031de-bf35-9424-6101-451bda205c06.pdf

I first joined the Labour party in 2010, and was a very active campaigner within my CLP, but was almost completely unaware of how to go about getting involved in other aspects of the party or how to connect to other young members. I am standing for Youth Rep on the London Labour regional board because I want to work to ensure that all young members in London are able to get involved; because come 2015 young people need to be at the forefront of the fight against a government which is putting the future of our whole generation at risk.

I will work with CLP Youth Reps to help them recruit more active young members to their CLPs, and ensure they keep their young members up to date with what is going on in their CLPs, as well as letting them know about other ways they can get involved with the party (such as through Young Labour, Labour Students, Young Fabians etc). I will work with CLPs who don’t currently have youth officers to recruit more active young members who can fulfil the role.

In order to ensure young members are a fighting force in London, we need to offer them more than just occasional requests to campaign. I will help to facilitate regular campaigning days in key seats in London, and help young people get involved in campaigning with their CLPs; as well as liaising with members in safe seats to help them get involved in campaigns in more marginal seats. But I will ensure that this is combined with other social and policy focused events to make young people feel a part of the party they are campaigning for.

Looking at the success of Tower Hamlets Young Labour, I’ll examine the merits of having smaller Young Labour groups in different parts of London to work alongside London Young Labour, and help to set up such groups.

I want to work with sixth forms and other political organisations (including those I may not personally agree with) to get Young Labour in schools talking to young people about how to get involved in politics, as London Young Labour did in the run up to the mayoral campaigns; this was a brilliant scheme that needs reinvigorating.

Trade unionism is, of course, a central part of the Labour party; but it is, worryingly, declining in our society. As well as working and campaigning alongside young trade unionists, we need to be encouraging far more young people to be joining trade unions. I will organise events for young members who are not currently in trade unions with trade union officials and young trade unionists to facilitate and encourage this.

And, crucially; I will work to make sure every young member knows about what is happening and what they can get involved with. You shouldn’t have to already know the right people, or follow the right twitter accounts to know how to get involved; and too often young people, especially those not at university, don’t get involved just because they don’t know how. I will ensure that London Young Labour has an up to date social media presence and website, that CLP Youth officers send out regular emails (or that CLPs send out regular young member specific emails in cases where there is currently no youth officer), encourage people to set up facebook events for events and campaign days, and make sure these are linked to in emails and work to ensure young members are always welcomed and not simply overlooked when they first try and get involved. Getting involved in the Labour Party shouldn’t have to be a series of ever more complicated challenges, and I will work to make Labour in London an open and accessible community for all. 

On young people in the Labour Party...

Recently I went to two back to back events; the first put on by the Fabian Society, the second by the Young Fabians. The first, the Fabian Society’s Annual House of Commons Tea, was a discussion about how to better engage people in politics, while the Young Fabian event was a discussion about how to get young people more engaged in politics.

I assumed I wouldn’t be the only person attending both these event back to back; as it turns out I was only one of two. And in the House of Commons Tea there was quite a notable lack of young people (which is a bit of a blurry term, so broadly speaking I’m talking about typically student age, or younger). Of course, it should be noted that the Young Fabian event was free while the Commons Tea cost £15, and the Young Fabian event being held in the evening may also have made it more accessible, but this does reflect a trend I am  increasingly aware of in the events I attend; that with the exceptions of big, national events (National Conference, Progress Conference, Fabian Conference; although even the Fabian’s summer conference had very few young attendees) young people tend to attend “young people” events; Young Labour, Labour Students, Young Fabians etc, but seem less inclined to attend events not specifically aimed at young people.

I often get asked at such events “how do we get young people into politics?” and it always confuses me because I know so many incredibly politically active young people…but then I’ll look around the room and realise that I am one of very few young people there.

This is not to say that there aren’t problems of political apathy in my generation (both in terms of a general disinterest and a dissatisfaction with mainstream politics; two rather different issues that are often clumsily grouped together), but that I can understand why some people would be forgiven for thinking there are hardly any young politicos at all; which is just not true.

As I said, this isn’t the case with big, national events; but it’s also untrue on the campaign trail. When activists are out on the doorstep, there is a clear mix of age groups, and young activists are almost without a doubt out in force.

So why, when it comes to events, might young people be so much less inclined to attend events not specifically aimed at them? Perhaps there is a worry that, as someone younger, you’ll be patronised/ignored/etc. Personally I’ve never experienced this, but I can understand why it might be a worry for some people.

Young Labour, Young Fabian and Labour Student’s event are also, I’ve often found, more discursive than events not aimed at young people; with a far more open format than the “panel that talks after which people ask the panel questions” format; where the audience is really able to engage in discussion and debate. This explanation does become rather circular, though; are young people drawn to more discussion based events, or are they better at putting on more discussion based events?

Do young people just need…some sort of hook; something to tell them “you! This event is for you!”. The other exception I’ve seen to the young-people-not-attending-not-young-people-aimed-events was the recent Fabian Women’s network summer reception, at which there were plenty of people my age; these were all women (as, of course, were most of the attendees; but not all); so not drawn in by the fact that this event was aimed at them as young people, but that it was still specifically aimed at them as women. Perhaps. This is just speculation.

And this whole post is really just speculation and personal reflection; I’d be interested to hear how far it reflects other people’s experiences; young people who feel they only really attend young people events, or that they attend a range of events, older people who feel they do or don’t see young people at the events they go to etc.

Because if this sense I’ve got of this generational divide between activists is accurate; I don’t think that’s that great a thing. I love the younger wings of the party; I think they hold amazing events and are full of amazing people, and I think having these events and groups aimed specifically at young people is without a doubt a good thing. But when these become the only parts of the party young people really interactive they can become somewhat inward looking; and I don’t think that helps young people understand or feel part of the wider movement.

That’s, of course, just the problem; I have a few thoughts on why this might happen and I want to start exploring potential solutions. But it’s only something I’ve recently come to really register; and it’s not something I ever really hear discussed when we talk about young people in the Labour movement; so I thought that it was at least worth pointing out.