“The stakes are high – all socialists, whatever our age, must help nominate and promote the Socialist Future slate – and do all we can to stand with comrades doing such important work in Young Labour, despite the party bureaucracy’s continual and unjustified attacks.”
By Sam Browse & Matt Willgress, Labour Outlook.
At the same time as NEC, National Policy Forum and other elections take place in the Labour Party this summer, crucial elections are taking place in Young Labour and Labour Students. In these votes, the Left is rallying behind a full ‘ For a Socialist Future’ slate.
Labour Outlook’s Sam Browse spoke to Daisy Carter from the slate about the importance of the campaign and how we can offer our support – and you can watch the full interview below.
Explaining why the elections are so important, Daisy outlined how the whole Young Labour National Committee is being elected, meaning that all Party members under 27 will be electing for a two-year term a Chair, International, National and Regional representatives, plus Liberation positions.
In these votes last time the Left won clearly, including through electing Jess Barnard as Chair and Daisy as a Southwest representative.
As Daisy says, whilst “the last couple of years have been a really difficult time for many people – particularly socialists in the Labour party – [the Left is] really proud of what the last Young Labour committee has managed to achieve.”
This is despite the fact that “there’s been a lot of barriers put up, not even going into what’s happened with covid, but [in terms of] the general situation in the Labour Party,” meaning that the Left-led Young Labour “has remained a beacon of hope for a lot of people and shown that it is possible to stand up for socialist values, to stand up for fairness, to stand up for anti-imperialism,” and to support workers, whilst holding ” those positions in the Labour Party, and providing a space for socialist members in the party.”
The importance of Young Labour can’t be overstated, as it is “a lot of people’s first experience in socialist politics and first experience in the Labour party,” including for Daisy herself, and currently that is “a space where people are able to express socialist ideas, [and to] develop their politics in a really safe, accessible space.”
Furthermore, “Young Labour is currently a national body in the Labour party that does have a left-wing majority,” with the massive support for the Socialist Future slate two years ago showing an “appetite for socialism in young people in the Labour Party.”
Since then, the Left Young Labour reps understood that they “have a duty to represent young people’s views to the party itself,” including through at the last annual conference putting forward the successful motion on Palestine.
The importance of the upcoming elections is further illustrated by the fact that under its current leadership “the party is in danger of alienating young voters with a bit of a lack of policy, [and] a bit of a kind of half-hearted approach to a lot of things.”
The job of Young Labour in such a situation must be to actually “represent what young people in this country believe and.. put forward those positions to the party and ensure that the party is going to provide an alternative that is actually seriously going to support our future, rather than just kind of tinkering around the edges.”
Looking forward, the slate stands for Young Labour remaining a socialist part of the Labour party, and that means taking “really, really strong lines on anti-imperialism, on anti-racism, [and] on transphobia.”
It also means only supporting candidates that back workers struggles, and that refuse to cross picket lines.
To help make our collective struggles have the maximum impact, this means Young Labour also needs to be an organising force, “not just in the party but outside the party as well.”
Being part of the axis of resistance against the Tory offensive means being an active force and “helping people support community campaigns, rent strikes, tenants’ unions, climate organising” and more.
This focus is reflected in a “strong slate of candidates that have all got so much experience, not only within the party, but also on their campuses in their communities, and in their workplaces.”
A key aim will now be to “develop young members with those capacities… making sure we’re a space where we can train young members, offer education, support young members getting into their unions and organising our workplaces, and support people organising on their campuses.”
The stakes are high – all socialists, whatever our age, must help nominate and promote the Socialist Future slate – and do all we can to stand with comrades doing such important work in Young Labour, despite the party bureaucracy’s continual and unjustified attacks.
- Find out how to support the campaign and all the info you need at https://socialistfuture.com/
- Follow Daisy’s campaign on Twitter here.
- Follow the slate on Twitter here.
