“These elections aren’t simply trivial exercises in petty student politics, but instead ask fundamental questions regarding the nature of Party democracy and the very purpose of a youth wing in the party.”
By Joshua Freestone
On 14th March, young members will receive their ballots for the upcoming Young Labour and Labour Students elections. When voting, members will have a choice to make; to capitulate to the failures of our Party leadership or to raise the scarlet standard for our own generation. Together we have a choice.
We can build a radical youth movement that will hold the party to account as it prepares to enter government or we can allow it to become an uncritical mouthpiece for the leadership, supporting it from broken promise to policy U-turn.
These elections aren’t simply trivial exercises in petty student politics, but instead ask fundamental questions regarding the nature of Party democracy and the very purpose of a youth wing in the party; does Young Labour exist only to represent the party to young people and to build the careers of a clique of representatives pliant to Party demands, or should it also exist to amplify the views, suggestions and opinions of young members to our party?
For years the hard right of the party have used and abused these positions on our committees, subverting democracy and silencing young members. Rather than flourish as a vibrant campaigning organisation, these committees have far too often acted as springboards to cushy careers in Westminster. Not only has this failed students and young people but has also failed the Party.
Both former general secretary Iain McNicol and 2019 Change UK candidate Mike Gapes served their time on the Labour Students Committee. Perhaps a more current example is Wes Streeting who climbed the ladder from Labour Students Committee, to NUS President to MP. When in the NUS Streeting campaigned for the introduction of tuition fees and attacked the elected Black and LGBT officers when they fought against the platforming of BNP activists of university campuses.
This past year I have had the privilege of representing young members in the north on the National Committee of Labour Students. This was the first Labour Students committee since conference voted to scrap it in 2019 on account of anti-democratic behaviour. Regrettably, my term was continuously mired from the bureaucratic clampdowns and undemocratic manoeuvring that previously had dogged the defunct NOLS. Meetings were held at inaccessible times and for no longer than an hour, items were conveniently left off the agenda for factional reasons and simple requests from the committee like congratulating the victory of Lula against fascist Bolsonaro in October 2022 were vetoed.
It was to my immense disappointment that the leadership of Labour Students continuously failed to support tuition fee abolition and were silent in regards to Keir Starmer’s u-turning on his flagship policy. In light of such a grotesque betrayal, students quickly organised, producing an open letter signed by the majority of the UKs Labour Clubs and the Socialist Future members of the National Committee. With sustained pressure from Socialist Future representatives, this was eventually passed as policy at a committee level. However, this was soon sabotaged and Labour Students was still denied the right to campaign publicly to abolish tuition fees. Despite a democratic mandate, students’ demands were met with deaf ears from the labour right, torpedoing a genuine grassroots campaign from students up and down the country.
Labour Students has been focussed on factional point scoring and organising lavish dinners with right wing MPs, sponsored exclusively by PR firms, in place of the desperately needed campaigning addressing student issues like the cost of living and housing crisis. This behaviour should anger all members not merely on grounds of policy but on basic democratic principle.
Ashamed of their tattered reputation, the same clique of the Labour right have undergone a shiny new rebrand. Now under the banner of “Organise24”, the slate backed and promoted by Labour to Win is promising to “rebuild” the party’s youth structures. Rebuild from what? This, they fail to articulate. In the glossy videos and infographics there is no mention of the continual assault waged against young members since Starmer became leader in 2020.
In 2021 the party put the chair of Young Labour under investigation for her trans rights activism and proceeded to ban Young Labour’s constitutionally mandated conference. Young Labour were even banned from using their own social media accounts to communicate with members. In this latest conference, even our rights to vote in our CLPs as youth officers has been scrapped.
Across the country, regional Young Labour groups have been denied AGMs and left without adequate support by the party; my branch, Northern Young Labour, is nothing more than a glorified twitter account. The Labour Right, however they choose to euphemise themselves, are utterly silent on the issue of the constant snarling condescension of the Leadership towards Young Members.
It is with immense sadness that earlier this year the BAME Officers on both the Young Labour and Labour students committee felt they had no choice other than to resign. This should have been a moment when everyone in the party, no matter what faction or persuasion ought to have hung their heads in shame. The party lost two incredibly talented activists who had so much to contribute to the movement. With these resignations the party’s youth structures were also left with no formal representation for BAME members. Again, the Labour right seemed remarkably comfortable with this. At best their resignations were met with indifference, at worst we saw the leadership’s office brief that they were “shaking off the fleas”.
Young members need and deserve a committee with the courage of their convictions. Trans rights is an issue the Young Labour right love to pay lip service to and many of them condemned Bridgett Phillipson’s welcoming of the transphobic school’s guidance. But would any of them change what they do or who they support as a result? No, of course not. Similarly, when Keir Starmer engaged in vile, dog whistle rhetoric about the Trans community many of the Young Labour right vigorously shook their heads in disapproval. But did any of them change what they did or who they supported as a result? No, of course not.
Policy after policy the Young Labour right wag their fingers in disapproval but ultimately do nothing. Like in July when the Labour Leadership came out in favour of the Tories’ heinous two child benefit cap. The Young Labour right once again cried crocodile tears but refused to take any meaningful action. The reactionary pivots of the leadership are aided and abetted by those who stand by and shrug their shoulders. Everybody who believes in progressive values has a responsibility to stand up and speak out.
The future of the party doesn’t lie in the polished suits of Labour To Win but in the incredible young activists organising in their campuses, workplaces and beyond. It’s the students at Manchester who bravely occupied their university buildings for 38 days in protest at University’s exploitative rent scheme and it’s the school pupils walking out in solidarity with Palestine.
Our generation will not be sold down the river. We are the first generation in 100 years to be worse off than our parents, saddled with poverty and precarious employment. We have experienced the worst of the cost of living, housing and climate crisis. Young people today cannot afford more of the same, we need radical, socialist solutions to capitalism’s crises.
So, for all the flinching and sneering of our opponents, let’s keep the red flag flying in Young Labour and Labour Students. Only the Socialist Future slate can be trusted to fight the anti-democratic clampdowns and stand up to the leadership’s assault on young members.
- Joshua Freestone is Labour Students Northern Representative and an organiser for Young Labour’s Socialist Future. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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