Changing Young Labour – and the elephant in the room…

By Alan Scobbie / @alanscobbie

Some people may groan at the idea of a retired student activist wading into the debate around young people and the Labour Party. However after reading on LabourList that “Young Labour as a national organisation has achieved very little” I found myself frustrated that the debate is glossing over the wider picture. I cannot pretend that Young Labour is perfect but we need to work out what its for rather than have another round of constitutional wrangling.

Most of the debate so far is focusing on quite technical process issues. I am surprised that a trade union rep cannot contact his young members who pay the levy by email, although as a former liberation officer I know how hard it can be to access a database for LGBT members in the same way as women for quite obvious reasons. That aside there appears real tension at a regional level. A similar situation is found with NEC Constituency reps unable to access membership lists. Surely there is a role for Membersnet here in allowing young members to contact their regional rep in much the same way as NPF or NEC reps. More work is need to make this a two way process.

Some seem to feel that Young Labour isn’t punching its weight in the policy area. Except that it was young members on the National Policy Forum who secured Votes at 16 as a manifesto commitment. There are no obvious barriers preventing NPF youth reps to work with regions and CLPs to organise policy forums for young members. This is a far more accessible route to shaping policy than grafting old NUS style policy motions into national Young Labour.

My twitter feed is also full of complaints around the cost of attending Youth Conference. Like any national event it can be expensive. Two years ago Youth Day was held in Gillingham, Kent. It costs over £100 in rail fare to attend from Manchester or further afield. However for the biggest Young Labour group in the country, London, there was little complaint. I worked on the registration desk two years ago and cannot recall many delegates from Scotland, Wales or the North East in attendance.

Also with key elections for Holyrood it’s a no brainer holding a large conference in Scotland. Four years ago there were over a hundred activists from all over the UK out campaigning during that Youth Conference. These campaign opportunities cannot be underestimated and we cannot ignore the cost and logistics that go into large events. Young Labour is also well known as a campaigning force. All too often this amazing level of activity is set aside because of flaws in governance. The big question though is how effective are we at engaging our members and turning them into activists?

Now we come on to the elephant in the room about how Young Labour looks on the ground. I struggle to think of many young active members I worked with who were not current or former members of Labour Students. The few that I did encounter were during the Glenrothes campaign when some school pupils travelled from Glasgow to knock on doors.

Labour Students do great work in university towns by building the future of our party. Some – like my former club in Manchester – affiliated with their local marginal CLP taking a leading role in the campaign year out year in. Manchester Withington CLP was a welcoming environment for any young member, student or otherwise, because of students taking ownership of the CLP. A Young Labour group in every town risks overlapping with an already thriving Labour Club. Without wishing to generalise I suspect in many large metropolitan areas it would be the same people who were the past or present backbone of the Labour Club but with a different hat on. Also what happens when members reach the cut off point and exit the cocoon of youth to find a stale constituency around them?

Engaging all our new members above or below 27 has to be our main concern in rebuilding our movement. We must get serious with the CLPs that none like to name and shame. The ones that still have a virtual closed shop with moribund campaign structures and the same old candidates.

Its easy for me to write this as a graduate living in Lambeth and working in parliament. However there are some great examples of how it can be done. John Mann MP for Bassetlaw is a great example for how MPs and CLPs outside metropolitan centers can engage young people. Perhaps we should be more focused on learning those lessons rather than teething problems in Young Labour internal hackery? Young Labour isn’t perfect but much of the administrative headache identified by James and Kev will be solved by a National Youth Officer supporting an active National Chair. Until then I am sure the debate will continue but have a think about what Young Labour is for and who it needs to engage before running to the Rule Book.