Organising Young Labour: time to get it right

By Chris Read

Given that less than half of 18-24 year olds voted at the general election, it was rather heartening to read this week that as many as 1/3 of Labour’s 30,000 new members since the election are aged under thirty. It should nail the myth that young people are never interested in politics. Yet 56% of 18-24 year olds didn’t vote. In last year’s European elections, that figure stood at an even more worrying 87%.

In the wake of the general election defeat, a decade of declining membership, Labour’s well-publicised financial difficulties, and – for me – a frightening trend of disengagement from voting amongst younger people, we have a real opportunity to look again at how we can organise in the community.

I was seventeen when I joined the Labour Party. It was an odd experience. I sent off my cheque and, after a lengthy wait, I was attending meetings known only by acronyms that I didn’t understand (CLP, GMC, AGM, anyone?), listening to discussions I didn’t understand. I wanted to see Labour in government – and the Tories kept out – but I wasn’t entirely sure how my contribution was helping.

But I was enthusiastic and I would not be deterred. I was friends with the guy then working as my MP’s researcher, and whilst I didn’t really understand what a Young Labour group was or why I would want to be part of it, he decided that we should form one. And I would be its Chair. Slowly but surely, I began to see the Labour Party as it could be – debating, campaigning, engaging and – whisper it quietly – enjoyable.

Since then, South Yorkshire Young Labour have heard from and debated with cabinet ministers, special advisers, MPs, MEPs, councillors, and (in admittedly a subsidised trip to a public event) Tony Benn. We ate Denis MacShane’s curry once. We visited Downing Street, arranged trips to conferences, popped over to the European parliament, stuffed endless envelopes, stood on street stalls, knocked on thousands of doors. It wasn’t an alternative to engaging fully with Labour Party membership, it was precisely how some of us chose to do it; a safe space to ask questions, and a route into events that might otherwise have passed us by, a place to make friends.

When I was co-opted on to the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Board as a Young Labour rep three year ago, I invited young members from across the region to talk about how we made our party work better for them, and how we brought more young people in to join us. I was struck then, as I have been many times since, by the eagerness of young members to engage with those questions, and to take responsibility for acting on them. In part as a result of that, we formed new groups in York and in West Yorkshire, so that most of our region now has some form of young members organisation. They do great work, often with very few resources, and little recognition.

Local Young Labour groups also function in a sort of organisational limbo that prevents them from really getting on with the job. Now that I’ve hit 27 (and middle-aged Labour), friends asked me to write up my thoughts and suggestions for how Labour can organise better for young members. And when my report reached 6,000 words I realised that I had more to say than I might have thought.

In brief, my argument is that the position of Young Labour groups within our party leaves them without the tools and direction they need to really tackle the challenge of the disengagement of young people from political parties, or to live up to the agenda set out for them in the Labour Party’s own rule book. By making relatively simple and cost-effective changes to the way we treat Young Labour groups, we can better engage and empower young members in every part of the country.

Specifically I suggest:

1. Make them party units to be taken seriously: by giving them local affiliate status to make sure they are part of the mainstream, not an add-on.
2. Give them the tools they need: what other membership organisation would function without lists of its own members or printed materials?
3. Small scale funding: take the worries out of finance by taking care of accounts and providing a membership premium.
4. Invest in member development.
5. Give clear direction, and encourage sharing of ideas and events.

In return, the groups themselves must meet certain responsibilities. Good Young Labour groups:
1. Debate, campaign, socialise – and meet regularly.
2. Work in partnership with local parties, politicians, and Labour Students.
3. Work accountably, at a minimum meeting some basic formal requirements.
4. Communicate effectively with their full memberships, as well as the wider world.
5. Have fun.

The leadership and NEC elections have thrown up more interesting ideas. In some ways, reforms in the last few years have made Young Labour a better organisation, with better representation and the £1 youth rate. The opportunity is there now to use the enthusiasm of our young members in groups in every community. I hope we don’t let it pass us by.

You can read in more detail over on my website.