‘Young Labour and Labour Students elections show strong mandate for Organise’s focus on delivery’

The results of the Young Labour and Labour Students elections have been announced, and they represent a remarkable vote of confidence in the moderate grouping Organise, which is the youth and student network supported by Labour to Win. Organise have increased their majorities on both committees, and hold all the executive positions.

A recent New Statesman article claimed that this election was between the youth movement being a space for political development, or a tool for mobilisation. Some candidates from Renew (the left slate in youth and student elections) campaigned on a platform arguing that Young Labour and Labour Students only cared about doorknocking. Firstly, the record of delivery achieved by both outgoing committees entirely disproves this. The outgoing committees, both with Organise majorities, introduced a travel fund to remove the financial barrier to campaigning; brought back Youth and Students Congress when there had been years with no national events;  and introduced a tailored training programme for young members called ‘Next Gen’ as well as consistent tranches of the Future Organisers scheme. Labour Students delivered digital campaign training, and specific literature for freshers fairs to show students that Labour is putting forward a progressive alternative to the Greens and Reform. Crucially, both Young Labour and Labour Students are now active members of the Young European Socialists and International Union of Socialist Youth where we collaborate with our sister parties on shared issues such as the climate crisis and geopolitical instability. We do all this and mobilise young members to play a major role in election campaigns.

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These results show that young members value delivery over divisive rhetoric. Some criticisms of Organise leveraged by Renew, in this election and previously, had an interesting focus on careerism. Targeting hardworking and promising young activists with the accusation of wanting a job in politics is not the right approach. Surely we should want to encourage our young activists to work full-time for the movement if they have the skills and energy that are needed? Rather, the issue that needs to be tackled is lack of accessibility and transparency over how young members can get jobs in politics. Organise have consistently recognised that our movement is strongest when it involves young people at all levels of our party, and that includes working as both party and trade union organisers, parliamentary staffers and more. There is nothing remotely careerist about believing in our young activists.

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In the past two years, Young Labour has been transformed from a group that only looked to criticise our party to one laser focused on supporting young members and achieving Labour victories across the regions and nations. Previous committees prioritised controversial twitter statements over inclusive and accessible events for members. I am pleased that young members voted for more training, events, political development, and I know that the new committees will be laser focused on delivering this.

The New Statesman article ends by saying that the results ‘will not just determine who leads Young Labour and Labour Students – they will offer one of the clearest early signals of where Labour’s internal politics is heading next.’ I am hopeful that come the NEC elections in the summer, members will choose unity and delivery by voting for the Labour to Win candidates. With the rise of populism all around us, this is needed now more than ever. 

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