Youth

Issues for young people

Something to learn from the past

Although familiar with Martin Thomas’s educational agitation, analytical explanations and delivery of argument in discussion over the last five years: I don’t share the same historical tendency, having come to political maturity through the Communist Party of Great Britain (original CPGB 1920-1991) in its final eurocommunist stage. Martin, in Solidarity 377 makes some good points in his feature on the possibilities of a Young Labour revival. Orthodox Trotskyist sects and Communist Party national roads to socialism were deeply affected by high Stalinism; influencing some in the Labour Party and...

Anatomy of a Casual Street-Murder (1991)

1. Murder in the Blue Jungle Even as capitalism destroys the beneficent green jungles of the earth, it creates a great spreading blue jungle all its own in its cities across the globe. Dog eat dog; man eat man; plunder and exploitation according to the laws of the market and the rites and rights of property: and illegal plunder and robbery outside the indulgent laws of legal exploitation. The blue jungle. Two weeks ago, at one o'clock on a Monday morning, I found an elderly man semi-conscious on the pavement across the road from where I live in South London just after he had been robbed and...

Labour betrays young people

Labour leader Ed Miliband has promised to cut Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) for around 100,000 18-to-21-year-olds and replace it with a lower means-tested benefit depending on claimants’ qualifications and skill levels. This will affect those young people under 21 who have do not have A-levels — around seven out of ten 18-to-21-year-olds currently claiming JSA. Miliband told the press that “Britain’s young people who do not have the skills they need for work should be in training, not on benefits.” What Labour have not explained is why young people can’t receive training and enough to live on...

Tories bet on youth apathy

The Tories’ strategy is based on an assumption that young people are politically inactive, or do only sporadic actions, not week-in week-out, year-after-year organising. The assumption seems odd. The cynical old saying goes: “Not to be a radical at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one after thirty is proof of want of head”. Yet the Tories have noticeably left benefits for older people relatively intact, while slashing everything else. At the start of January David Cameron promised to continue increasing the basic state pension by at least 2.5 per cent, and in line with the higher of...

A Tory plot against youth

Young people are being used as a battering ram to attack the pay, conditions, and rights of all working-class people. Despite the supposed upturn in the UK economy, youth unemployment — especially long-term youth unemployment — remains at record levels. In the third quarter of this year (July-September), the unemployment rate for those aged between 16 and 24 and not in full-time education was 19% — 664,000 people, many of whom would still be looking for their first job. Although slightly lower than the figure for the preceding quarter, this was still a higher figure, by around 16,000, than a...

Young Labour stitch up

Over the last couple of years, Young Labour — set up in 1993 to replace the old Labour youth wing wound up to get rid of Militant (now the Socialist Party) — has begun to show a little spark and crackle. Labour's apparatchiks have responded by reshaping Young Labour annual conference to make it harder for dissent to be heard. Under-27 Labour activists can get to the next conference , in Leicester on 2-3 March 2013, only by becoming a delegate from an entire region (London, the South West, whatever), or a national trade union — or a university Labour Club. The university Labour Clubs are weak...

Blame the teachers?

The figures for 16-18 year old who are not in education, employment or training — NEETs, as they are termed — have risen over the previous year (8.1% now compared to 7.5% in 2010). This must be good news for the coalition. NEETs are a fantastic opportunity for apportioning blame; if crime levels in particular area rise, find a correlation with NEET levels. If it is felt necessary to stir up the electorate by attacking the teaching profession (with its strong level of union activism) then suggest that this is all the fault of education and demand support for imminent reforms. The fact that one...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.