A small leftward shift within Young Labour was detectable at this year’s national conference, held in Leicester on 2-3 March 2013. However, there is stil a way to go in the struggle for the democratic structures and socialist policies that Young Labour needs in order to become a fighting organisation for young workers and students in Britain.
Socialist Appeal will be holding a fringe meeting at the Young Labour national conference in Leicester this weekend on Saturday 2nd March at 7.30pm. The meeting is titled “The militant fight against cuts”, with guest speakers John Dunn (ex-Clay Cross councillor) and Gary Wareing (current Labour councillor opposing the cuts) talking on the struggles against austerity – past and present.
Sunday 17th February marked the 2013 AGM of London Young Labour, held in Stratford Town Hall in east London, with 60 young members of the Labour Party in attendance. Socialist Appeal supporters were present, arguing for the need for Young Labour to be a forum for political discussion and debate, whereby working class youth and students can argue for a genuine alternative to crisis austerity.
Approximately 200 protestors, including students and trade unionists, gathered outside the Cambridge Union on Tuesday 19th February to protest against Marine Le Pen’s invite to speak. The leaders of the Union – an old debate society – have gained a reputation in recent times for courting controversy, inviting various dubious political characters under the guise of “freedom of speech”.
On Tuesday 8th February, an event hosted by the Cambridge Marxist Discussion Group and the Cambridge Universities Labour Club attracted around 150 people for an evening of debate and discussion on alternatives to austerity, with a panel of speakers including Owen Jones, columnist at the Independent, George Owers, a Cambridge Labour Councillor, and Adam Booth, writer for Socialist Appeal.
Over one hundred and thirty five
people attended the UCLU Marxist Society last night to watch “Days of
Hope: General Strike” by Ken Loach. Present at the discussion held
afterwards was the veteran socialist film director himself, as well as
John Dunn from the “Justice for Miners” Campaign.
The Cambridge Marxist Society, founded shortly after the
crisis began in 2008, is now in its fourth year of existence. Over these years,
the society has grown to become the largest political society in Cambridge
University, with 350 people signing up at this year’s freshers’ fair. This was
followed up by an excellent first meeting of the new academic year, with over
90 people attending to hear Alan Woods, editor of www.marxist.com, speak on “Why Marx was
right”.
UCLU Marxists are hosting a film
screening of ‘1926: General Strike’, from the Days of Hope series by Ken
Loach made for the BBC in 1975. Ken will be in attendance to answer questions after the screening.
As we begin the new academic year thousands of students up down the
country will be leaving home for the first time to begin their Higher
Education (HE) studies. Unfortunately for these students what should be
an exciting and liberating occasion is overshadowed by the colossal debt
they will be forced to take on as they become the first to pay the new
£9,000 a year tuition fees.
As the government proves intractable
over demands to revoke London Met’s ban on teaching overseas students,
it is becoming increasingly clear that only a militant campaign by the
student union and trade unions can force the government’s hand.
A
clearing house for students displaced by the university’s visa fiasco
will include six private colleges in a total of 14 institutions.
In keeping with its general policy of favouring business over the needs
of ordinary people, the government now gets to offer a subsidy in the
form of the tuition fees of over 2,000 overseas students.
As international students consider
their options in the wake of the London Met fiasco, other institutions
are licking their lips. With fees for international students even higher
than the £9,000 that British students (not including Scottish students)
pay many universities are keen to herd as many students as possible
into their courses.