This weekend is the annual get together of the youth section of the socialist party of England and Wales. I sadly cant make this meeting but know many comrades who will be there and have no doubt will be well represented from all parts of the working class.
i am gutted i cant make this actually as last year this was the meeting that decided that the young comrades would reanact the Jarrow march 70 years on from the original march. What a fantastic march and demonstrations up and down the country linking up with workers in struggle and other struggles going on that was. I remember meeting the marchers and the young comrades on that march when they came to Hertfordshire.
A fantastic idea and a great way for youth fight for jobs to get off the ground. A new organisation fighting for a better world for young people focusing on jobs for young people with branch's into education and student life too.
The weekend in London of the youth meeting will be a chance for all young people who feel that the current system of 9 k fees, no EMA and increased marketisation of our education system with a record 1.2 million young people out of work and not in training. This is a major crisis not just for young people but for theirs and our futures. As young people are the future it is about time young people found their voice and got organised.
The socialist party and socialist students have been on the ball right from the word go they recognise that young people are part of the working class and are like them, being made to pay for a crisis not of their making.
They realise no party no longer speaks for them in Westminster with the Lib Dems going back on their promises to stand for free education for all by signing up for trebbled tuitain fees and over seeing the scrapping of the EMA grant. They cant clearly be trusted. Neither can the Labour party who introduced tuitain fees in the first place and have already said they'd have doubled tuitian fees if they were in power. that too is not good enough. Dont even let us mention the tories and their plans doesnt bear mentioning.
But young people are as much a part of this fightback as the public and private sector workers. With a proposed walk out in the next month or so called by the NUS it is socialist students and our young comrades who will be at the front of leading walk outs and linking up battles in the public sector with workers fighting for a fair pension for all.
With March 28 looking like a new date for co-ordinated strike action in the public sector it is essential any student/youth struggles planned must be co-ordinated along with this day to create the biggest wave of impact possible. With teachers in the NUT and UCU possibly walking out on March 28th imagine the wave of action of all of their students walking out alongside their teachers and lectuers what solidarity that would give to all involved and send a strong message to this government that we have not gone away and are still prepared to fight.
As i say i am sad i cant make this weekends youth meeting but eagerly await news and updates on the outcome of our activities for this year and as and where we can interveen in struggles and be on the picket lines and demonstrations having a impact with our material offering an alternative to this mad twisted rotten capitalist system of greed and exploitation.
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Showing posts with label disenfranchised youth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disenfranchised youth. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
The dangers of the lack of a political alternative
During these tough economic times as we start to feel the bite of the cuts and our living standards slip backwards. The lack of a alternative or a party standing up for people is very evident.
It took the trade unions months to call the first demonstration national demo in London on March 26th last year. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do so. They only started organising mass co-ordinated strike action after hard work and lobbying and mass pressure from below by ordinary rank-and-file members.
With the 3 main political parties lib dem, labour and tories all agreeing the need for cuts to some degree people will be left feeling who do we trust now ?
very understandable with no one taking a lead and showing leadership as my post on political leadership last night was about can lead to all sorts of dangers. Not least the idea that we cant affect things and a sense of desperation sets in. Last summers riots were a sign of this. Many young people in poor areas with little opportunities feeling attacked and threatened from every angle felt they had nothing to loose.
As Martin Luther King once said rioting is the voice of the voiceless. Countless generations have been ignored and pushed about, stop and searched as seen as a constant threat but now have even less opportunities with the cutting of EMA and trebling of tuitian fees for university.
Life is a struggle for people from these backgrounds ordinary working class backgrounds who have little hope in finding a job in their area or getting out of the situation they find themselves in.
Youth fight for jobs last year did interveen in these areas to try and offer a constructive programme for youth to get involved in and channel their anger into something constructive and this is helping but still far more needs to be done.
The lack of an alternative for people will also have an affect on peoples political views to the likes of the right and far right for example may find easy picking in areas where there is no alternative to the 3 capitalist parties and play on peoples fears of imigration and heighten those tensions. This could be very dangerous and has already been seen with the senseless murdering of innocent students in Norway last year and the rise of the neo-nazi's in germany.
All this is very worrying and makes the need for a new workers party and a lead to be taken by the unions to offer an alternative right away. They should be acting as the pillars of the communities where political leadership is lacking.
Many confused things will be running through peoples minds at this time but the longer we go on without that clear alternative being made, as socialist alternative the more likely people are to turn to less savoury methods of change which is something as socialists we would not want to see.
It took the trade unions months to call the first demonstration national demo in London on March 26th last year. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do so. They only started organising mass co-ordinated strike action after hard work and lobbying and mass pressure from below by ordinary rank-and-file members.
With the 3 main political parties lib dem, labour and tories all agreeing the need for cuts to some degree people will be left feeling who do we trust now ?
very understandable with no one taking a lead and showing leadership as my post on political leadership last night was about can lead to all sorts of dangers. Not least the idea that we cant affect things and a sense of desperation sets in. Last summers riots were a sign of this. Many young people in poor areas with little opportunities feeling attacked and threatened from every angle felt they had nothing to loose.
As Martin Luther King once said rioting is the voice of the voiceless. Countless generations have been ignored and pushed about, stop and searched as seen as a constant threat but now have even less opportunities with the cutting of EMA and trebling of tuitian fees for university.
Life is a struggle for people from these backgrounds ordinary working class backgrounds who have little hope in finding a job in their area or getting out of the situation they find themselves in.
Youth fight for jobs last year did interveen in these areas to try and offer a constructive programme for youth to get involved in and channel their anger into something constructive and this is helping but still far more needs to be done.
The lack of an alternative for people will also have an affect on peoples political views to the likes of the right and far right for example may find easy picking in areas where there is no alternative to the 3 capitalist parties and play on peoples fears of imigration and heighten those tensions. This could be very dangerous and has already been seen with the senseless murdering of innocent students in Norway last year and the rise of the neo-nazi's in germany.
All this is very worrying and makes the need for a new workers party and a lead to be taken by the unions to offer an alternative right away. They should be acting as the pillars of the communities where political leadership is lacking.
Many confused things will be running through peoples minds at this time but the longer we go on without that clear alternative being made, as socialist alternative the more likely people are to turn to less savoury methods of change which is something as socialists we would not want to see.
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