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THREAD: Since Young Labour election candidates and discourse are starting to appear, I thought I'd make a thread on some of the policy I'd love to see raised. 1/?
NATIONAL ORGANISER: I think the lack of a payed national organiser is frankly embarrassing at this stage, and hope every candidate at every level raises this. Surely it's a return on investment if nothing else, and a must to grow our movement 2/?
CLPs: I think real reform into how CLP meetings operate and how they can be an accessible and welcome space is desperately needed. Especially in terms of ethnic minority, trans and disabled members, end especially young members.
This goes from little things like timings (basically always on school nights till late), locations (often not wheelchair accessible, or by public transport), to big things like toxic cultures of racism, antisemitism, transphobia and sexual misconduct 4/?
DUAL CLP MEMBERSHIP: not a must (and it's easier to switch then I'd thought) but not disenfranchising student members from the CLP system would be grand, and do wonders for some of the cultural problems outlined above 5/?
STUDENTS: I'm too young to have experienced the NOLS debacle, but the lack of a formal student organisation atm is actually bananas and the Party will suffer down the line, especially in terms of diversity which uni Labour clubs have in buckets and the national party doesn't..6/?
CONFERENCE: real questions to be had about safeguarding for u18s especially. I was lucky that at conference aged 15 and 16 I found nice, safe people and spaces. That shouldn't be down to luck, and there are enough horror stories by now to spur change I hope 7/?
this also includes things like the drinking culture (which also excludes lots of other people and would've been clamped down on by now by any decent SU) as well as the way speeches work, fringe events, and all sorts of other ill-conceived bits and bobs 8/?
ACCESS: bit different, but worth discussing how MPs give out work experience, jobs and general access. I fear that the current system benefits the already privileged and is a massive wasted opportunity for growing real talent and diverse staffers (needed!) 9/?
COORDINATION AND COVERAGE: while I think the current grassrootsy local branch approach has some benefits, it risks leaving out young members who are in the gaps, and misses opportunities we could have to coordinate, meet each other and benefit from collective activity
will add to this when I think of more, but as a young member who joined at 14, went to conference aged 15 and 16 and basically hasn't been seriously involved again since, I think we need to do some serious thinking about the future of Young Labour.
So many young people have joined the party between 2015 and now, and I really think a lot of that talent and energy has been wasted or squandered by the current YL and party structures. We can and must do better //END (for now)
