January 25th, 2011
At Labour Youth Conference in Glasgow in February young Labour Party members will elect a new Young Labour Chair. With two candidates declared and validly nominated we asked them all a few questions to find out who they are, what they believe and what they hope to deliver for young members of the Labour Party. Let’s meet them…
Christine Quigley, 24, Westminster North
(no photo or statement sent in)
Susan Nash, 26, Walthamstow
Christine: Young party members don’t always feel that they’re part of a national youth movement, particularly when the rules of engagement are unclear. I want to see the Young Labour National Chair elected by an all-member postal ballot, with regional Young Labour groups able to organise hustings for candidates – so that as many people as possible can get involved. We’ve got to build more of a culture of accountability through direct elections.
But that’s just the start. There have been many complaints about the electoral process for the upcoming Young Labour National Committee elections – partly because the electoral system is decided by Labour’s National Executive Committee, rather than Young Labour itself. I would fight for more autonomy for Young Labour in conducting its own affairs, as part of a wider reform package outlined in my manifesto. If elected, I will bring rule changes to Conference next year to make Young Labour a more independent and effective organisation.
Susan: At the moment members are unaware of what Young Labour is for, and how they can get involved. Our processes are unclear, disparate and out of reach. Young Labour needs reforming. We need constitutional and cultural changes to operate effectively. That’s why if I am elected I will immediately fight for more autonomy within Young Labour, introducing a national strategy to revitalise our Young Labour groups, standardising the support they receive and ensuring new groups can develop and grow. If elected I will also work tirelessly to overhaul our tools of communication, demanding Young Labour be given access to contact members without interference and control.
I also believe it is important for members to have the opportunity to interact more regularly. That is why if elected I would push for a annual youth conference, to help members feel less isolated, help them gain valuable training and support, and give them the power to hold their committee to account.
Christine: Firstly, I would ensure that delegates and candidates have much better information about what’s happening with their elections than at present, by working with the Party to disseminate information. Making the electoral rules clearer also makes it more straightforward to complain if you think something’s happening outside the rules. I would also work to impose spending limits and rules about contacting members to ensure that all candidates have a level playing field.
Susan: Being a candidate in this election has highlighted to me the desperate need for changes in the way elections are conducted. There has been confusion about rules, misinformation to potential delegates, and a lack of notice about the Youth conference. All of these problems have prohibited young members from participating, at a time when our membership is rapidly increasing.
Whilst elections may only occur every two years if elected I will ensure lessons are learnt from this contest. I will introduce guidance for CLP’s and regional groups with clearly defined rules and information for elections published well in advance of future contests. I will campaign for additional investment to enable members to attend future events, and not be priced out of participating in our party.
Christine: My priority as Chair of Young Labour would be to ensure that the full-time paid Youth Officer promised at Party Conference this year is recruited and employed as soon as possible. I know from my experience as chair of London Young Labour that volunteers can achieve a huge amount, but a full-time Youth Officer would greatly increase the capacity of Young Labour to engage current members and recruit new ones.
I would not oppose the removal of a sabbatical officer for Labour Students if this was the most effective way to ensure that Young Labour received a full-time Youth Officer. I believe that the relative resources of Labour Students and Young Labour demonstrate that the Party’s priority is students in higher education, rather than young workers and unemployed people. Young Labour represents students in further and higher education as well as those in employment and not in education, and should be resourced effectively to engage all of these groups. http://bit.ly/fMFFlg http://bit.ly/fMFFlg http://bit.ly/fMFFlg http://bit.ly/fMFFlg
Susan: Labour Students has consistently demonstrated its real strengths in mobilising and campaigning. Time and time again Labour Students has delivered hundreds of activists to elections- often their work determining the final result. In addition Labour Students has successfully campaigned both within the party and beyond for the interests and rights of students.
Whilst Labour Student members play an important role in Young Labour we must fight for investment to reach out to all young people. Rather than seeking to restrict or retract funding from Labour Students, we should be seeking to make the case for additional investment in Young Labour. Together we need to make a strong united case for additional support, highlighting our records levels of recruitment, our high levels of activism, and the importance of winning back support amongst young people.
Christine: Yes – absolutely. See above! We were promised by Labour’s General Secretary at Party Conference that this was going to happen. With the huge numbers of young members joining the party at present, it’s an ideal time to bring in a full-time Youth Officer. I’ll work with party staff and the NEC to ensure that the General Secretary makes good on his promise.
Susan: If elected I will fight alongside our NEC Youth Rep for the National Youth Officer we were promised. This position is vital not only for Young Labour, but for the success of the wider party. At the moment Young Labour is unable to release its full potential because of a lack of consistent and central support- If elected I will make it my priority to see that investment delivered- giving Young Labour the power to organise and mobilise on a level not previously seen.
Christine: Labour Students is a very effective model, which I think would work similarly well for Young Labour. My manifesto outlines some of the key changes that we need to work more effectively – such as the ability to campaign autonomously and make policy, as Labour Students does. I believe that an autonomous Young Labour can do more for its members, and can also reach out to young people outside the party more effectively by campaigning and listening on the issues that affect us all as young people.
Susan: Young Labour’s strength is its breadth- membership is automatic and all encompassing. However currently we are not utilising this strength- we do not communicate with members, they do not feel involved. That is why we need to create more opportunities for members to feel they can shape Young Labour and shape the party
The policy review launched last year presents a unique opportunity for Young Labour to do just this. If elected I would seize this opportunity and those like it, ensuring our members voices are at the centre of the party, calling for our voices to be reflected in our messages and campaigns.
Working more cohesively we could see Young Labour rapidly become a greater force for change. If elected I would seek to bring all the various youth representatives within our movement together more regularly to ensure we are utilising that strength of breadth and reach more effectively.
Christine: I’ve been a Young Labour activist since 2007, and am in my second term as Chair of London Young Labour, one of the largest and most active Young Labour groups in the country, having previously been Campaigns Officer. Over that time, I’ve worked with the executive to provide a range of activities for young Labour Party members – campaigning in seats across London and beyond, socials and training events and high-profile policy discussions. As such, I have a good understanding of both the potential and pitfalls of running a regional Young Labour group. I’ve been active in supporting members from other areas in setting up local Young Labour groups and have worked closely with Youth Officers from various London CLPs.
I’m a CLP Youth Officer, so I’m well aware of how young people can make a real contribution within constituency Labour Parties, both in campaigning and in raising issues affecting young people. I’m also active within my trade union, having previously helped to set up the union in my old workplace, including a membership drive and negotiations with management. I’m currently campaigning for paid internships.
Susan: As a member of Labour Students national committee and a Vice President for the national union of students I have extensive experience of supporting and developing volunteers as well as creating groups and organisations from the grass roots. As a former Regions & Universities officer for the Young Fabians I saw many of the same challenges facing Young Labour members who feel isolated or distant from an active group or CLP, and not aware of how to go about developing their own group.
That’s why if I’m elected I want to see a radical change in our communications. I want all youth officers to be able to communicate with other youth officers and members through Membersnet. I want our website to showcase some of the successful groups that exist to act as inspiration and advice to those seeking to create their own group. Plus I want to see greater consistency with the support providing to young labour groups by the regional offices.
Christine: Communication is a big priority for me – many young members don’t feel like they’re part of a national movement because they don’t often hear from Young Labour nationally. Getting the Young Labour website back up and running with new content is really important to me. We should be using our website as a tool to let young members across the country know what we’re up to and how to get involved, as well as to recruit new members to the Party.
I also think that Young Labour needs a better social media presence through Twitter and Facebook, and regular monthly email bulletins to all members with content from across the country. I want to be an approachable and accountable Chair if elected, and so will blog about what I’m up to and visit as many Young Labour groups as possible.
Susan: This is vital and will be a fundamental part of my leadership. Members deserve to be kept up to date with the work of the Chair and committee. If elected I will seek to immediately redevelop our website, our newsletters and our presence on social media sites.
Young Labour can often feel confined to London. We need to ensure we are reaching members where they are. This means working with Young Labour groups, CLP’s and our trade union partners to reach young people in their communities and in the workplace. We need to ensure we are working with other organisations to offer a range of events across the country, as well as organising campaign days and phone banks in a variety of locations.
But electronic communication is not enough. As your chair I and the committee will be accessible to you, visiting events and offering advice, available to support members up and down the country. Under my leadership the regional reps will be asked to host at least one event or campaign each quarter.
Christine: I disagreed with the war. I did not believe that the reasons given for entering into conflict were sufficiently compelling and I feel that war should always be a very last resort. However, as we did go to war in Iraq, we now have a duty to the Iraqi people and to the soldiers who have lost their lives to do our best to rebuild the country’s economy and infrastructure. I support the withdrawal of troops from Iraq at the request of democratic Iraqi government.
Susan: I campaigned and marched against the Iraq War at the time and subsequently. I joined my first demonstration against the Iraq War, and it sparked for me the real beginning of my political activism. Although I wanted to see the Iraqi people free from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein I could not support an intervention which did not seek to establish international support and cost thousands of innocent Iraqis there lives and livelihoods. The Iraq War highlights the need to restore people’s trust in our party and more widely in politics, and the lessons from those decisions will continue to be felt in our party for more years to come.
Christine: The minimum wage was a great Labour achievement, but people deserve to be paid enough to live on. I very much support the Living Wage and want it to become compulsory for all employers. Paying young people less for the same work as older colleagues is unfair – contributions of equal value should be rewarded equally. I believe that Labour should support the development of other incentives for employers to take on young workers, particularly those looking for a first job. More than this, we should be investing in education and training and job creation so that more young people end up in skilled jobs, earning more and contributing more to economic growth.
Susan: Age discrimination is not talked about regularly, but is highly common. Young people are continually treated unequally with little or no justification- like being paid less for doing the same job. I have long fought for the equalisation of the national minimum wage, campaigning alongside our trade union partners, and presenting the case for reform to the Low Pay Commission. In addition I have been working extensively with Interns Aware for the last two years to raise the important issues of unpaid internships.
If elected as your Chair I will continue to fight to see young people paid a decent wage reflective of the work they have done, not dependent on their date of birth. As your Chair I would fight to equalise the national minimum wage and bring an end to the exploitative practice of unpaid internships.
Christine: As Labour is currently in the middle of a major policy review, I believe that it’s time for a more radical position on education funding than a graduate tax. I want to see Labour supporting free third-level education (academic and vocational), paid for through general taxation.
I come from Ireland, where third-level education is provided free to all young people who want it. The rationale for this is that a skilled workforce has wider benefits for the economy as well as for the individuals benefiting. Those who earn more money because of their education should contribute more to the tax system, but this should be done in direct proportion to their incomes. The graduate tax is a blunt instrument which could well act as a disincentive for some people to earn more.
Susan: As Vice President at the National Union of Students I have been at the forefront of leading the fight against increases in tuition fees, and the scrapping of EMA. I believe the graduate tax model proposed by NUS was a fair and sustainable way of financing higher education, with those who earned the most paying back the most, with graduates paying some contribution to reflect the fact that they on average go on to earn significantly more than those who never enter University.
I have long fought against the sustained attacks we have witnessed on students and our educational establishments. If elected as your chair I will continue the fights against University and College cuts, making the economic, social and moral case for investment in further and higher education.
Christine: I was proud to back Ed Miliband for the Labour leadership, and was delighted to have been there when he announced his candidacy. I was impressed by his support for the Living Wage and his record on environmental issues. He was willing to engage with party structures; he was the only candidate to come and speak to the Socialist Societies Executive, for example. I saw him as the most likely candidate to break from the almost-twenty-year-old New Labour model and bring something new to the party. I also believe him to be a credible left-wing party leader and future Prime Minister.
Susan: I supported Ed Miliband, and was heavily involved in his election, leading work on engaging youth and student members. I supported Ed because of the importance he placed on re-establishing the link between our values as a party and the actions we subsequently take. I have always found Ed to be very personable and accessible- someone who can reach out to both new and established supporters, and if elected as Young Labour chair I look forward to campaigning with thousands of other members keen to see Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
Christine: Yes – I’m on the Labour Yes Youth Committee and will be speaking to CLPs and other groups about why I support this electoral reform. I think it’s time for an electoral system that allows people’s votes to count more. AV does this without destroying the constituency link. Of course, right now there are lots of issues which Labour activists should be campaigning on; the dismantling of our NHS, education fee-hikes, the sell-off of Royal Mail. But this referendum in May is an opportunity to move away from our current system of voting and onto a system which I believe is better. I’m voting Yes in May.
Susan: I’m a long standing supporter of electoral reform and will be campaigning in the AV referendum heading up work on youth and student engagement in the Labour Yes campaign.
Christine: I’m a former member of Compass, and was on last year’s Compass Youth Organising Committee. I left Compass as I disagreed with the call to vote Liberal Democrat, which I personally believed was incompatible with my membership of the Labour Party. I don’t support the widening of Compass full membership to members of other parties. Compass is at its most effective when it acts as a critical friend to the Labour Party on the left. I’m a member of the Fabian Society and at present am Young Fabian Equalities Officer. I’m also a member of Amnesty International and have participated in various feminist campaigns.
Susan: I am a member of Unite, Young Fabians, Labour Students and The Co-op. I believe the breadth of socialist societies and linked associations in and around the Labour Party is our greatest asset. If elected as your chair I would like to see a even greater partnership emerge between Young Labour and organisations who seek to work with young members by developing joint events, newsletters, campaigns and working with the youth committees present across our broad movement.
Christine: I wasn’t involved in the recent direct action around tuition fees. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take time off work to attend the protests! I’m very supportive of the protests – this Government is expecting young people to take on massive debt burdens to access education. What really struck me about the protests was that they politicised a generation of young people. During last year’s general election, I spoke to lots of 18-24 year olds who were eligible to vote for the first time and who just didn’t see it as relevant to their lives. We’re seeing a real assault on young people, not only with tuition fee hikes, but with the withdrawal of crucial education and employment programmes like AimHigher and the Future Jobs Fund.
As National Chair of Young Labour, I would make sure that Young Labour was playing a more active role in youth and student demonstrations and was engaging these young people positively. I think Young Labour nationally should support local and regional groups to talk to young people in their areas about these issues, finding out what they want and demonstrating that Labour listens and promotes their interest. The young people engaged in the recent protests over EMA and fees are being let down by this Government – I see my role as Young Labour National Chair as demonstrating that the Labour Party is standing up for their rights.
Susan: As Vice President Society & Citizenship at NUS I led the Vote for Students general election campaign which contained the infamous NUS pledge. Last year I led students in direct action against cuts and fees, mobilising over 50,000 students to march peacefully on the 10th November and working to take action locally and nationally throughout the whole of the last term. I mobilised and attended protests, pickets, lobbies and door to door petition gathering against the marketisation of our education system and the scrapping of EMA.
The fight is not over. This week I am mobilising students, workers and families to come to Manchester for the TUC rally in support of young people, and will be continuing to organise with the wider cuts movement to sustain pressure on this coalition throughout this year.
If elected as your Chair I would put Young Labour at the centre of the fight against cuts, and with my experience and leadership I will ensure Young Labour is once again see as a pivotal vehicle for change, attracting both old and new activists to come and join our movement.
Christine: Right now, I’m campaigning with my union in my workplace to pay our interns the minimum wage. Internships are an issue I’m passionate about. I work in a field where internships are the norm, but I think that they’re too often elitist, as only people from wealthy families can afford to work for free. It’s not good for young workers trying to get on the career ladder, who can’t take up the same opportunities as their peers, and it’s not good for employers, who aren’t recruiting from a wide pool of people.
I think it’s really important for Young Labour members to also be members of trade unions and engaged in the wider Labour movement. Being part of a union means that your rights are protected, which is really important for young workers who are often more at risk, and it’s a way of changing things for the better at work. If elected, I’ll work closely with the trade unions on their cuts campaigns and I’ll launch a political education campaign to encourage more Young Labour members to join and get active in their unions.
Susan: The anti cuts movement, if successful, could have a profound effect on the lives of thousands of young people. Our success could prevent thousands of young people from being left on the scrapheap- unable to gain access to education or employment. In particular the campaign to Save EMA, which I have been directly working on, is vitally important in determining the life chances of thousands of young people- many of whom simply will now no longer be able to access education or a job because they have been priced out of study.
Christine: I’m really impressed by the Swedish economic model, with great public services and low comparative income inequality. While I’m not sure that people in the UK would necessarily accept significantly higher taxes in return for more comprehensive public services, I think that their progressive taxation model and the important role of unions in economic bargaining could work here.
Susan: The Socialist republic of Wales 
Ok so may not be half way across the world but whilst also thinking of those far away we also need to start to draw greater distinctions between the arguments being made by our Government and those immediately around us. Ireland can and will continue to be used to highlight the dangers of deep and fast cuts. What we must now do is continually demonstrate the need for growth which has to date been ignored by this Tory lead coalition who are simply focused on pursuit of immediate deficit reduction.
