Towards a new model Young Labour
As Gramsci put it “The old is dying and the new cannot be born”, the role of the Labour Party, as I see it, is to act as both undertaker and midwife; burying capitalism, and helping socialism make its way into the world. The role of the party’s youth wing in this context is that of the nursing school, ‘the university of the working class’, the place we make, teach and keep socialists. Focused not solely on electoral endeavours but extra-parliamentary campaigning, political education, cultural engagement, community and workplace organisation, whilst encouraging and helping to build the collective capacities of working and oppressed young peoples to resist capitalism and go beyond it towards a socialist alternative.
The model proposed in the document below seeks to make this a practical reality. It sets out, in broad terms, the type of organisation I believe is required to fit the needs of today. It is not prefigurative as much prescriptive, trying to address the state we are in today and what is to be done if we are give history a nudge in the right direction.
I have submitted this proposal to the Young Labour National Committee, it will be discussed at our next meeting on Tuesday 5th December, if you would like it to be adopted as the National Committee’s official proposal to Katy Clark’s Democracy Review then please contact your Young Labour representatives here. You can read more about how to get involved in the Democracy Review here.
Please share this document as widely as possible, feel free to adapt and develop the ideas enclosed. We live in interesting times my friends, but for the world to change, so must we; there is an alternative, lets build it.
