I’ve had quite a few visitors strolling by thanks to Damien putting this blog into his fluffy links this morning, so I thought it only fair that I write something for them to gaze upon prior to clicking onwards into the internet ether.
I was at a Labour Party branch meeting in Clontarf last night, and one of the key topis under discussion was how to improve youth and women’s participation in the party. Labour Women are meeting for their Conference this coming weekend, so I’ll leave comments on women’s participation until after that – a couple of my ideas appear in one or two of the submitted motions, so it’ll be interesting to hear how they go down.
So my topic for today is improving youth participation in the party. Specifically, there are three areas I would suggest that Labour needs to improve: youth member retention, mentoring of potential youth candidates and branch structures.
Retention of youth members is an area all political parties in Ireland struggle with. All the youth wings recruit new, young members every year, but all struggle with keeping members involved once they reach an age at which they are no longer members of the youth wing. It is vital that we begin to put structures in place which can act as a safety net to members leaving the youth wing, and provide them with outlets through which they can continue their engagement with the party. I believe that people at this age (26 in the case of Labour Youth members) are interested in policy development, grassroots campaigning and the social outlet which politics often provides. Often, having spent several years involved in the formulation of Labour Youth policy, running campaigns on their behalf, and socialising with fellow members on a regular basis, members suddenly find themselves cast out in the cold, just a day after their 26th birthday! We need to establish forums within which such members can smoothly transition, to begin feeding directly into party policy formation, to begin supporting campaigns organised by the main party, and to begin engaging at branch, constituency and regional levels to maintain the social aspect to which they are often accustomed. In a few months time (next June to be exact), I will cease to be a member of Labour Youth. But I’m lucky enough to have been elected to the co-ordinating council of Labour Equality last weekend, as well as being heavily involved with the party at local, regional and national levels. There are many more members who don’t have the opportunity to become this involved before ‘graduating’ Labour Youth, and we desperately need to redress the current situation which sees us haemorrage such members.
One of the enormous advantages of having a strong youth wing such as Labour Youth, is that it provides a constant stream of new talent into the party. Within Labour Youth, there is a concerted effort to constantly engage with and involve new members. This involves mentoring new members to empower them to take on roles in organising campaigns, recruiting, developing policy, debating, dealing with the press and engaging with international organisations, as well as canvassing and leafleting for Party candidates. However, these skills and talents are often wasted when young candidates don’t receive enough support and encouragement from the party. We need to welcome young people running for positions within the party – be it a branch-level position or a position on the National Executive. We need to engage with Labour Youth members more regularly, to ensure that we are aware of the new talents emerging. We need to mentor such talents, and encourage them to contest selection conventions for Local and General Election candidates. And we need to select such candidates long before an election, to give them time to adjust to the realities of being an election candidate, and build up relationships and campaigns in their local areas. The Labour Party Youth Development Officer, in conjunction with the National Youth Executive does a fantastic job in mentoring youth members, and encouraging them to develop their political skills. It is now time for the party to embrace the youth of the party, and encourage youth members to develop into party officers and candidates.
Finally, there is a distinct need for Labour to examine our current local and regional structures. While many of our branches meet regularly, and provide a terrific outlet for youth members to hone their local political skills and knowledge, there are swathes of the country within which Labour branches are not operating regularly. The Dublin Regional Development Officer sought to rectify this situation at our last Party Conference, with the establishment of Divisional Councils, which organise all branches in a ward into one local structure. But these structures need a lot more support and development to become viable long-term solutions. In the meantime, new members are being placed into their local branch upon entry to the party – where this branch is inactive, the members are often slipping through the cracks. Similarly, with ‘graduating’ Youth members, they often suddenly find themselves without a functioning local organisation, within which they could continue their political involvement. We are probably 5 years out from the next General Election, and we urgently need to solve such structural and organisational issues in advance of that election.
A weak Fine Gael, bolstered by such organisational improvements, gained 20 seats in GE 2007. A strong Labour, with clearly articulated policies, an independent electoral strategy, a new leadership and such organisational improvements, could conceivably repeat this gain in 2012.
