23.05.1996

SLP youth get organised

Youth in the SLP began meeting at the founding conference and from there planned regular meetings to discuss their work. A Youth Charter has already been produced which we reprint below. It was included in the policy documents submitted to the conference but fell off the agenda. In the conference debate on immigration controls Tony Savas, who submitted the Youth Charter, pointed out that it called for an ‘end to all immigration controls’ and ‘no platform for fascists’.

The amendment in the Anti-Racism policy document calling for the abolition of all immigration controls was defeated at the conference. However, as we reported in Weekly Worker (May 9), the debate around the amendment saw the conference split into revolutionary internationalists and reformists or national socialists.

The Youth Charter is certainly one of the more revolutionary internationalist documents submitted to the conference. It is at the moment being debated and those who attended the meeting at the conference are keen to forge ahead with organisation and debate.

Originally the charter called for the decriminalisation of all hard and soft drugs, but this section was apparently toned down on Arthur Scargill's objection to it.

Lee-Anne Bates

Youth

The Socialist Labour Party is an independent party fighting for the overthrow of capitalism, to achieve a better world through international socialism. Parliament is a corrupt talking shop. The SLP is standing candidates to raise the issues and fight for socialism - the real power to be won however is in the workplace and on the streets. We recognise that without the participation of youth there can be no socialism.

SLP Youth Charter for Britain:

• The creation of a well financed national youth centre network.
• Training on demand and real apprenticeship schemes. An end to phoney, unpaid and under-resourced training schemes.
• Pay for equal work: an end to all wage differentials.
• Unemployment benefit to be the equivalent of the minimum wage for all. The restoration of unemployment benefit for all 16 and 17-year olds, and housing benefit for all those in need.
• A reduction in the working week to 35 hours maximum with no loss of earnings, to create more jobs for youth.
• Access to further education for all by offering grants equivalent to the minimum wage. The restoration of benefits for students during vacation.
• Voting rights at 16.
• An end to police abuse of human rights and civil liberties, including through stop-and-search laws which are supported by the criminalisation of all drugs. In dealing with the problems of drug abuse, emphasis should be put on education and not punishment, and improved rehabilitation facilities should be provided [This whole section originally read: The decriminalisation of all hard and soft drugs for personal users and an end to police stop and search laws].
• Free abortion on demand.
• Comprehensive sex education in schools, with contraceptive advice and access without cost. Contraception should be available to all, including at centres for young people.
• The equalisation of the age of consent.
• No platform for the fascists, and community and trade union resistance to them. The fascists and the racists can also be ideologically beaten by never allowing the working class to forget that it was black and white that built the trade unions, black and white that built the NHS, and black and white that suffer from the divisions caused by fascism and racism.
• An end to all immigration controls. (If capital can be moved freely around the world then it is only logical that people should also have freedom of movement, whether they are fleeing oppressive regimes or are seeking a better life. It is capitalism, and mainly western capitalism, which has created an economically uneven world. The rich can travel where they like, and the poor are kept out. Immigration controls caused the death of Joy Gardner. Trade unions should refuse to cooperate with or implement the Asylum Act.)
• The repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act which is often used against innocent Irish youth and others. The disbanding of the violent police Tactical Support Group, and the axing of Special Branch and MI5. Investigations into alleged police wrongdoing must be carried out by community groups and trade unions - no one was brought to justice following the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, or Tottenham Three.
• The repeal of the Criminal Justice Act and for the right to party without police harassment.
• An end to war. It is working class youth who are sent to fight, and they should have every right to refuse. An end to the arms trade and the conversion of arms factories to produce socially useful goods. Current members of the armed forces should have the right to form or join a trade union.