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The latest attempt
to criminalise young people by "framing and shaming" them and
"filming and repeatedly stopping identified persistent offenders on
problem estates" owes more to the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
than it does to evidence based practice. But what are the real reasons that "Youth Disorder" takes
place and what works?
Recently,
The University College London Students’ Union (UCLU) voted to ban The Officer
Training Corps (OTC) from recruiting at union organized events like Freshers'
Fair. The ban has caused quite a stir on and off
campus, making the front cover of the ‘Evening Standard’ with the banner
headline, "Students Ban Military". Speaking
about those in opposition to the motion, UCLU General Secretary, Samantha
Godwin, said: “they know that if replicated
elsewhere, it would become a really effective method of protesting against the
war."
On Saturday the 29th of March the Socialist Youth Network
(SYN) held its 3rd annual conference at the ULU building near
Euston. The Socialist Youth Network is the youth wing of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), the left wing of the Labour Party led by John McDonnell. Youth comrades from Socialist Appeal attended the meeting reported here.
School students, Ewan Gibbs and Nathan Morrison, give their views on the latest proposals on British citizenship. In this report issued by Lord
Goldsmith it states that school-leavers should take an oath of allegiance to ‘Queen
and Country’ and suggests that schools should hold citizenship ceremonies for
leavers. These proposals were made by a big business Labour government desperate to cover the glaring cracks in our public
services, below inflation pay rises, the imperialist military adventures in
Iraq and Afghanistan and the Northern Rock farce by resorting to flag
waving.
On Thursday, 6th
March, supporters of Hands Off Venezuela at the University of East Anglia had an emergency resolution to the National Union of Students passed calling for
affiliation to the HOV campaign. This motion will be sent to
NUS conference on April 1st-3rd, opening the prospect of
the whole of the NUS (which comprises something like 4
million students) affiliating to HOV. This will give the campaign a massive
boost in the UK and in Venezuela.
On February 23 three comrades of the
International Marxist Tendency attended the Republican Socialist Youth
Movement’s (RSYM) winter day school in Belfast. Jim Daly, Sean McGowan and
Bernadette McAliskey spoke on various aspects on the question of Republicanism
and Socialism and the role of the working class. Francesco Merli spoke on
Venezuela. There was keen interest in the ideas of Marxism and the school bodes
well for the development of the RSYM.
Alan Woods was invited to speak at Eton, the
most prestigious private school in Britain (known as a “public” school in
English), by the school’s Orwell Society. Alan gave a very clear explanation of
why society needs to be changed and why the only direction in can go in is
socialism. We believe the points raised and the answers given provide a very
good outline of what Marxism stands for today.
The management at the University of Sussex in Brighton is attempting
to restructure the entire academic institution to make it fit for ‘the market’. The proposed ‘reforms’, which would change
the entire culture and tradition of the university, are part of a broader
process that is currently taking place in higher education in Britain and
around the world: the marketisation and privatization of education.
On Tuesday 5th February the Manchester Hands of
Venezuela held a successful meeting with over 60 people attending. The meeting
was held jointly with the Green Party of Manchester to raise awareness of Venezuela,
discuss the revolutionary situation and look at changes and developments in the
country and more widely in South America as a whole.
This is a letter submitted to the US section of the 
Since 1979 UK child
poverty has doubled. In 2006, 3.8 million children were living in poverty in
homes on less than 60% of average income. Although this is a fall of about
600,000 since 1998, this still leaves 500,000 children above the Government's
own target. This is not the whole picture either - poverty in the whole
population is increasing.
