Youth Fight for Jobs open steering committee

On the back of recent important steps forward nationally, including securing support from Bectu, Unite and UCU, representatives of Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) groups came from across the country to discuss how to take the campaign forward.

Tom Bower

These national achievements have been complimented by a huge amount of regional activity such as gigs, day schools, demonstrations and campaigns on local issues.

In his opening remarks to the committee Sean Figg, YFJ national organiser, outlined the challenges ahead for young people this summer. Thousands will be moving out of education and into an overcrowded job market in the face of massive public sector cuts and attacks on support for those out of work.

Lots of excellent ideas were raised when discussing plans for the future. We talked about the need to organise college students against attacks on EMA, university places and FE funding and to deepen our links with the trade unions by setting up a YFJ trade union group. There are also several regional demonstrations planned and the possibility of further national demos was discussed.

The date of a national conference will be announced soon and some areas are thinking about organising regional conferences or meetings. Youth Fight for Jobs will rise to the challenge of organising young people to fight for their futures in the coming weeks and months.