International Socialist Resistance

Fight for a political voice for young people!

Blair has claimed that young people are apathetic towards politics.
He claims this in the face of more and more young people participating
in demonstrations and campaigns; in the face of school students booing
him during his general election campaign; in the face of over 75% of
young people taking part in civic and political activities outside
school. The truth is that young people are apathetic towards him, his
party and the other parties of big business.

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, ISR national co-ordinator

Alex Folkes, campaign director of Vote at 16, said political parties
needed to take a more coherent approach to getting young people involved
in politics – and that included giving them the right to vote.
International Socialist Resistance (ISR) believes that young people who
can join the army, get married and work should certainly be allowed to
vote but the main question is who is there for young people to vote for?

As the local elections appear on the horizon, the main parties try to
show their concern for the low youth vote. The Liberal Democrats support
the votes at 16 campaign. New Labour show concern that young people are
not engaged. The Tories claim they want to listen to young people more.

But all three continue to implement and propose the same policies of
cuts and privatisation, all three represent and do the bidding of the
fat cats and all three have no interest in representing working class
people – young or otherwise.

There are plenty of issues that we are angry about and are
campaigning on. While billions are spent on the war we are told that
there is not enough money to publicly fund education. While companies
declare obscene profits and company directors award themselves billions
of pounds in salaries we are told that £3 an hour is a fair minimum
wage.

Not only will we have massive student debts to pay back but we are
told that we will have to save more and pay more towards our pensions.
We are told we will have to work longer before we can retire and yet
there is no shortage of money in society.

Blair makes promises on tackling poverty in Africa and continues to
spend taxpayers’ money on promoting privatisation in the poorest
countries. We see what privatisation has done so far – MRSA in the
hospitals, deaths on the railways and we are promised even more!

We are told that fossil fuels are running out and that the
environment is under attack and yet Blair seems to be pinning our future
to nuclear power despite all the dangers associated with that. How can
we trust a PM and ministers who have lied about war, about their
financial interests and about the introduction of top-up fees to put
safety first?

We want a party that will represent us and fight for our future. We
want a party that is clearly democratic, where we can have a say as
socialists and as young people. We therefore support the Socialist
Party’s initiative to launch a campaign for a new mass workers’ party.
At our 2002 conference we resolved to fight for a new party that will be
a genuine political alternative and which will:

• Offer a radical voice for workers and young people, a genuine
  socialist alternative to the profit-driven policies of all the
  mainstream parties.
• Stand against war and imperialism, and support the international
  solidarity of oppressed peoples.
• Guarantee decent pay and rights at work for all workers.
• Abolish tuition fees and guarantee all students a living grant to
  support them through their education.
• Fight against discrimination on the basis of race, disability, gender
  or sexuality.
• Be funded by, and run in the interests of, the masses not the
  millionaires.

We believe that the Socialist Party’s initiative is our best chance
to achieve this. Fight for your future! Fight for a political voice for
young people! Fight for socialism!