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Conference Report: Young people and the economic crisis

Thursday, 04 February 2010 09:47

This dynamic and interactive session brought young leaders from the world of politics, the media and music together to discuss a progressive way forward for young people in the midst of the worst economic crisis for over half a century.
 
Young people in Britain have been particularly hard hit by the recession. Almost 1 million young people are currently unemployed and students continue to face record levels of debt, averaging over £20,000 upon graduation.
 
Noel Hatch, Chair of Compass Youth, chaired the session in which number of concrete progressive policies on how to assist young people in the economic crisis were discussed - which will be taken forward by Compass Youth and Progressive London in the coming months.
 
Mercury Music Award Winner Speech Debelle struck the tone of the session when she said “now is the perfect time to invest in people that have high ambitions and high goals.” 

Sam Tarry, Chair of Young Labour, echoed Speech’s call for the government to “invest in young people.” He praised the government’s “good first step” of guaranteeing all unemployed young people employment, an internship or training after 6 months. He went on to call for more government action including a minimum wage for all young people and also pledged his support for a national living wage campaign.
 
NUS Black Students’ Officer, Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, attacked the Tories’ proposal to introduce far reaching emergency cuts to public services following the General Election. She said, “avoiding the economically illiterate Thatcherite dogma of cuts is vital. We need investment not cuts – this is the only way in which economic growth can be restored and social welfare guaranteed in these difficult times of economic crisis.” Bellavia went on to call for unity amongst progressive young people, across different sectors – from students to trade unionists – and across different political parties. She said “Britain needs an alternative to savage cuts, to racism and bigotry. I am looking forward to working with everyone here today to achieve this and promote a progressive agenda for all our futures.”

Journalist Rowenna Davis spoke about the high costs that unemployment has for young people that find themselves without a job. For young people who have just finished school, college or university failure to find a job can cause long term damage to self-esteem in addition to the problem of finding employment in the future with no work experience and a weak CV. Rowenna suggested that one possible solution was for the government to introduce paid internships so that young people of all social-economic backgrounds have an opportunity to acquire work experience.  
 
Nizam Uddin, President of the University of London Union, attacked proposals to introduce multi-million pound cuts to Higher Education, which, he said, would have devastating impact and risked “bringing one of the greatest education systems in the world to its knees”. Nizam warned that the threat of education cuts, coupled with the threat of higher fees represented a serious threat to social mobility and equality in British society. Nizam call for an end to “a minimalist, ikea approach to university.”