A great deal has changed in the past year. Hope and the feeling that politics could be something for ordinary people have been replaced by despair and disillusionment. Young people are now staring into the jaws of a second financial crisis in their lifetimes, and they’re doing so amidst a deep defeat for the renewed socialist movement.

Those of us born in the final years of the last century or the first years of this one have lived the majority of our lives in economic crisis and stagnation. We have watched as our chance at implementing truly left-wing policies was eviscerated by an establishment hostile to our ideas. 

While a great deal has changed, much has remained the same. The crises that impact our lives and pushed so many young people to the Left have not gone away. Nor have the threats posed by a rising far-right. And the task of our movement, particularly of its youth section, endures: to protect the flame handed down to us, to make hope possible 

There are reasons to believe that things can change. We can look to the massive mobilisations of young people against the algorithmic injustice of this year’s exam results fiasco, or to the climate strikes and the Black Lives Matter protests. We can look to the influx of new members to trade unions, 50,000 to the NEU alone, during the first months of the Covid crisis. We can even look to last night’s incredible victory for MAS in the Bolivian elections for a reminder that great things can be achieved against seemingly impossible odds.

For the past two years, I have helped London Young Labour develop into an organisation that centres political education, radical policy, and is engaged in the trade union movement that built our party. Our youth movement must be exactly that – a movement, and a socialist one too.

We can’t return to the old days of youth and student politics being no more than a brief, technocratic stepping stone for career politicians. We need to focus on the issues that define our generation: low pay, insecure jobs, exploitative landlords, climate change, and liberation for marginalised groups. 

I have seen how the gig economy has created a race to the bottom for working conditions, and how unreliable hours and pay well below the London living wage have contributed to a crisis of mental health for young people. Trade unions are essential to combatting this, and I will work with young trade unionists to encourage our young workers to not only join their trade unions but to become active campaigning forces within them.

I will empower young workers in our movement to stand shoulder to shoulder with their siblings on the picket line, and across from the bosses at the negotiation table. I will build on the success of the previous Night Schools that London Young Labour has hosted – include those supported by Tribune – and host an industrial school, where young workers and members can learn more about the history of the trade union movement and organised labour. 

I will lead a London Young Labour that is not afraid to stand up for what is right, even if the leadership of our party are silent. I will always stand up for my trans comrades fighting for properly funded healthcare, for my disabled comrades fighting legislation that disproportionately affects them, for my black comrades fighting systemic racism.

London Young Labour must be more than a Twitter account with a few blue tick followers; it must be rooted in direct action and tangible solidarity. I have spent my time in post as LGBT+ officer working with our liberation officers, and have been proud to organise and campaign to support and celebrate the diversity of our young membership at events, social activities and demos alike.

London Young Labour is an invaluable tool for organising across the city, but we must also empower young members to organise in their own communities. If elected, I will dedicate particular attention to helping our young people set up their own borough and constituency youth groups – a process that is currently stifled by the central party and its bureaucratic processes.

We are more than just a mailing list, and we must no longer allow the central party to ignore us until they need canvassing fodder. I will push for more autonomy for our youth wing, with access to our membership data, funding, and party resources, so that the wealth of talent in our ranks is able to flourish.  

We need to campaign against this Tory government, and keep London red in 2022 – to ensure the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis is not shouldered by the working class communities of this city or this country. But any future Labour administration must be radical, and prepared to build on the policy platform of 2017 and 2019. As Chair, I will defend those ideas, and push for us to go further. 

As Raymond Williams maintained, “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.” It is time to renew the fight for socialism in Labour, so we can rekindle that hope and build a London worth living in.

Ballots drop today – if you’re a young Labour member in London, I hope to be able to count on your vote. But across the country, it’s time to get behind the For a Socialist Future slate to transform our youth wing into a socialist, liberated, autonomous organisation.