Labour Youth Officer Reports 2009

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Labour Youth Conference 2009

Officer Reports



Chairperson’s Report

Dear Friends and Comrades,

As this is my final report, I want to begin by stating what a privilege it has been toserve on the National Youth Executive and to work and serve with so manydedicated and committed activists from the length and breadth of this country. Iwould in particular like to pay thanks to our Youth Officer Neil Ward and hispredecessor Cian O’Callaghan, both of whom have been incredibly supportive to mein my role as Chair of Labour Youth. I would also like to thank individually eachmember of the NYE, Brian O’Connor for his sterling work as Vice-Chair andCampaigns, Colm Lawless for his incredible work as National Secretary, RoryGeraghty for his excellent work as Recruitment Officer, a year in which weDOUBLED our membership, Jane Horgan-Jones our Education and Policy officer for organizing the TJ Summer School and also her work on several campaigns, KarenO’Connell our Equality Officer for her excellent work and success as our Equalityofficer and on her election to the Party’s Executive Board, Hazel Nolan our international officer who did an excellent job of representing us on an internationallevel,finally I would like to thank Keith O’Brien for his work as Comm’s officer butspecifically for the Left Tribune which was in my opinion possibly one of the best thathas ever been produced. I would also like to thank the entire team in Head Office,specifically Angie and Jackie, Cathy Flanagan and the General Secretary Ita McAuliffe who have always been of assistance to me and the entire NYE.I would also like at this stage to address some general items. At times this year hasbeen challenging, but ultimately it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. Below I will attempt to outline in a chronological order some of the activities thatwe have been involved with this year.

Finally I would like to wish everyone running for election the very best of luck, butspecifically Rory Geraghty and James Humphries, who are in my opinion twoimmensely qualified candidates for Chairperson. Also I would like to especiallythank the membership of Labour Youth who provide the lifeblood of our movement.

In Solidarity,Gary Honer Chairperson

Party Conference Kilkenny:Party Conference 2008 took place in the Hotel Kilkenny and was a massive success,

not just for the Labour Party, but especially for us in Labour Youth. Our Gilmore For Taoiseach Posters and badges were a major success and went down very well withthe membership of the party and the party leader himself. Thanks and Praise mustgo to Enda Duffy and Andrew Payne for their Sterling work in this regard.

Our fringe meeting entitled “Expanding Labour-Expanding the Economy” was a major success, with standing room only at the event’s location. Thanks must go to KarenO’Connell for chairing the meeting and to Michael Taft for proposing what is probablyone of the most important pieces of economic analysis of the current situation.UNITE the Union must also be thanked for providing refreshments after the meeting.

Subway/Natalia Szymanka Solidarity Campaign:Labour Youth organized a picket of Subway to highlight the chains horrendousattitude to one of their employee’s in Belfast Natalia Szymanka who was sacked on



very suspect grounds, ultimately because she was pregnant. Thanks must be paid toBrian O’Connor and Cian O’Callaghan for their work on this campaign. Gaza:Over the Christmas period Israeli forces launched an over the top and grotesqueattack on the people of Palestine, Killing hundreds of innocents.

Labour Youth subsequently called for the Israeli Labor Party to be suspended fromthe Socialist International and held a protest outside the Dail in this regard.As the days progressed though, the attacks grew worse and in response to this,Labour Youth initiated the Boycott 729 campaign, calling for a boycott on all Israeligoods.We also held a very successful public meeting on the current crisis in Gaza, whichincluded a wide array of speakers and audience participation. Young CandidatesDermot Looney and Maria Parodi spoke at the event, with Maria in the chair. Inattendance also were Joe Costello TD and a representative from the IPSC. PadraigLamb of the TCD branch also gave an overview of the situation in Gaza and theLabour Youth delegation which went there.We must insure that the continued attacks on the people of Gaza and Palestine arestopped and that a peaceful resolution is found to the current crisis.

Youth Wings Debate:Our National Secretary Colm Lawless organized a very successful debate with theother Youth Wings in the Temple Bar Hotel in early February, it was a great successfor us and was also an opportunity for us to have meaningful dialogue with other Youth Political groups.

21 st Century Commission Report:As most of you are now aware the recommendations from the 21st Centurycommission have all been put in place. Labour Youth was opposed to this report andvoted against it at conference.

Meeting with the Party Leader:A delegation from the NYE met with the party leader Eamon Gilmore and his Chief of Staff Mark Garret. The main focus of this meeting where the implications of theimplementation of the 21st century commission report, we emphasized at this meetingthe importance of Youth Representation at a senior level within the party and how wewould argue for a seat on the Executive Board.

Party Conference Mullingar:The main focus of debate at party conference in Mullingar was the around the 21st

Century Commission report, while we didn’t win the day on this we did have other success’s at this conference, specifically the election of Karen O’Connell to theExecutive Board and the raising of significant sums of money for the YoungCandidates Fund. Labour Youth held a very successful Public Meeting, with standingroom only, on the economy with Vic Duggan and Paul Sweeney speaking at thisevent.

Local Elections:The Local elections were a huge success for Labour Youth with several candidates

being elected. Labour Youth members from all over the country campaigned withseveral comrades, some who we’re successful and others who we’re not. On apersonal level I campaigned for Cllr’s Dermot Looney, Patrick Nulty and Cian



O’Callaghan who were all successfully elected.

Young Candiates Fund:Related to the above was the establishment of the Young Candidates Fund. It wasdecided two years to introduce this Fund to assist candidates who we’re running for thr first time and who we’re also members of Labour Youth in a practical way. This

fund proved to be immensely successful and I would encourage as many people aspossible to sign up for a standing order to it.

Youth Unemployment Protest:We organized a very successful protest to highlight the governments woefullyinadequate attitude to the Job’s crisis, specifically the hardship’s faced by peopleunder the age of 25. This event was well attended and garnered much support for us.

Tom Johnson Summer School:This year’s summer school was held in the Menlo Park hotel in Galway, for many ithas almost become the “Tom Johnson Summer School – Galway”. Overall this eventwas a massive success, we nearly 200 people attending. Particular thanks must goto Jane Horgan-Jones for her work in organizing this event.

Education Protest:Labour Youth organized a very successful protest to highlight the shocking state of our education system. This protest was a huge success for Labour Youth. It wascovered in most of the main newspapers, Radio Stations and even on TV3. I wouldlike to thank the members who came from far and wide to attend this demo.

Sack the Government Campaign:The Education protest and the Job’s protest both had the dual message of Sack theGovernment, I hope that this is a theme that will continue.

Recruitment:This year’s recruitment campaign was possibly the most successful in the history of Labour Youth. I would like to thank all the members of the NYE for their hard work onthis year’s campaign, but specifically Rory Geraghty and Neil Ward, but alsoChristina Mc Sorley and Colm Porter. Also it goes without saying that individualmembers in branches throughout the country deserve most praise for ensuring thatour movement continues to flourish.



Tuairisc Rúnaí NáisiúntaReport of National Secretary

A chairde,

I would like to thank you for electing me to this position in Limerick last year. It hasbeen a privilege to serve Labour Youth at an executive level and I am eternallygrateful for the opportunity to do just that. Over the course of the last year, Labour Youth has made strides in areas that we were previously weak in. Since lastNovember I have contributed to several aspects of the national organisation

Preparing a Budget and FundraisingI prepared a budget at the beginning of December, which was presented to theNational Meeting. I carefully constructed it to ensure that Recruitment andCampaigns do not suffer at the expense of the economic crisis. We were able toraise a significant sum of money at both Labour Party Conferences, credit of which is

due to all of those who helped out with the raffle. Youth Wing DebateIn the initial stages of my term I organised the Youth Wing debate which took place inthe Temple Bar Hotel in February. This event was attended by the Young Greens,SDLP Youth, Socialist Youth and of course Labour Youth. The debate took severalmonths to organise in terms of arranging the youth wings to attend. I believe that itwas a productive venture which allowed us to demonstrate our policies, which clearlyoutshone those of the other youth wings

May Day Labour March, Belfast

I attended the May Day Labour March in Belfast and met members of the trade unionmovement and some SDLP activists. There was a significant attendance and theevent as a whole was a success.

Tallaght Central Election CampaignI campaigned vigorously for Cllr Dermot Looney to win a seat in Tallaght Central. Our success was a huge achievement for young candidates across the country againsthuge odds. Many Labour Youth members pitched in to help Dermot win a seat, whichis a classic example of the camaraderie that exists within our organisation .Therewas a visible youth presence on the ground, having over 20 canvassers on oneevening. The like of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had a diminished effect on our corevote thanks to the new energy that we pumped into the campaign. Dermot, a former Comms Officer for Labour Youth, is one of the most able councillors that we have atthe present time and has been greatly appreciative of our help during his localelection campaign.

Thomas Cook Workers' StrikeI participated in demonstrations against the imprisonment of Thomas Cook Workersover the summer. They staged a sit-in in their offices in Dublin to protest against thescandalous practices of Thomas Cook, who closed a profitable business in Irelandand gave its hard-working employees a miserly 2 weeks redundancy pay. The actionescalated and we found ourselves outside the High Court on a summer afternoon todemand the release of the workers who were wrongly imprisoned for demanding abetter redundancy package. Many Labour Youth members, including Gary Honer andCiarán Rose were present during the demos.



Falun-Gong ProtestJane Horgan-Jones organised a demo with the Falun-Gong practitioners where wedistributed leaflets calling for an abandonment of plans to twin Beijing with Dublin, onthe grounds of human rights abuses. We delivered a letter to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Emer Costello to highlight our opposition to the twinning.

Health and EducationI was involved in several demonstrations regarding the cuts to education and health,from March right through to September. I also engaged in the Labour Youth "Days of Action", which climaxed outside the Department of Enterprise, Trade andEmployment. We achieved significant media coverage and had a fantastic presence.

Meeting with Carmel Hanna MLAIn August, Brian O'Connor and I travelled to Belfast to meet with Carmel Hanna MLA.We had discussions about the direction of the SDLP. I was quite sceptical about thedirection of the movement and required clarification on the make-up of theorganisation in terms of Labour-leaning activists. Our investigation concluded that theSDLP has a minority of Labour-leaning activists, particularly in SDLP Youth. Thereare a significant number of conservatives within the movement. An article on our findings will be published in the next Left Tribune.

SDLP Youth Conference 2009I attended the SDLP Youth Conference in Belfast at the beginning of September as afraternal delegate with Labour Youth. I was joined by Brian O'Connor – Vice-Chair,Hazel Nolan – International Officer and Colm Maguire. I gained an interestingperspective this time around. It appears that while the SDLP membership isdwindling, there is a component of left-wing activists in the group willing to work withLabour Youth. The NYE will be holding a meeting with their new executive in the near future. ConclusionI believe that the role of National Secretary is very versatile and allows for a largeinput into the affairs of Labour Youth. I hope that my time in that position has led togrowth within the organisation and I look forward to meeting the new NYE. Go n-éirían bothar leat to the next National Secretary and I wish him/her all the best in their endeavours.

Colm LawlessRúnaí Náisiúnta Ógra an Lucht Oibre



Vice Chair and Campaigns Officer Report

Friends,

We have seen in the past year has some in the Irish political landscape due in nosmall part to the inarticulate and bumbling leadership of the present Government.When faced with the most serious recession in living memory, Brian Cowen and hisCabinet have delayed in producing an answer to the very pressing holes in publicfinances and the economy as a whole. We have all suffered as a result. The Labour Party and Labour Youth have been leading the fight for a fair deal for all. We haveshown there is a real alternative in Irish politics. Labour and our Leader EammonGilmore have proposed dynamic solutions that avoid the instinctive inequity of builder bail outs and bankers’ socialism. Labour Youth has campaigned in a diverse portfolioof problems: education funding/3rd level fees, the Palestinian/Gaza occupation,workers’ rights and elections. I hope that I have made a small contribution to our campaigning tradition.

I wish to thank all of the National Youth Executive for being a such great bunch towork with throughout the year: Colm Lawless for always being level headed andreliable, Rory Geraghty for his inspirational recruitment efforts and support, HazelNolan for her advice and never being afraid to speak frankly, Karen O’Connell for her insight and perspective, Keith O’Brien for designing a very juicy Left Tribune as wellas much of our other literature, Jane Horgan-Jones for putting together this year’sfantastic Tom Johnson summer school and finally our esteemed Chair ,Gary ‘theSilver Fox’ Honer, who’s dedication to the organisation throughout the year wasbeyond question. I learnt a lot from working with each of you and it will be hard tomatch the experiences we shared.

A BIG thank you to: Cian, Neil, Cathy, Angie and Jackie in Head Office who do thework behind the scenes. Thanks also to Party Interns Colm and Christina who helpedmake this year such a success. I am particularly grateful to Cathal McCann and DanO’Neill and anyone who has attended a Campaigns Working Group. This is wherethe synthesis and creativity for campaigning happens. We had the benefit of somevery seasoned members this year who were able to advise and share wisdom. A bigdebt is owed to branch chairs and regional organisers who run things on the ground.To anyone else who has been active in the smallest way over the last year: Thanks!

I am sure whoever takes over this role will have as much fun and enjoyment as I did.

This year has been very challenging and at times difficult but it I would withouthesitation repeat it.

¡No pasarán!

Brian O’Connor Vice Chair and Campaigns Officer 2008-9Labour YouthE: [email protected]: 086-1579058



o Sacking of Natalia Szymancka/SubwayNatalia Szymancka was dismissed from her job as a supervisor in the Lisburn Road,Belfast outlet for an alleged disciplinary breach after informing her manager that shewas several months pregnant. In conjunction with the Belfast Trade Unions Council,we organised a national campaign to highlight her treatment during December andJanuary. In Dublin, Galway and Cork, Labour Youth picketed outlets and distributedleaflets. This campaign was inconclusive due to an ongoing legal case in Belfastbetween the Subway licensee and the BTUC. I press released on this but did notreceive any interest.

o Education Cutbacks/3 rd Level FeesThis was an overarching theme throughout the year of real concern to students. TheUnion of Students in Ireland (USI) organised several mass marches. Labour Youthhad a presence on most of these with the banner being featured in newspaper photos. My attempt to establish a roundtable discussion between the executives of various anti- fee groups (Labour Youth, USI, Sinn Fein, etc) for concerted action didnot proceed further than informal discussion.

Free Education for All (FEE) featured prominently during this campaign with highprofile direct actions most notably in blockading Eammon Ó Cuiv in NUIG (9/12/08)and also occupying the constituency offices of Eammon Ó Cuiv and Paul Gogartyand the office of the UCC President. During one of these occupations there wassubstantial damage caused by unknown parties which was investigated by the gardaíand is now being pursued. Such actions stirred internal debate within Labour Youthand most members have seem to have since distanced themselves from FEE.

I organised a ‘’Government Scorecard’’ protest on 17-8-09 comparing Labour’srecord with that of the current Government on education. This received a large dealof media interest thanks to Gary Honer’s efforts.

We were fortunate that there are many similarly- minded organisations such as USIand SUs who have campaigned tirelessly against the Government on these issues.

o Palestinian OccupationIn response to the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian territory, there were a number of demonstrations organised in Dublin and elsewhere. I organised a Labour Youthpresence at those in Dublin as a show of solidarity. Labour Youth’s own effortsfocused on ‘’Boycott 729’’ with the leaflet and logo designed by Dan O’Neill. This was

adopted by other interested organisations. On 13-1-09 Labour Youth organised asurprise protest outside the Merrion Square entrance to Leinster House to ambushthe Israeli Ambassador attending the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee. TheIsraeli government had rejected any notions of a ceasefire (notable ahead of anelection.) The most pressing concern of Labour Youth was the blatant defiance of international opinion and the effects on civilians trapped in the conflict zone. We weresupported by Joe Costello TD who sat on the committee. I press released on theprotest and also the bombings in general and attracted a modicum of media interest.

o LisbonIn conjunction with Cathal McCann, a leaflet was produced favouring a Yes vote,based mainly on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This was withdrawn due toconcerns from the referendum committee over the wording of one section. A BBQ theLies media stunt was also planned but was called off for reasons of practicality.



o Local electionsThe local elections were truly the highlight of this year. Dermot Looney’s campaign inparticular saw unprecedented numbers of young people actively taking part in anelection campaign. During May, I was full time involved in campaigning. I organisedseveral canvasses for Dermot, Cian O’Callaghan and Patrick Nulty and also drovemany canvassers around.

Everyone who was active found the elections to be very rewarding whether knockingon doors, stuffing envelopes, pounding the pavement or standing on dodgy laddersat 3 in the morning! What made this election unique was the high visibility of youngpeople in campaigning.

Labour Youth also supported young first time candidates through the YoungCandidates’ fund which distributed grants to 15 Party candidates under 30 years old.This enjoyed an almost 100% success rate as 14 out of 15 beneficiaries wereelected. Grants ranged from €100 to €3000.

Congratulations to all candidates who were elected!

o Campaigns Working GroupsI held meetings on 3-12-08, 6-3-09, 9-5-09, 25-5-09, 25-9-09 and 31-10-09. Themeeting of 31-10-09 discussed:

1. The proposed Rent Deposit campaign calling on the government to establishan independent tenancy deposit holding service to safeguard tenants’ rights.

The plan of action is to:1. Publish a letter to John Gormley that all young tenants can sign and send

to him en masse.2. Design and distribute a leaflet directly through students’ unions (and other

relevant organisations) on this.3. Set up a facebook campaign.

2. The ongoing dispute at Boots Chemists over worker agreements and tradeunion recognition.

The plan of action is to:1. Liaise with John Douglas of Mandate and offer support.

2. Organise a picket.3. Design and distribute a leaflet to the public at pickets.

3. The ICTU Day of Action 6-11-09The plan of action is to:

1. Mobilise all available members through mass phone calling and texting for a large turnout with banners.

In addition to the normal duties of my role:1. I attended the ‘Young European Dream’ conference in February in Brussels,

hosted by PES.2. I have been in informal contacts with the SDLP and researching variousaspects of their current status with Colm Lawless.3. I acted as advocate for greater youth representation on the Executive Board in



the new Party Constitution by meeting with youth branches and EammonGilmore with Karen O’Connell and Gary Honer prior to Party Conference.

4. I helped fundraise for the Young Candidates’ Fund.5. Canvassed for Alex White in the Dublin South By-Election.



Recruitment Officer Report

Friends

I would like to thank you all for making this year a thoroughly enjoyable year. I haveloved serving on the National Youth Executive and organising the NationalRecruitment Campaign. I never thought our organisaiton could grow so much in oneyear but to double our membership was nothing short of a fantastic achievement. Ihope that we can continue to build on these numbers in the future, growing our organisation.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me along the way there are so manypeople I’m afraid I’ll leave someone out. Firstly I’d like to thank my colleagues on theNational Youth Executive who’ve been fantastic to work with over the last year: KeithO’Brien for designing the leaflets and allowing me to submit my irate anti NAMA rantinto the Left Tribune, Hazel Nolan for bringing a delegation of us to Brussels for avery odd Ecosy Congress, Jane Horgan – Jones for organising a wonderful Summer School, Colm Lawless for always being available to critique my work, Brian O’Connor for being an excellent Vice – Chair, Karen O’Connell for putting up with me on theLeaders Tour and Finally Gary Honer for being a pleasure to work with.

I’d also like to thank the various branch chairs and Youth Organisers for their workand to thank Neil, Colm and Christina for the support they offered during theRecruitment Drive from Head Office. I’d especially like to thank Cathal McCann for being a complete legend, for helping with the Review Group’s report and designingthe recruitment posters. Finally I’d like to thank those who got involved in the WorkingGroup and for offering solid advice in helping run the recruitment campaign and

everyone who helped us recruit members in the various colleges across the country.I hope whoever takes over enjoys the role as much as I did. It is hard work and attimes the stress is too much to handle but it’s worth it in the end.

In solidarity

Rory Geraghty

National Recruitment Campaign: I organised all of the Recruitment materials and wrote the text for the new leaflet in

addition to organising branded bottle openers. I'd like to thank Cathal McCann andKeith O'Brien for designing the posters and leaflet respectfully. There has been avery positive response to the materials and I believe that the new refreshed look of the content and design of the material have been vital in helping us increase our membership levels to the level that we have.I visited UL during their Soc's Recruitment Evening and we finished there with 51members. This is a completely new branch and was a fantastic result for us. I'd liketo thank Abby Ryan for her commitment to our organisation and for setting upthis new branch, along with all the others involved. In particular a thank you shouldbe paid to the local organisation and their help in getting this branch up and running.Following that, I spent the week in my own university (UCD) were we broke our records for recruitment in the first day and finished with 180 members to the Labour Society. Personally I'd like to thank Aideen Carbury and everyone else involved for their dedication in running a fantastic campaign. This included a leaflet drop of the



UCD residences and I firmly believe that this was worthwhile and paid off in terms of recruitmentI also visited Trinity during their Freshers' weekFinally, I have contacted all college chair people and will be doing so again to makesure that the recruitment levels can be capitalised on with active membership. I havealways said that recruitment has two stages, one getting people to sign up and two

getting people involved and active. With the success of our campaign it is vital toincrease our active membership too.

Recruitment Review Group:The Recruitment Review group was established in July, at the then national meeting.As recruitment officer I was asked to chair this group. We have proposed a series of constitutional amendments to conference coming from our findings during theresearch we conducted over the last three months and I would ask all members tosupport the changes. These include some re organisation of the National YouthExecutive and a proposal to raise the age limit to 27. We also brought forward amotion about regional restructuring but unfortunately this was struck down bystanding orders. Following their advice I hope to bring this issue up at the firstNational Meeting of the year so we can establish regional points of contact on theground for Labour Youth, in areas outside of Dublin.

Recruitment Working Group:I held my first Recruitment Working Group on the 18th of June. The meeting was mostproductive and the outcome of the meeting saw the following decided:

1)We decided on a getting one large generic poster designed and printed with fivephotos on the top of prominent Labour figures, past and present. underneath whichthere will be text explaining what Labour has done in government. Cathal McCannhas agreed to design some prototypes and bring them back to the next workinggroup meeting. In addition to this we are going to print up some smaller issue basedposters closer to the time to be used on campuses.

2)We agreed to write a Labour Youth Members Handbook:Sections to include:1)Achievements of Labour Youth (Written by Aideen Carberry)2)Politics of Labour Youth (Written by Mike Spring)3)Labour Youth and International Politics (Written by Neal Warner)4)History of Labour Youth (Written Conor Ryan)

5)Labour Youth's New Young Candidates (Written Rory Geraghty)6)Labour Youth's Structure (Written Rory Geraghty)(The text of this booklet is still to be edited and designed for print and I hope to handover these materials to the next Recruitment Officer. Due to funding we didn’t pursuethis to be published but it is almost ready for production should the next executivewish to go ahead with it)

I held a second Working Group Meeting on the 16th of July where the text for the newrecruitment leaflet was finalised. The working group was also presented with a seriesof posters designed by Cathal McCann. All Recruitment material was presented tothe national meeting in August for final approval before it was printed and distributed

for the campaign in September. We changed some of the orginal ideas for thematerial but overall it was felt that the designs we did choose were the best for recruiting new members.



New Members’ Evening:I organised a New Members’ Evening for Saturday the 10th of October. The eventwas well attended with a lot of new members from across the country coming along.There were speeches on the night from Cllr Cian O’Callaghan, Party Leader EamonGilmore, Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Emer Costello, Gary Honer and Hazel Nolan. Iwould strongly recommend that this event becomes an annual occurrence given its

success.Pre Senior Party Conference Work:I attempted to contact all youth delegates to party conference whom I had notpreviously met. Although I actually only managed to speak with a small number of people on the list (a lot of people didn't answer their phones), I felt that it wasimportant to attempt to engage people who are already involved with the party butnot with Labour Youth. Recruitment wise I feel we need to encourage young peopleinvolved in their branches to get involved with LY and help us break the stereotypethat we are just a clique.

NEC Elections:After the previous National Meeting, held in Dublin on February 28th, It was decidedthat Labour Youth would be helping and endorsing both Karen O'Connell and EndaDuffy for the National Executive Committee elections. At the subsequent NationalYouth Executive meeting I was asked to act as a co-ordinator between bothcandidates and Labour Youth to help both get elected. This lead to me havingseveral meetings with both candidates and working out an electoral strategy withthem. In addition to this, I also contacted some of the LY branch chairs and activiststo get them involved in the campaign. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Enda had towithdraw from the race, however, we were successful in getting Karen elected and Iam delighted to see a member of Labour Youth be directly elected onto the highestcommittee of the party.

Local Election Contributions:I organised several canvasses for young candidates including one for CianO'Callaghan on the 23 rd of May and one for Patrick Nulty in late April. Both were wellattended and I am delighted to announce that both candidates were elected. Inaddition to this I attended a canvass, on behalf of Labour Youth, for former Chairperson Rebecca Moynihan. Finally I was also involved in getting Labour Youthmembers out to campaign for Dermot Looney, former Communications Officer of theorganisation for his campaign in the Tallaght Central ward, I am also glad to say that

he was elected too.Tom Johnson:I helped in organising the summer school, contacting people about attending andchairing the session on Saturday morning. I also acted as the NYE rep in the hostelmaking sure everyone was up on time for the events.

In addition to my duties in Recruitment:

1) Attended a meeting with Lord Mayor of Dublin about Labour Youths oppositionto the twinning of Dublin with Bejiang2) Attended Ecosy Congress in Brussels last April



3) Helped organise the Education demo in August4) Contributed to the Left Tribune5) Helped fundraise for the Young Candidates Fund6) Featured on LmFm in a debate against YFG over Child Benefit7) Participated in the Party Leader’s Tour



Education and Policy Officer Report

Dear Conference,

We are coming to the end of what has been a very successful year for Labour Youth.Firstly, I would like to thank all the other members of the NYE, and also the two

Youth Officers over the past year (Neil Ward and Cian O’Callaghan) for all their helpand support over the year. On a personal level, I think that while the year was a greatsuccess, there was some blurring of roles which meant that different officers endedup spending time jumping between briefs and while this did ensure that certain thingsgot off the ground that perhaps otherwise wouldn’t have, it meant there wasn’tenough time left for other things. I was also hampered by being much more busy withcollege and seemingly endless exams than I had anticipated being, so much credit isdue to the other members of the NYE for picking up the slack where needed.In this report I have tried to give a run down of the various things I was involved inover the year, together with some thoughts for possible future improvements in eachof the areas. I hope you all have a great conference and look forward to meeting youpersonally over the course of the weekend, particularly if you are one of the manynew members we are delighted to welcome to their first Labour Youth Conference.

Jane

1. Tom Johnson Summer School

This took place in July and, as ever, was a huge logistical project with manyspeakers joining us from all over the country. This took up a huge amount of my timefrom Christmas to July. The weekend was a fantastic success and the level of participation and debate was very high. We had some very high profile internationalspeakers and did a lot of very productive fundraising over the weekend as well. Nextyear, it may be an idea to move the Summer School out of Galway – while it hasworked there for the past few years it is in danger of becoming a little stagnant andcould benefit from being moved around as long as it’s somewhere with goodtransport connections and a youth hostel. The Tom Johnson Summer School is agreat way to get to know other members of the party and I’d strongly encourageanyone who is attending their first conference to consider coming down nextsummer.

2. Campaigns• I was heavily involved in planning and organising a number of campaigns

during the year along with the rest of the NYE and Brian the CampaignsOfficer. The first public protest of the year was the Youth UnemploymentProtest. This involved a lot of ringing around and planning to ensure that wegot a decent crowd. The turnout was great and the media coverage was evenbetter and I think this protest really set the scene for a number of similarlysuccessful events for the rest of the year.

• I organised a LY presence at the Falun Gong demonstration over the summer to highlight our opposition to the proposed twinning of Dublin with Beijing. ALabour Youth delegation went from the protest to the Mansion House wherewe were received by the Lord Mayor and delivered a letter of opposition to the



plan. Since this event we have heard the the proposal has been shelved asthey are worried about negative publicity so it seems this has been a greatsuccess and will go towards ensuring that Dublin City Council only consider ethical twinnings from now on.

• I was involved in the planning of the Education protest which coincided withthe release of the CAO offers, but unfortunately also coincided with myEntrance Exams for the Inns so I could not attend on the day.

• I have been involved in the planning of the Rent Deposit campaign with Brian.

3. Education/Policy initiatives

• I organised a Young Writer’s Competition to mark the anniversary of theFirst Democratic Programme which attracted a number of entrants fromacross the party. John Walsh of Standing Orders fame and RoryGeraghty kindly assisted in the judging and the prize is due to beawarded this weekend by Joan Burton TD. Many thanks to those whoentered and to the party for providing the prize fund.

• I have put together a booklet of current motions before conference anda selection of past motions on some key areas for distribution at thisyear’s conference so people have an awareness of what sort of thingsLY has been working on in the past and can update it as the weekendprogresses with the new policy that is passed, and to use this as areference point for future conferences.

• Labour Youth were been invited to input into the Party’s EuropeanYouth Policy which was launched by our European candidates. HazelNolan, our International Officer, worked closely with Proinsias de Rossain this regard and I contacted all branch chairs to seek their input.

4. Fundraising and Party Conference

I had a very busy Party Conference which included proposing the LY motion (whichwas passed), chairing the fringe meeting on Taxation, and being responsible for organising the fundraising and raffle. The fringe meeting was a great success and theroom was packed to capacity. Similarly, the fundraising also went off very well withover 1000 euro raised towards the Young Candidate’s Fund. Thanks to everyonewho contributed.



International Officer Report 2008/2009

First of all I have to say thank you to the rest of my fellow NYE members and of course or former and current youth officers Cian O’Callaghan and Neil Ward. I want to also thank Labour Youth for allowing me this opportunity to represent you. Finally I would also like to thank the International Affairs Committee and Mark Khan for their support of my work. It has been a great experience, in which I have learned so much.

When I came to office I based my platform on opening up the area of international work for Irish Labour Youth and on making the position more accountable. I believethat the restructuring programme I have put in place will achieve this and expand therole of International Officer. I have tried to build on the excellent work done my Holly,and to add more structure to the work of this position my aim has been to leave astrong framework for the next International Officer. I believe that LY has a great contribution to make in the field of international work- and I would urge the next NYE and International Officer to lobby for that to be reflected through an automatic seat for the International Officer of LY on the International Committee of the party with full voting rights.

This has certainly been an interesting past 12 months. The unravelling of the current economic situation across a global level has reminded us of the importance of our interdependence and of international cooperation. The Labour Party to me is muchmore then a political party, it is a campaign for human rights that takes place in the

political field. I have been proud to have been part of that campaign both locally and nationally, and this year to have been able to represent Irish Labour Youth on that campaign internationally.

Is mise le meas,

Hazel Nolan



28th-30th December: ECOSY Bureau meeting, Madrid. This was my first meeting with ECOSY. It was held in Madrid as this is where thePSE conference was being help, where the manifesto was being launched.

First on the agenda was the presentation of reports by the Presidium. The onecomment I would make on this is that I think that the Presidium of ECOSY should

make more of an effort in their reports. It’s an area of improvement; they listed whatthey did, or rather where they had been. I feel they would do better to also includethose developments they had reached for ECOSY at such meetings etc.

Next was the Evaluation of past events. The main issue for debate in this was theECOSY summer camp in France. It was generally acknowledged that the politicalprogramme for the event was well planned. However the practical organisationseems to have been somewhat below par, there were issues with lack of toiletfacilities, showers, lack of shade for tents etc. The report on the summer camp wasgiven orally, however I expressed as did other members that this should be given inwritten form- so as to avoid a future repeat involving similar problems.

There were then Bureau meetings for Commissions. Each organisation is given acommission, no one is given a choice in which commission they have. Irish Labour Youth (so that would be me then) have been put in the commission for foreign affairs(foreign to Europe now mind) and aid. There isn’t much time dedicated to thecommission and the agenda is quite full. I think it would be better for them to have ashorter agenda and more time to discuss the issues, which would mean that wecould come up with proper resolutions and effective action plans as a result. Rather then the current norm of merely producing a bland statement on each issue. We alsohad Network meetings. Holly was former co-ordinator for the Global ProgressiveYouth Forum, and so I went along to that.

14th December: Meeting with Margot Wallstrom, Dublin.The International Affairs committee together with the PSE Activists in Dublinorganised a lunch event with Margot Wallstrom- the Vice President of the EuropeanCommission. This gave us the opportunity to question her, and debate what to donext with the Lisbon Treaty.

IUSY World Council

The IUSY World Council was held in Zacatecas, Mexico, on 23-25 January2009 and came to an end as one of the most successful IUSY events.

Zacatecas was a wonderful venue, and the meeting ended with a high level of satisfaction. During those days IUSY tackled many of the main political issues thatwere pressing.

This Council was a very political Council. It took place at the same timeas the financial and economical crisis that is unfolding all around us. This was of course debated during the Council and political solutions were put forward.

In Latin America the left is moving forward and this was of course alsoaddressed and discussed during the Council. A lot of inspiration andpositive examples can be found from our friends in Latin America.



After many political discussions and intensive days of work during theCouncil, it is important to say that the resulting political outcome willbe a turning point for IUSY in the time to come. In addition to the usualdebates on current situation and about regional committees, the IUSYfamily has been able to address and pass the two main tools for the

future: the IUSY Reform paper and the Ideological document.It means that the organization has given itself a roadmap to work and toact on in future years. With the intention of providing a clear proposal for a renewed,regenerated and challenging movement that will hopefully be better able to giveanswers, propose alternatives for a more progressive forum in which to imagine abetter and different world.

Furthermore, several resolutions submitted by presidium, member organizations and regional committees were adopted, showing the broad andhigh interest of IUSY in different issues. On behalf of Irish Labour Youth, we workedwith different international comrades in passing a resolution on the issue of Gaza,which I have also attached. Therefore, the political outcome states the greater commitment of ISUY as an organization to make itself work and potentially act as aleader for change in the world.

Elections

At the Council, Johan Hassel was elected Secretary General of IUSY.Federica Mariotti and Maayan Amodai were elected IUSY Vice Presidents.

Due to the resignation of the former IUSY Secretary General, YvonneO’Callaghan, the IUSY World Council was to elect a new Secretary General.Johan Hassel was proposed by our Swedish comrades of SSU, as well as bythe Presidium unanimously, for the position of Secretary General. He tookoffice as Acting Secretary General already after the Presidium Meeting inLa Paz, Bolivia, 15-17 November 2008.

Following the established procedure, the Nomination Committee proposedJohan Hassel as Secretary General, which was adopted by the Plenary byacclamation.

As a result of this shift, one of the European Vice-Presidencies becamevacant which meant that this position inside the Presidium needed to betaken by another European representative. Our Italian comrades of SinistraGiovanile nominated Federica Mariotti as IUSY Vice-President. FedericaMariotti was elected IUSY Vice President at the Council by acclamation.

An internal shift of Vice Presidents from the Mediterranean Committee,which was agreed upon at the last Congress, was also conducted. Uri Zakifrom Meretz Youth in Israel left his position as IUSY Vice President. Maayan Amodaifrom Labour Youth in Israel was elected IUSY Vice President

at the Council by acclamation.The next IUSY Congress is due for the new year to be held in Europe.



Global Progressive ForumAs Irish Labour Youth (ILY) representative to the Bureau of ECOSY, I continued therole of Global Progressive Youth Forum coordinator. I have been the GPYFcoordinator for ECOSY since the ECOSY Bureau meeting in Madrid, where I

replaced the previous Irish Labour Youth Bureau member as the new Bureaumember and also as the new GPYF coordinator. The position seems to have beenquite inactive in recent times. This is something that I tried to have redressed. I havetried to begin again work on the GPYF.

During IUSY World Council in Mexico in January I met with the GPYF coordinator Zita Schellekens for IUSY who updated me on the work and relationship so far withthe GPYF and GPF. I then attended meetings in Brussels with different organisationsinvolved in the GPF. I attended a steering meeting for the GPF conference. I alsotook the opportunity to meet with David Capuzutto, the PES GPF Adviser; withMaurice Claassens from Solidar and Phillippe Gousenbourger who is the ITUC Youthofficer.

My meeting with ITUC was especially productive and a good working relationshipmoving forward has been established where an agreement was made between thetwo organisations to work closer together and to share information in order to bemutually supportive in achieving the goals of each organisation.

The Global Progressive Forum was held on the 2nd and 3 rd of April in Brussels, Iattended the event as the ECOSY GPYF coordinator. The event was very high profilewith many world leaders and prominent heads of NGO’s present.

However the event could have been more focused, and at this time it is necessary tohave more direction coming out of such an event. This is something I have discussedin my meetings on behalf of the GPYF. Progressive is a meaningless word unless itis used in context to strategy to achieve goals. In light of this I think that building onthe initial inroads established that more coordinated work must be done on regionallevel as well as European levels, and that ECOSY and ITUC together with other organisations must take the next step in achieving this through more negotiationsand closer working relationships to really make a better world possible, we must domore then just talk.

ECOSY CongressAs per my recommendations to the NYE, the delegation for ECOSY Congress was tobe selected by nominations and elections at a National Meeting. We elected adelegation of six members to represent ILY at ECOSY Congress 2009. ECOSYCongress took place from the 16th to the 19th of April in Brussels, Belgium. In short,this conference was a complete disaster. The two main issues that arose over thecourse of this conference were regarding, firstly, from our point of view the issue of vote sharing between ourselves, SDLP Youth, Young Labour and Labour Students.The second issue was surrounding the elections of ECOSY Presidium, and the

subsequent withdrawal of a large minority of member organisations from theconference in protest.



I will address first the issue of most relevance for us, being that of voting rights.ECOSY statutes state that mandates are divided by each jurisdiction (i.e. country), sothat every jurisdiction receives an equal number of votes, mandates/votes are thendivided/shared by the member organisations within that jurisdiction. In a Congresswhich happens on a bi-annual basis there are twelve mandates awarded to each jurisdiction, in a Bureau which happens approximately every six months each

jurisdiction is awarded two mandates. There had been an agreement made aboutnineteen years ago that ILY, UKYL and UKLS would share votes with SDLPY.However SDLP had become inactive in ECOSY, and so ILY retained our full use of mandates. Now that SDLPY had become active again, ILY through both my self, andHolly Kilroy my predecessor, had made many attempts to get the control commissiono ECOSY, which is responsible for handing out the votes, to facilitate a meetingbetween the organisations involved to sort out the votes. However several attemptsmade to the Control Commission and to the ECOSY Secretariate to work with theorganisation involved to resolve the issue went unanswered. After paying themembership fee the Control Commission of ECOSY wrote to confirm our mandates,and awarded us ten mandates in the Congress and one mandate in the Bureau for the coming term (2 years). I wrote to the Control Commission of ECOSY requestinginformation as to why, considering we are the only member organisation in theRepublic of Ireland, we were not receiving 12 mandates in the Congress and as towhy our voting power in the Bureau was to be halved from two votes to one for thenext two years. When the Control Commission failed to answer this email, I wroteagain asking the same question and requesting communication on the issue, thisletter was also ignored by the Control Commission. The Control Commission thenwent ahead and told SDLP Youth that they would be awarded votes from ILY. I thenhad to inform the SDLPY representative of the situation, over the course of a fewhours I wrote a statement with the International Officer for SDLPY regarding theissue. In the end I decided to agree to give the SDLPY two votes in the Congress inorder to resolve the issue in the short term. Both our organisations signed the co-written declaration on the voting issue which was read out and passed by a vote onthe Congress floor. The text of this agreement is attached at the end of this report. Itshould further be noted that Irish Labour Youth is the only organisation, and hasalways been the only organisation to ever agree to a situation such as that, where wegave away our votes to an organisation in another jurisdiction, and that the previousarrangement was an exceptional case within ECOSY.

The second issue at the ECOSY Congress was regarding an internal split withinECOSY. This split happened as a result of the failure to agree consensus on a panel

of candidates for the positions of vice-president on the Presidium, and for acandidate for President of the Control Commission. There was a proposal to resolvethis by an emergency motion to expand the number of seats on the presidium for vice-residential candidates. This needed a 2/3 rd majority in order to be passed. Whilethere was a simple majority for this proposal, it failed to reach a 2/3rd majority neededto pass. The result of this was that a large minority of organisations, traditionally theones in which we have been more closely aligned with within ECOSY, withdrew their candidates for the Presidium, Control Commission and Bureau- they also withdrewall their amendments and resolutions and delegations from the Congress. Our delegation for ILY decided to remain in the Congress, as there was still a majoritypresent therefore the Congress was to continue. However the remainder of the

Congress was a disaster in the aftermath, and following the elections of a newPresidium there were no more decisions made at the Congress. No position paper was adopted, no resolutions were adopted and no further applicant organisations



were accepted to join ECOSY.

Dublin/Beijing Twinning, DCCDespite assurances that the issue of the possibility of Dublin being twined with

Beijing was not on the cards, one of our Dublin councillors brought it to my attentionthat this was still a possibility up for discussion. Together with our Education Officer Jane Horgan Jones and Councillor Aodhan O’Riordain we organized to a campaignto support the Falun Gong protest against abuses of their people in China. I wrote upa pledge for individuals and organization to sign up to, which hopefully will be signedby all our Dublin City Councillors, pledging to oppose any future proposals to twin thecities of Dublin and Beijing.

LisbonI organised and ran the meeting on August 15 th. This went very well. Invited speakersincluded Christophe Schiltz who flew all the way from Luxemburg and who is on thePresidium of ECOSY, Declan Walsh who is a lecturer in EU law from the LawDepartment in UCC, both speakers spoke advocating a yes vote on the LisbonTreaty. On the no side, the speakers included Roger Cole from PANA and MarkKhan, former International Secretary of ILY. Each speaker was given time to addressthe members at the meeting, following this there was an open questions and answerssession. After this ILY voted to support the Lisbon Treaty.I also wrote an article that appeared in the Left Tribune, advocating and laying outreasons for people to vote yes to the referendum on October 2 nd.

SDLP Youth ConferenceI sent out information about the SDLP Youth Conference that was held on SaturdaySeptember 5 th. Four members of ILY went up to Belfast for the event, BrianO’Connor, Colm Lawless, Colm Maguire and I. SDLP Youth Conference was heldover one day. The turn out was not very high, with approx. 20 voting memberspresent from SDLPY. There were also four members of ógra FF at the conference.As members from ILY we were granted speaking rights at the conference. Allmembers of ILY spoke on various motions that were being debated and voted on bySDLPY. There was a motion sent in that “condemned” ILY for revoking voting rightsfrom SDLPY in ECOSY. However time for the meeting ran out before this wasdebated. The newly elected Chair and International Officer of SDLPY apologised for

the motion that had been submitted, the person who had submitted the motion hassince resigned from the party. Following the conference the Chair person from lastyear also resigned from the party. It was generally felt by the four people from ILY inattendance that though the numbers of members active within SDLPY is decreasing,that the politics displayed by the members who are active is becoming more left-wingand progressive, from an ILY perspective. I have been trying since then to engagemore with SDLP, and invited them to attend some of the campaign events which ILYand ILP were holding regarding Lisbon. I have also been trying to arrange for thenew committee of SDLPY to meet the committee of ILY, however at this stage I feel itis probably more productive for them to meet the newly elected NYE following our own youth conference.

PES Activists Forum



PES Activists forum took place in TCD, Dublin on the weekend of the 11th to the 13th

of September. This event saw activists from all over Europe gather in Dublin for aweekend of workshops and committees based around campaigns and cooperationbetween members of PES. I worked with PES Activists in Dublin on organisingindividual members of ILY to help out and assist with collecting people at the airportand directing them into town. I would like to thank all those who helped out on the

day. I would also like to thank Cathal McCann for his great assistance in organisingthe catering and venue for ECOSY to hold their workshop on the Friday night. I alsoorganised for ILY to hold a stall/stand at the event on the Saturday. I would like tothank Colm Lawless, Rory Geraghty and Brian O’Connor and everyone who helpedout with this.

UK Labour Party ConferenceBetween Sunday September 27 th and Wednesday September 30 th I attended UKLabour Party Conference which was held in Brighton. My intention in going over wasto build communication and links between the more progressive elements starting toemerge both within Young Labour and within the Labour Party as a whole. I madecontact with such groups as Young Labour and Labour Students, the Co-operativeParty and Compass.

PROPOSAL FOR A RESOLUTION ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EASTTO THE IUSY WORLD COUNCIL 2009

On December 27 Israel began a military offensive against Gaza. We express our outrage on both thecontinued rocket attacks by Palestinians as well as the Israeli escalation, with comprehensivebombing and ground troops that have resulted in the killing of more than 1300 and the injury to morethan 5000 Palestinians, including a large number of women and children. Israel and Palestine bothhave a responsibility to their people to stop the violence. However we consider the Israeli assaultunacceptable and disproportionate, and in violation of international humanitarian law and the GenevaConvention.

These latest actions dramatically increase the frustration on the Palestinian side, while not increasingthe security of Israeli civilians. IUSY calls for a stop of the blockade of Gaza, a lasting andcomprehensive cease-fire, unimpeded humanitarian access as well as a stop to Hamas rockets firedinto Israel. IUSY also calls for the immediate adoption of the UN Security Council resolutions, whichcalls for intense diplomatic efforts for peace.

IUSY is concerned about the participation of the Israeli Labour Party, led by the Israeli defense-minister Ehud Barak, in the military actions. The attacks against the Palestinian civilian population inthe Gaza Strip, which the Labour Party are part of, are unacceptable. We urge the Israeli Labour Partyto immediately start work for a peaceful solution that is not based on military means. We also call uponthe Fateh Party to work for reconciliation on the Palestinian side. Violations of international humanitarian law may constitute war crime for which individual criminalresponsibility may be invoked. IUSY supports the suggestion by the UN Human Rights Council thatthe recent attacks on Gaza should be subject of inquiry by a: ”urgent independent international fact-finding mission to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression” 1.

IUSY calls on the European Union to stop their process of upgrading relations with Israel until thiscountry complies with UN resolutions and international law.

The recent actions have clearly shown that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can not be solved by military



means, but only through a real political process towards peace. Israel has the main responsibility, as anoccupying power, to actively demonstrate its commitment to peace by engaging in efforts to worktowards a two-state solution, which is the only realistic way towards a peaceful resolution. Together with our member organizations and the progressive and peaceful forces in the Middle East, we arecommitted to continue our work for a peaceful and secure future in the region, based upon the “Two-State Solution".

1: UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted 12.01.09

AUF, NorwayDSU, DenmarkSSF, SwedenSSU, SwedenILY, IrelandSDY, FinlandSONK, FinlandAnimo, BelgiumAkbayan Youth, The PhilippinesJS in de Pvda, The Netherlands

Irish Labour Youthand SDLP Youth (Northern Ireland)

Position Paper

SDLP and ILY would like to draw the attention to the following statutes of ECOSY:

With regard to votes in the congress , article 5.1.4 states: "there are 12 mandatesper country. If several full member organisations are from the same country,they should share the mandates between them".

With regard to votes in the bureau , article 5.2.6 says: "There are two mandates per country in the Bureau. If several Bureau members represent organisationsfrom the same country, they should share mandates."

For the attention of ECOSY Control Commission, ECOSY Presidium, ECOSYBureau, ECOSY Congress and ECOSY member organisations.

The following is a joint statement representing the views and the position of bothSDLP Youth (Social Democratic and Labour Party) and ILY (Irish Labour Youth).

We acknowledge that over recent years, there has been considerable discussion anddebate within ECOSY about the granting of voting rights to SDLP Youth.Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misunderstanding of the Irish politicalsituation displayed by many of those involved in these discussions.

Irish Labour Youth are currently entitled to 2 Bureau votes, as the only member organization for the Republic of Ireland. Young Labour and Labour Students areentitled to 1 Bureau vote each as active member organizations for the UnitedKingdom. As the SDLP Youth are an active organization within ECOSY, we believeit would be more than appropriate for them to have Bureau votes to ensure they canexercise their full democratic rights within the organization.

Within the Socialist Group of the European Parliament and the Party of European



Socialists the SDLP party has always been part of the UK ‘delegation’. This has beenthe norm throughout the involvement of the SDLP in the European Parliament and inEuropean political life and we believe this situation should be reflected at the youthlevel.

This is the first written agreement between the two organisations (SDLPY and ILY)regarding the issue of voting rights for both organisations.

SDLP are full members of ECOSY, and up to present have had to rely on the goodwill of ILY.

SDLP is entitled, as is their basic right, to votes in Congress and also in the Bureau.SDLP should not be expected to rely on the goodwill of ILY in order to exercise their right as members of ECOSY to vote.

It is the consensus of SDLP and ILY that the statutes of ECOSY are very clear on theissue of member organisations and their votes in the Bureau and the Congress. It isfurthermore our consensus that the current voting situation is in direct conflict to this.

SDLP and ILY are in full agreement that the current situation, regarding voting, isinappropriate, untenable and disrespectful to both organisations, as well as alsobeing contrary to the statutes.

SDLP and ILY expect that the Control Commission respect the voting rights of bothmember organisations by adhering to the statutes of ECOSY whereby ILY exercisetheir right to 12 votes in the Congress and 2 votes in the Bureau of ECOSY- andfurther for SDLP to exercise their right to a fair distribution of the votes allocated tothe United Kingdom in both the Congress and Bureau of ECOSY.

Both SDLP and ILY are in full agreement that the steps outlined are needed in order to adequately find a long term resolution on this sensitive political issue.

Yours in Solidarity,

Hazel Nolan Barry MageeIrish Labour Youth SDLP Youth



← Equality Officer Report←

← Comrades,

This has been an extremely successful year for Labour Youth. The organization is strongand the recent recruitment of new members is indicative of a very strong platform from whichwe can build and grow.

First of all I would like to express my most genuine thanks and appreciation to all themembers of the executive for what was a very successful year for Labour Youth. I wouldalso like to thank Neil Ward and Cian O’Callaghan for their help and support throughout theyear. I would like to especially mention a special word of thanks to our Chair, Gary Honer and congratulate him for what was a very successful year for Labour Youth. From a campaigning, recruitment and media profile perspective; LY has had a veryprosperous year. Hopefully, next years executive will continue to build and grow in this way.The Sack the Government Campaign was extremely successful and the coverage, LY gainedin the media is testament to how relevant campaigns can garner support from the generalpopulace.

The Local and European Elections were a major victory for Labour Youth in terms of thenumber of young candidates that got elected. The Young Candidates Fund played anintegral role in many successful candidates election campaigns, and I believe this to be oneof the most beneficial resources that Labour Youth should continue to develop and buildupon.

In terms of the role of Equality Officer, this year has also been very successful. The strengthof the links that Labour Youth has developed with Labour Equality Labour LGBT are strongand again Labour Youth will hopefully, in the coming years continue to grow and develop

these links.Going forward, I feel that the role of the Equality Officer is to fully participate in the meetingsof Labour Equality and to assist and facilitate Labour Equality in all of it’s endeavors bothwithin and outside the Party.

As Equality Officer, I participated in the Labour Equality meetings. From many of thesemeetings, emerged the Labour Equality Strategic Plan for the period 2010 – 2012. With thisin place, Labour Equality and the Labour Youth Equality Officer shall have a strategic planand agenda to follow in the coming years. This plan serves as a framework to fill what waspreviously ill-defined role for the Equality Officer of Labour Youth.

I would like to also mention a special word of thanks to the Labour Equality Council andNiamh Hayes in particular, Labour Equality Secretary, for all her hard work and for whatturned out to be a very successful year for Labour Equality.

Another outcome from this year was my successful election to the Executive Board. I wouldlike to thank to everyone that helped me in my campaign, particularly, Jane Horgan-Jonesand Rory Gheraty for all their help and support. Most importantly, I would like to thankLabour Youth for nominating me to run and say that I will continue to represent Labour Youthto the best of my capabilities in all my endeavors going forward on the Executive.

Finally, It has been a pleasure serving on the executive this year and the very best of luck toall elected to the executive next year.

Solidarity,Karen O’Connell



Equality Officer

Labour Youth Officer Reports 2009

Documents

Transcript of Labour Youth Officer Reports 2009