March and protest with us on 9 October

Youth Fight for Jobs on the Jarrow march, in London marching past Parliament, photo Senan

Youth Fight for Jobs on the Jarrow march, in London marching past Parliament, photo Senan   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Reece Wilson, Nottingham Socialist Party

Young workers and students are organising Youth Fight for Jobs (YF4Js) in preparation for a day of action on 9 October. The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign is needed now more than ever.

The furlough scheme is set to end in September, and scores of young people are set to be cast out into the world of unemployment, at worst, and low-paid precarious jobs, at best.

The government’s plan for youth jobs is shipping young people into minimum wage, part-time, six-month contracts. We must fight for a better future.

YF4Js was founded in 2009 in similar circumstances. The consequences of the 2007-08 financial crash were borne on the shoulders of the working class – especially its young members. Since then, 13 years of austerity have left young workers in poverty and uncertainty.

Degrees and apprenticeships that were meant to bring young people success and security have left them penniless, in debt, or both. At the opposite pole, the 2,365 billionaires in the world increased their wealth to almost $13 trillion – a 54% increase.

Both the government and the Labour Party have shown that they do not care about the working class, and only care about the rich.

Some recent workers’ struggles have been victorious – the Royal London Hospital strike and that of the Thurrock bin workers. But things will get worse if we let the bosses keep pushing against us.

Youth Fight for Jobs will be marching in cities and towns on 9 October for a future for young people, with well-paid secure socially useful jobs that benefit everyone, not just the bank accounts of the bosses.

So join us. From school students to the unemployed to young workers – this is your future. Help us organise the fightback.

Youth Fight for Jobs says the trade unions should fight:
  • Against all job cuts – Open the finance books and nationalise firms to save jobs
  • For real training and apprenticeship schemes for young people – For a decent job at the end of training
  • For the right to a job for all – End low pay, and fight for government investment in socially useful job creation. Share out the work with no loss of pay
  • To make the 1% pay – Take the monopolies and banks into democratic public ownership to provide every young and working-class person with a future

Campaign ideas for day of action

Birmingham

In preparation for a Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration in October, young Socialist Party members have been out campaigning on the issue of unemployment and poor job prospects for young people, with a programme to end systematic exploitation of young workers.

We have leafleted and set up stalls outside colleges, with petitions for free education and ending the assault on workers’ rights. And our posters have advertised our demonstration.

We’ve met new people interested in joining us, increasing the momentum for our campaign. And we’ve established contact with local trade union branches, including the University and College Union (UCU).

We are holding West Midlands regional meetings to discuss the best ways to reach the most people with our programme. And we have participated in local protests too.

Tom Green

Brighton

Michelle Francis says plans include:
  • Leafleting workers on the seafront as they work, and organising workers who have petty tyrant bosses
  • A campaign stall with a whiteboard asking: ‘What has your bullying boss done?’ And inviting passers-by to add to it
  • Writing to demand the council introduce rent caps and more job opportunities, and to ask for material support for our campaign
  • Writing to our old schools to ask if we can talk about unionisation directly to students
  • More days of action in the run up to 9 October
  • A campaign against the bursary cut for NHS workers in training
  • Speaking to the organisers of the Deliveroo strikes about what’s happening locally

Youth and students