Why I joined the Socialist Party

I have been searching for an alternative to the pro-austerity parties. After three long years I’ve finally found it.

As there is no political education within North East Lincolnshire schools, I took it upon myself to join my local youth council in 2009 to learn about politics.

North East Lincolnshire has the highest level of NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training) in the UK and I have struggled over the past five years to find employment. This is the reason I aspire to help those in similar situations and what made me realise that the Socialist Party was for me.

Before I joined in April 2014 I had been to many demonstrations where the Grimsby and Scunthorpe socialists had been present and had asked me whether I wanted to join.

I declined because I hadn’t read much about the Socialist Party’s policies and didn’t understand the difference between it and the Labour Party (which had also asked me to join). It wasn’t until I bought a copy of the Socialist that I agreed to join the Socialist Party. It is everything that I wanted in a political party.

It has been astonishing to see the presence that the Socialist Party has had in North East Lincolnshire and what presence it will continue to have. I was elected as youth organiser of my Socialist Party branch. In the future I hope to recruit many more young people and make the Grimsby branch as big as it could possibly be.

Kieran Yeoman, Grimsby/Scunthorpe Socialist Party