Labour Youth
|
Labour Youth Óige an Lucht Oibre |
|
|---|---|
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| Chairperson | Kevin Donohue |
| Secretary General | Eimear Martin |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Bloodstone Building, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| Membership |
 1,000 |
| Ideology |
Social democracy Democratic socialism |
| Mother party |
 Labour Party
|
| International affiliation | International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) |
| European affiliation | Young European Socialists (YES) |
| Newspaper | The Left Tribune |
| Website | |
| www.labouryouth.ie | |
Labour Youth (Irish: Óige an Lucht Oibre) is the youth wing of the Labour Party of Ireland. Anyone under the age of 30 is eligible to join Labour Youth. It replaced an earlier organisation, the Young Labour League.
Labour Youth succeeded the Young Labour League as a full section of the Party in 1979, under Party Leader Frank Cluskey. The first annual conference took place on 13 May 1979. John Kelleher was elected as the first Chair, Jane Scott as Secretary and Robin Hanan and Ted Gannon as the first representatives on the Labour Party's Administrative Council. The first campaign undertaken by Labour Youth was on combating unemployment.
During the 1980s, Labour Youth proudly stood with the Dunnes Stores employees in their long strike against the apartheid regime in South Africa. They raised and donated £1900 to support the striking workers, and regularly joined them on the picket-lines. The 1980s also marked a high-point in terms of youth participation, whereby Labour Youth had over 1200 members and could call demonstrations of over 1000 people in Dublin alone.
From the early 1980s Militant Tendency wielded significant control over the group, with Clare Daly, (now a ULA TD) being elected a youth representative for the Labour Administrative Committee. In 1988 a broad left coalition led by Vincent Byrne, Pat Montague and others won control over the group. The following year the leaders of Militant were expelled from the party.
Members were extremely active in the election of presidential candidate Mary Robinson, forming a base of membership during the campaign that would provide the backbone of leadership within the organisation for years to come. They provided leadership to the National Youth Council of Ireland and in 1992 were among the founding members of the European Council of Socialist Youth (Ecosy). The #Tom Johnson Summer School, which is still a major date on Labour Youth’s calendar, was first initiated in 1994. In 1999, along with the main party, Labour Youth merged with Democratic Left Youth.
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