Ideology Socialism | Mother party Scottish Labour Party | |
 | ||
Headquarters 290 Bath Street
Glasgow Scotland
G2 4RE International affiliation International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) European affiliation Young European Socialists | ||
Scottish Young Labour (SYL) is a socialist youth organisation and the official youth wing of the Scottish Labour Party. Membership is open to all Scottish Labour members under the age of 27.
Contents
Scottish Young Labour promotes socialist, feminist, and anti-imperialist politics within the Scottish Labour Party and wider society. SYL works to advance the interests of young people by organising alongside them in their workplaces and communities. It has strong links with trade unions, social movements, and Young Labour at a national level.
Liam Gleeson is the current Chair and Laura Dover is the current Vice-Chair having been elected at the 2017 Scottish Young Labour Conference.
Campaigning
Scottish Young Labour is an active and effective campaign group. It mobilises large numbers of activists from across the country to assist in key election and community campaigns.
Despite the political climate, Scottish Young Labour organised several national campaign days during the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections and played a key role in winning a string of council by-elections for Scottish Labour.
In 2016, Scottish Young Labour mobilised its activists to campaign against dawn raids, asylum deportations, and public service cuts. It is affiliated to the Living Rent Campaign and the Better than Zero movement.
As of 2017, Scottish Young Labour is committed to campaigning against period poverty and fighting to make sanitary products free for all.
Events
Scottish Young Labour hosts an annual conference that elects the national committee and passes policy. 2017 was Scottish Young Labour's first standalone conference having previously held joint events with Scottish Labour Students. It also holds a range of events throughout the year including workshops, political education, activist training, and an Open Forum for the entire party membership.
Policy
As of 2017, Scottish Young Labour is committed to supporting free education and challenging privatisation, outsourcing, and casualisation in both FE and HE.
SYL believes a future Labour government should commit to scrapping the Trident nuclear programme and withdrawing Britain from NATO.
SYL also supports the mandatory reselection of Labour MPs.