THE MIDDLE of last month saw a record number of young people without a job.  Nearly one in five 16 to 24-year-olds are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. 

The figures were released by the Office for National Statistics.  Those on Jobseeker's Allowance soared by 15,000 to an unprecedented 943,000 in the three months to September.

This represents 19.8 per cent of young people out of work and is the highest since records began in 1971.

These figures are even more alarming when we consider that the total number of unemployed increased by 30,000 to just under two-and-a-half million over the same period.  This means that over one in four unemployed people have now been out of work for over a year.

Solidarity National Executive member David Durant described the youth unemployment rate as “scandalous”.

Mr Durant said that the government had got its priorities wrong. 

“Instead of rewarding the fat cats and bankers, the government should reward British youth.  They should be rewarded with meaningful training schemes, apprenticeships and jobs”.
 

He demanded that the government immediately get its act together.

“We need to have a dual approach here.  We need to have a massive jobs creation programme.  We also need an in-depth look at the economy”.

Expanding on this theme Mr Durant continued:

“I’m calling for a massive jobs creation programme.  Virtually every day we hear that our public services are at breaking point.  So why not train up more doctors, nurses and other health care workers?  Why not train more lecturers and teachers?”

We also need an emergency programme of national works.  This would include re-building our transport infrastructure, cleaning up our towns and cities, making all dwellings fit and habitable and tending to the land”.

The other part of this dual approach would concentrate looking at the economy.

“We must have an in-depth look at the economy.  Why do we have this crazy system of boom and bust?  We must have a stable economic system”.

Comments

Shoreditch

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I feel that one way of tackling chronic youth unemployment is to institute a new form of National Service. When I say National Service, I’m not advocating a couple of years of mindless square bashing. Whilst there would be a military aspect to it, it should be viewed as more a form of National Community Service.

This idea is not new.

Years ago I recall reading The ABC of the Welsh Revolution by Derrick Hearne. It’s generally described as an “ambitious work proposing a new, radical, nationalist ideology and describing life in an independent Community Benefit State to be established at the turn of the century”.

Hearne envisaged a sort of national folk-community. Whilst I can’t recall every single detail, he believed that an independent Wales would incur the wrath of capitalism.

He believed that capitalists would try to ‘starve’ a free and independent Welsh Wales into submission. Therefore, he advocated the mass mobilization of Welsh youth. They would perform vital national reconstruction work.

A little while ago I also read The Rise of Militant by Peter Taaffe. It describes how – in Liverpool - the Militant-domina ted Labour council created thousands of jobs. This was achieved by instituting a mass building programme. Projects included housing, sports centres and parks.

Whilst this wasn’t on the national scale envisaged by Hearne, it does show what can be done to slash unemployment on a local level.

I know that Solidarity Trade Union acknowledges that there is a fine line between basic trade union work and politics. However, I don’t think that anyone could complain if a STU promoted debate – or produced a discussion document – on how to tackle unemployment as a whole.

Saturday 12 December 2009, 19:43

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