How We Belt Our Y's Branch
Class Fighter1983 1983-05-01Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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BLANTYRE LPYS was formed last October by a handful of people but has grown quite dramatically from six to 25 (with a further 30 supporters): in only seven months.
Although Blantyre is only a Ward YS, existing in a town of only 6,000 people, it is now one of the most active YS's in Scotland and probably the fastest growing.
Building active, interesting YS is a very easy thing to do. It involves only two Firstly boring -the essential ingredients.
usual boring routinism; secondly keeping up real activity - public meetings, socials, five-a-side football, etc.
Our branch attempts to attract large numbers of youth and keep them. To do this we completely reorganised the branch structure as well as the way we relate to youth.
Some of the things we found useful include:
*The Executive Committee deals with all the realt boring stuff. like finances, booking raits. course, attend).
*We public various women, etc.
*We organise etc. (The E€ is. uf open to all to hold monthly meetings • on topics, CND, Labour Party, also attempt to some kind of social life as well. -socials, discos, football tournaments.
*Some comrades hold smaller discussion meetings on more in-depth topics such as the EEC, the Alternative Economic Strategy, etc which are open to anyone who is interested.
What's important is that there is always something going on, something youth can get involved in and enjoy.
It's not enough just to hold a boring branch meeting once a month, then ask why the youth aren't joining. It is essential to break from the routinism that cripples the YS. Blantyre has done this, and we now have 50 youth around us. And we've only just started.
KEARNS