It’s that time of the year, when university towns and cities up and down the country welcome their newest students.
The Freshers’ Fair season is important for Labour, with many Labour clubs gearing up to recruit new members, campaign on student issues and promote the wider Labour movement on their campuses. But it is also a great opportunity for local CLPs to get involved, join together with their local Labour Students and engage with the university and student body.
I know that these activities are not unique to Essex – Labour Students are one of the largest student political organisations in the country, active on university campuses across Britain. A quick trawl through Twitter just this week showed the red flag flying high in places like Brunel, Northampton, Salford, St Andrew’s and Westminster, to name just a few.
Colchester is home to the University of Essex, with a campus that actually sits astride the boundary of two parliamentary constituencies – Colchester and Harwich and North Essex. It is a university world-renowned for its studies in politics, government, human rights and international relations and, as such, many of the students here are not only politically minded, but also politically active.
While student politics is sometimes dismissed as fringe politics, Essex’s Labour Society is far from the fringes of politics in Colchester. From the Lib Dems’ broken pledge on student tuition fees to the switching-off of street lighting by Tory-run Essex county council, the Essex Labour Students campaign at the heart of every issue.
As a CLP chair, I have encouraged Labour Students to feel part of our constituency. They campaign with us, attend our social events and are always there to welcome any high-profile Labour visitors to the town. Engaging students in Colchester has meant that they have championed student issues not only on campus, but across Colchester as a whole.
But it’s not just in my constituency where Labour Students are making a difference. Essex University is working with its sister societies in the region too. At the University of East Anglia – our traditional rivals – Essex students are building strong links with their comrades in Norwich, joining them for campaign weekends and supporting Labour candidates in margin seats.
Around the country too many Labour Students are making a huge contribution to Labour’s electoral successes. Essex’s team of students has hit the campaign trails in Corby, Cardiff, South Shields and Rotherham, as they campaigned with fellow Labour activists in a string of parliamentary by-elections last year.
Their commitment, and personal energy, knows no bounds. In May’s local elections, Essex Labour Students had people on the ground fighting Doncaster’s key mayoral election, as well as helping out Stevenage and, of course, here in Colchester.
The Essex University campus is at the centre of a Labour-held county council division; indeed they’re represented by Julie Young, the leader of Labour on Essex county council. During May’s county elections, the Labour Students helped us to deliver a massive student vote for Labour, which saw Julie Young poll more votes than all of her opponents put together.
With passion and commitment, the Essex Labour Students are now the premier political grouping on campus. They’ve seen the Lib Dems off campus and watched support for their Tory counterparts collapse. It is little wonder, then, that Essex Labour Students were nominated for Labour club of the year in 2013.
Politically active, Labour-supporting students are one thing I will thank the coalition government for. But it is important that we do not take that support for granted, and that local CLPs connect with their student members.
For us in Colchester, Labour Students will always be part of the Labour family.
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Jordan Newell is a member of Progress and chair of Colchester Labour party. He tweets @jordannewell