Northumbria Students Union Labour Society
ABOUT US/INTRO:
Many moons a go Northumbria Students Union had a Labour Students Society as did the Lib-Dems unfortunately it was disbanded leaving Northumbria Uni students who have an affiliation with the Party or who support our policies with no voice within the Union at least officially!! This is a problem I hope to correct.
ABOUT ME:
My Name is MARK THORN and I have been a member of the Labour Party for over 10 years. I am a former Councillor for Wallsend in North Tyneside and I am currently an activist and volunteer for the Gateshead Constituency Labour Party. I am currently an LLB (Hons) student in year 3 come September. I also have a few volunteering roles with the Students Union: Faculty Rep for Business & Law, Part-time Students Rep (Elected) for Student Council, and Course Rep for my current year group.
OUR IDEA:
It is my vision and aim that the Students Union should again have a Labour Society where students can debate on the current issues affecting both themselves personally and national interests. The society itself will be the first point of contact for students who share our views who wish to become involved in policy development and campaigning for various elections. I believe that students have a right to influence the Party's direction and Northumbria University has over 35000 students and I would like as many students as possible to sign up to our cause and come and be part of our group.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
There are many things as a Labour Society that we can do both within the Students Union, in our local Constituency Party's and even at National level. Some examples are:
- Debating the issues affecting students today!!!
- Lobbying Student Council to adopt policies inline with our mission statement.
- Motions to lobby our Party at Local and National levels.
- Joining campaigns like the "NHS Reform" "Living wage" "Tuition Fees" "Government Austerity Measures" and many more.
- Have regular guest speakers on issues that YOU!! want discussed at meetings.
- Get involved with local campaigns and elections including elections to the Students Union as Sabbs, Lays, or Equality Reps. Help can be given with achieving your aspirations.
- Membership to the Labour Party means you have membership to Labour Students automatically (£1 for Full-Time Students per year) THATS ALL YOU PAY!!! This also entitles you to attend Ward or Branch meetings for the area which you live. You will be provided with all the information you need about local groups when you join.
- The opportunity to attend the national Conference the more members we have the more seats we gain.
- Have the opportunity to make a real difference to peoples lives including your own and have the rewarding feeling that you have made a positive contribution to your community.
- Plus many more opportunities. Plus its your Society so you have the opportunity to shape and drive its direction.
WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO ACHIEVE THIS:
At present I am currently the only student that is involved in the formation of this Society and thats where you come in. It is a requirement of the Students Union that at least 10 students sign the declaration to create the Labour Society. Im sure that this is achievable given the number of students we have and given the current political climate I'm hoping that people want to react, shape and participate in creating a Society and having a voice to make a real difference to the University and the local areas in which we live.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
As it stands I am acting President, Secretary and Treasurer. These are the three positions required by Student Union policy. We need people to get involved to create the Society. As I stated we need 10 signatures to officially form the Society. We need as many members as we can possibly get. The more members we have the bigger the voice and influence our Society will have. To begin with we need people to sign the declaration to create the Society and people initially to agree a preliminary constitution for us to work under. Once we have this in place we can recruit members during freshers week hopefully increasing our numbers so that elections to the Society's Executive Committee including officers can be made ideally in October.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:
I need volunteers to get involved with the running of the Society. I promise there will not be anything too demanding or time consuming I will deal with the day to day running of the Society until Officers and Executive Committee are elected. Any help you wish to give me to achieve a successful, topical, fun Society that has the opportunity to become something really influential would be most welcome.
If you just want to be a member thats excellent or if you want to become more involved in the formation process then please get in touch with me. My email addresses are:
mark.thorn@northumbria.ac.uk or markthorn.gatesheadlabour@live.com
or call me on 0191 4422881 or 07598 170289 ideally between the hours of 11am-8pm and I will be happy to talk more about our plans for the Society, whats involved if you want to help or simply how to join.
TWITTER: @MarkThornLabour
I will also be setting up a Northumbria University Labour Students Group for people to join so that we can stay in touch, organise events, and socialise with other members so please ADD ME AS A FRIEND ON FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/mark.thorn.labourparty.
Please send me a message introducing yourself and if you wish to join the group and I will add you as soon as possible.
If you have friends that share our views please do your best to raise awareness of this page and our plans for the future and dont worry that when you join you may not know anyone its probably the same for everyone so you will be part of the team in no time.
ANY HELP YOU CAN GIVE OR ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!!! I would like to encourage participation from Women, Ethnic minorities and disabled people as our Party encourages equality and fairness for all.
I would also hope to have specialist involvement from certain groups include Women, Black & Ethnic Minority Rep, LGBT Rep, Disabled Rep, and these would be officers positions on the future Executive so if your actively passionate about any of these issues then please get in touch.
Thank You Comrades and I look forward to speaking to you all.
Mark Thorn.
Organisor.
