Young people and political engagement

 

Youthquake? Really?

 

Has the British Media Created a False Narrative Built on a Myth of a Burgeoining Politicised Youth?

The Pied Piper of Hamelyn, A.K.A Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum in 2015, garnered an extensive youth following for the newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Given Corbyn’s ripe old age and grandfatherly demeanour, this was an unlikely alliance, and it has to be said, it wasn’t initiated by ‘the youth’, but by long standing sexagenarian protest politicians of the Labour Left anticipating their bus passes (Pickard, 2017)

So how did this happen, and what does it mean?

Much vaunted in the mass media, and in particular on social media, one could be forgiven for assuming that this was indicative of the sort of youth activism last seen in Paris in 1968, Washington at the same time, preceeeded slightly by San Francisco and the Summer of Love in 1967.

 

Is there any truth in this analogy or is it entirely mythical? There is no question of the loud and lively support the 18- 24 year old potential electorate has for Corbyn’s Labour party, and in spite of the BES challenge to the generally accepted claim of a ‘Youthquake’ in the 2017 General Election, it has been generally accepted that there has been a large increase in both the number of 18-24 year olds  registering to vote, and the numbers actually

 

turning out to vote, and for Labour.

 

However, although the majority has, according to the Ipsos Mori estimate, supported Labour, to the tune of 62% in 2017, up from 43% in 2015, the 18-24 year old vote held up at 27% for the Conservative party, and support for UKIP down to 2% from 8%, totalling a right wing vote almost 50% that of support for the left, which is not inconsiderable (YouGov, 2017)

 

 

However, this much vaunted supposed youthquake seems rather dull in comparison to youth movements and activism in the past, whether it be with the psychedelic ‘summer of love’ in 1967 focussed on San Francisco, or the more dangerous and serious  Civil rights movement more centred in Washington, or the fantastic flash in the pan student revolution that lasted all of one month in Paris in 1968 (which began by students demanding the right to sleep together and within a week had spread to unionised factory workers demanding an end to capitalism)  the current so called ‘Youthquake’ in British politics could only measure 1 on the Richter scale, and unlike the above examples, little of it is actually initiated by anyone under 40 (Independent, 2008)

 

Even the darker days in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when there was a suspicion abound that the crisis of capitalism was upon the country and it could veer to either the far right or far left, young people were energetically politically engaged, either students who for the most part supported the left (Goodyer, 2009: 143) or the unemployed working class ‘punks ‘ from either the council estates or inner cities who largely supported the right and the National Front (Copsey and Worley 2009) were responsible for forging ahead with originality and flair and were highly creative (if naïve ?) in believing that either the left’s Rock Against Racism, with it’s ‘ Two tone’ and Reggae rock concerts in parks, or the right’s visceral punk expressing disengagement from liberal democracy as they railed against being given the ‘mucky end of the stick’ to hold as Britain de- industrialised while at the same time becoming multi cultural, had their very loud say in pubs and music venues led largely by ‘Screwdriver’, the Sex Pistols and more bleakly by Joy Division and subsequently New Order, well into the apocalyptic early years of Thatcherite Britain (Guardian, 2015)

 

All this took place against a backdrop of flattened factories, steel mills and pit closures, of mass strikes, battles between strikers and ‘scabs’ and the police, while ‘asset strippers such as Tiny Rowland took businesses with full order books and sold their machinery, equipment and property while the ‘ex employees joined the dole queues for their slim pickings. Young activists were out in force, demonstrating against closures, unemployment and government cuts, joining picket lines and being thrown handcuffed by their hair into police vans. The young labour voter can’t be blamed for there being little such industrial action to support now, but they don’t seem to be getting too hot under the collar about lack of opportunity, low wages or cuts to benefits and services, having so many other distractions to enjoy.

 

As much as older and more seasoned voters may sneer at the supposed’ youthquake, at the very least it does demonstrate an awakening and growing political awareness among the younger generation that has not been seen for over thirty years and was skipped by the babies of Thatcher, sold on individual prosperity, so good for them I say!

 

 

Bibliography:

 

Copsey, N & Worley, M. (2017) Tomorrow Belongs to Us: The British Far Right since 1967. Abingdon: Routledge

Democratic Audit UK (2014) Evidence from Britain France and Germany shows young people are engaged in more direct forms of political participation, beyond voting, (Accessed: 17/2/2018)

Goodyer (2009) Crisis Music: The Cultural Politics of Rock Against Racism. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Guardian (2015) Joy Division: ‘Everyone calls us Nazis’ – A classic interview from the vaults. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/20/joy-division-everyone-calls-us-nazis-classic-interview-1978-sounds, (Accessed: 17/2/2018)

Guardian (2017) Young Voters, class and turnout: how Britain voted in 2017. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/jun/20/young-voters-class-and-turnout-how-britain-voted-in-2017, (Accessed: 17/02/2018)

Independent (2008) Egalite! Liberté! Sexualité!: Paris, May 1968. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/egalit-libert-sexualit-paris-may-1968-784703.html, (Accessed: 17/2/2018)

Pickard, S, (2017) How Momentum got Britains’ youth interested in politics. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/how-momentum-got-young-people-interested-in-formal-politics/, (Accessed: 17/2/2018)

YouGov (2017) How Britain voted at the 2017 general election. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/06/13/how-britain-voted-2017-general-election/, (Accessed: 17/2/2018)