YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
The Young Fabians The Young Fabians are the under-31’s section of the Fabian Society, Britain’s foremost centre-left think tank. Set up in 1960, we remain the only think tank run by and for young people. Our Membership numbers over 1,400 and includes young professional, students, parliamentary researchers, political activists and academics. The Young Fabians promote policy debate through seminars, conferences, pamphlets, and online through our website and blog. To find out more about the Young Fabians, visit www.youngfabians.org.uk. The Fabian Society The Fabian Society is Britain’s leading left of centre think tank and political society, committed to creating the political ideas and policy debates which can shape the future of progressive politics. Fabian publications, events and ideas reach and influence a wider audience than those of any comparable think tank. The Society is unique among think tanks in being a thriving, democratically constituted membership organisation, affiliated to the Labour Party but organisationally and editorially independent. For more information, visit www.fabiansociety.org.uk. First published November 2010. Fabian Society 11 Dartmouth Street London SW1H 9BN www.fabian-society.org.uk
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2009/10
Elected positions: DAVID CHAPLIN Chair ADRIAN PRANDLE Vice-Chair REBECCA RENNISON Treasurer PRETH RAO Secretary JAMES GREEN Editor, Anticipations ALEX BAKER New Media Officer CLAIRE LEIGH Reform Officer
Co-opted positions:
SARA IBRAHIM Embassies Officer
MARIE LOEWE Equalities Officer
BRIAN DUGGAN International Officer
ANNA-JOY RICKARD Web Officer
STEVE RACE Fundraising Officer
NICK MAXWELL Networks and Schools Officer
RICHARD LANE Officer without Portfolio
VINCENZO RAMPULLA Membership Development Officer
SHAMIK DAS Social and Membership Officer
PAMELA NASH MP Parliamentary Officer
YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
DAVID CHAPLIN CHAIR
This year has been exciting for the Young Fabians, but hugely disappointing for Labour. I’d like to thank this year’s Young Fabian Executive who all give their time voluntarily and have shown outstanding energy and commitment; ensuring our members have had more opportunities than ever to get involved in our work through events, publications, campaigns and online debates. They have helped lead a regeneration of our Society. In this report you will find a summary written by each member of the 2009/10 Executive, I hope you find this report useful and that it is able to encapsulate the breadth of activity we have undertaken this year. The Young Fabians turned 50 years old in 2010. We began our fiftieth year with a speech from a former member, Lord Mandelson, who urged young progressives to join the Young Fabians and help shape the future of centre-left politics. This year saw a professionalization of our new media output, with a new media strategy developed by Alex Baker including the management of our Twitter activity, new web-chats, Blog, and adding a consistent approach to our online image. This has successfully positioned the Young Fabian brand as a truly distinctive voice. In March we launched Young Fabian Equalities Month in partnership with Unison. This saw a month of blogs and commentary from our members and from high-profile contributors including Alistair Campbell. We also launched Young Fabian Women to boost engagement with our female members and to enhance our offer to young women interested in progressive politics. We pioneered new Young Fabian Networks to involve and engage our members with professional expertise in specific fields such as finance, technology and science. Lord Drayson launched our Networks at a packed event in the City in March and the Networks continue to offer a collaborative space for the Fabian Society to attract new members. In the run up to the General Election in May we launched ‘Campaign Corner’ to promote Young Fabian campaign days. Our Membership Development Officer, Vincenzo Rampulla organised successful campaign days in a number of key seats and worked closely with Hope Not Hate to support their day of action against the BNP. We were proud to have three Prospective Parliamentary Candidates on the Executive this year and through our Young Fabian Candidates Network we supported many more candidates across the country. Following on from the Young Fabians Fast Forward pamphlet published last year, we set up four Policy Development Groups this year on a range of key themes, including Labour Party reform. The groups have offered our members the chance to have their say on topical debates, expressing views about Labour’s future agenda. A number of these debates have taken place online – allowing members across the country to take part. This resulted in our flagship publication this year – ‘The New Generation’. James Green has taken our magazine Anticipations from strength to strength this year with three fantastic editions and a huge range of member contributions alongside articles from all the Labour Leadership candidates, Sarah Brown, Neil Kinnock, Oona King, Rachel Reeves, Matthew Taylor, Patrick Diamond and many more.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
We also gave our members a unique platform to engage with the Labour Leadership candidates including a live web-chat with the candidates, I particularly enjoyed chairing the web-chat with David Miliband. While our biggest event of the year was the Young Fabians hustings event for the Labour Party Leadership elections in Bristol which over 400 people attended which was masterminded by our International Officer Brian Duggan. Thanks to our Embassies Officer an impressive embassies programme was re-established this year including events at the American embassy on the mind-term elections. Equally, strong links with the Indonesian Embassy look set to continue. I was also very clear this year that the Young Fabians needed to change. We were able to take the opportunity throughout this year to update our own structures through the appointment of our first Reform Officer to refresh our way of working and our interaction with members. Through this agenda I have been working hard to ensure that we continue to best represent our member’s views and needs, and that we continue to improve transparency, accountability and diversity on our Executive. I hope to continue supporting the Young Fabians as a newly-elected member of the Fabian Society Executive. In particular I hope to work with the new Executive to finish a project that I started this year to digitise the Young Fabians back-catalogue of pamphlets with the LSE archive. This has been the busiest Young Fabian year since I have been on the Executive. It was a year that presented many challenges, which as a team we were able to overcome together. None of this work would have been possible without the support of my Vice Chair, Adrian Prandle, who offered constant advice throughout the year and who coordinated all our Policy Development Groups and edited The New Generation. It’s been a privilege to be Chair, and I wish next year’s Executive the best of luck.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
ADRIAN PRANDLE VICE-CHAIR
Sponsored by
FABIAN SOCIETY
The New Generation Participating in change for the next 50 years Young Fabians 50th Anniversary Pamphlet
Edited by Adrian Prandle
Young Fabians|57
Over the last twelve months I have supported work across the executive committee, from helping new colleagues – including those out of London – settle into their role to meeting regularly with the Chair to plan activity and discuss strategy. •
Start of the Year
I took on three tasks shortly after becoming Vice Chair. Firstly, I organised an event in the House of Commons to launch the Young Fabian blog. The event was addressed by John Wood from TUC’s Touchstone blog, Jessica Asato, later to become David Miliband’s new media lead, and Alex Smith, then editor of LabourList before joining Ed Miliband’s office to run online activity. We ran coordinated activity online at the same time, targeting members outside of London, and encouraged people to get more involved in the Young Fabians. Secondly, I helped create a lunchtime event to celebrate the Young Fabians’ 50th anniversary, at the Fabian Society New Year Conference which was addressed by former Young Fabian Lord Mandelson. Thirdly, I put together the annual member’s survey, increasing the number of members that took part and using the feedback to guide our work over the year, and to help determine the main areas of policy the Young Fabians would delve into. •
Main Focus - Policy Development
My primary role this year was to lead the Young Fabian policy work. I built upon the policy forums which ran in previous years and developed some new ways to engage our members. I established four Policy Development Groups (PDGs) and recruited young experts to chair the groups and encouraged as many members as possible to take part, offering numerous ways online and offline for them to do so. Jessica Studdert chaired our special project PDG, ‘Transforming our Party’, Josie Cluer led the Work & Families PDG, Adam Short took on development, the global economy and energy in our Livelihoods & Resource Security PDG, and teacher and trade unionist Carla Powell looked at education policy with the Aspiration & Equality PDG. Hundreds of members participated in meetings with guest speakers, discussed issues amongst themselves, and contributed ideas via the YF blog and Anticipations magazine. The PDGs ran the first Young Fabian online meetings, experimented with wiki-policy development and facilitated the participation and policy ideas of members from all over Britain. •
A new Young Fabian pamphlet
In October I turned the excellent work the PDGs had undertaken into a publication, the Young Fabians’ 50th anniversary pamphlet, The New Generation. I worked to develop a narrative for the pamphlet to show what it sought to offer the Labour movement and how it would fit in with current thinking. I also spent time guiding the authors of the chapters on how to focus their contribution; editing drafts; liaising with printers; meeting with the sponsors (TU Fund Managers); visiting Royal Mail and
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
stationers’ website to help price the pamphlet; coordinated the printing and stuffing of over 2000 pamphlets; organised a launch event in parliament; and planned blog-posts across the major left-wing blogs. Oh and luckily I didn’t forget to write my introduction for the pamphlet amongst everything else. I am very proud of the pamphlet and was delighted that Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP launched it in Parliament. I couldn’t have done all this without the tremendous support of a significant number of Executive Committee colleagues. •
Other activity
I have attended almost all Young Fabian events this year, including our campaign trips during the general election. I have regularly contributed to the YF blog, and have written for Anticipations. I helped to initiate our relationship with archivists at the London School of Economics and represented our organisation at various political conferences. I co-organised the YF reception at Labour’s annual conference and chaired our online webchat with Labour leadership candidate, Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
BRIAN DUGGAN INTERNATIONAL OFFICER
The Young Fabian’s international work builds on our reputation for exploring international policies and practicing international campaigning. Within a few weeks of taking office we sent two representatives to Vienna to undertake a project with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies bringing together young people from across Europe writing and researching on topics of interest to social democrats. Executive Member MarieNoelle Loewe and I presented the findings of our International and Security Policy Development Group to Alfred Gusenbauer, former Austrian Chancellor and the other attendees. The project group has since expanded to include Executive Member Preth Rao who attended the follow up meeting and the group continues to grow from strength to strength with Young Fabians driving the policy agenda. The largest international event undertaken this year was to run the only Labour Leadership hustings on International affairs. The Young Fabians hosted the Labour in the World hustings with support from the Labour Campaign for International Development, SERA and Co-operative Party Youth. The Labour in the World hustings took place in Bristol with an attendance of over 450 members and received coverage on BBC Newsnight. The event was an enormous success in ensuring Labour’s Leadership candidates talked firmly about world affairs ranging from the principles of ethical foreign policy, to development policy and defence. Aside from policy the Young Fabians ensured again we are campaigners as well as thinkers, by sending a joint delegation with Young Labour of 15 members to campaign for the Swedish Social Democrats in their general election. Our members campaigned in Stockholm Central district and received briefings from the Social Democrats as well as the SSU, the party’s youth wing. We were also invited to the official results reception where we met with the British Ambassador to Sweden as well as the Leader of the Social Democrats, Mona Salin. Although the result was not what we had hoped for, the experience of campaigning in another country, learning new tactics and engaging with challenging policy arguments as well as combating the rise of the far right were great opportunities for our members. Our experiences in this election are being drawn together to be shared with other Young Fabian members, the Labour Party and our colleagues in Sweden. The Young Fabians also lent support through telephone canvassing with Young Democrats Abroad for the US Mid term elections. Lastly, the Young Fabians have been invited by the Overseas Development Institute to send delegates to a round table discussion bringing together leading think tanks working on and engaging with international development. Our reach on international policy and campaigns this year has again proved extremely valuable to our membership and to those with whom our members lend their expertise and abilities. From the Labour Party, to UK and international think tanks and political parties our work in the international field remains high calibre as well as highly respected.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
SARA IBRAHIM EMBASSIES OFFICER
This year the Young Fabians have worked towards building long term relationships with the Embassies and High Commissions in London. A range of events were organised which explored areas of policy where we could learn from other countries and also how we could work together to solve global problems. The first event was with the Swedish Embassy on 27 May, where in the region of 50 Young Fabian members attended to debate the issue of ‘gender and equality’ from the Swedish perspective. It was of interest to hear the Deputy Head of Mission explain the Swedish system of ‘parental leave’ and the impact of not dividing childcare into maternity and paternity leave as is the custom in this country. Perhaps the most striking part of the evening was in spite of overall better parity between the sexes in Sweden, that there seemed to be a greater ambition to resolve existing gender inequalities than in the UK. Before Labour Party Conference, the Young Fabians held two further events: one with the Indonesian Embassy and one with the US Embassy. In view of Indonesia’s position as the most populous Muslim country, it was decided to debate the compatibility of Islam and Democracy. Two speakers attended the event, Dr Sukma (a visiting academic from Indonesia) and Dr Hargey (a liberal Imam and chair of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford) to offer their insights. Given the publicity received by countries with predominately Muslim populations such as Iran and Pakistan, it was timely to focus on other examples. This event was followed by a joint debate on the approaching US mid-term elections and the anticipated impact on Foreign Policy with the youth branches of the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Professor Thomas Mann attended as a speaker (senior fellow from the Brookings Institute) as well as MPs from all three political parties including Chris Bryant MP. Additionally, as the Young Fabian Embassies officer I have attended Italian Day celebrations at the Italian Embassy and also had a meeting with the Brazilian Embassy staff.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
ANNA-JOY RICKARD WEB OFFICER
There has been lots of hard work behind the scenes on the Young Fabian website this year to keep it up-to-date and at the forefront of Young Fabian activity. In the last year traffic to the Young Fabian website has grown from around 1,000 unique users viewing 4,500 pages per month to an average of around 1,500 unique users viewing 5,500 pages per month across the year. The face of the website has been given a refresh, and its content has expanded significantly. New content added this year have included pages dedicated to: • • • •
Young Fabian Networks Young Fabian Women People who are new to politics, and Young Fabian members outside of London.
The Policy Development Groups Hub on the website has been central to the 2010 Young Fabian policy work, and the first year that online web chats have been used to facilitate the participation of members outside of London. I’ve also played a key role in facilitating the Aspiration and Equality Policy Development Group, and over the year I have given particular support to Young Fabian Women activities and our Reform work. Based in Nottingham, I’ve endeavoured to bring the perspective of members outside of London to the Executive table and create a model of active, sustainable exec involvement from outside of London.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
ALEX BAKER NEW MEDIA OFFICER
My goal this year was a fairly modest one – to improve our the content offer on our website, and bring the benefit of emerging technology to Young Fabian activity. I also wanted to continue the work I started as Anticipations editor between 2007 and 2009 in professionalising our published material, both online and offline. I’ve made significant progress in delivering my objective this year, including: •
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Blog. Readership of our multi-author blog has grown over the year, with around 1,000 unique users a month now accessing the site. We regularly feature contributions from Young Fabian members as well as guest writers, such as Alastair Campbell who wrote about mental health during Equalities Month. We were also voted amongst the Top 100 Labour blogs in a recent Total Politics survey. This is a considerable success given the blog only launched a year ago. Social Media. We’ve made better use of social media this year. For example, this year is the first the Young Fabians has had a Twitter account, which we use to market our events and publications – @youngfabians is now followed by getting on for 1,000 people. And we’ve encouraged the use of “live-tweeting” at events. Webchats. This year we’ve incorporated online discussions as part of our broader activity. We held a number of online discussions as part of the Policy Development Group activity, and webchats with three of the Labour leadership candidates – Ed Miliband, David Miliband and Andy Burnham. Podcasts. We’ve brought you audio from a number of events this year – the Labour Leadership hustings event in Bristol, the launch of The New Generation pamphlet, the Emergency Budget debate, our new members’ reception, and the launch of Young Fabian Women. Antics:Lite. This year saw the launch of a new Young Fabian publication – Antics:Lite. A sister publication to Anticipations, the journal of the Young Fabians, Antics:Lite is a shorter e-publication which is designed to be more responsive to current events. We published two editions in the last few months, on Copenhagen and the Robin Hood Tax. Archive. We began the process of building an archive of published content online in celebration of our 50th year with the development of the Anticipations archive. Editions from as far back as 2001 are now available to read on the Young Fabian website, with plans to add other publications in the coming year. More targeted communications. We now send separate e-mail updates to members and nonmembers and have recently started e-mailing MPs with a special digest of our activity. Design. I’ve overhauled the design of the blog, updated design elements on the website and provided design support to other colleagues throughout the year. In addition, the email update was redesigned at the turn of the year and I’ve provided extensive support to Preth to deliver the weekly updates and other mailings to our email lists.
A lot of my work has been focused on supporting my colleagues on the Executive ‘behind-thescenes’ to ensure their activity is as successful as possible, which has often entailed long hours and late nights. Importantly, this activity has allowed us to better involve members who live outside of London, or who otherwise may not have participated. It’s been a challenge to effect a culture change in the way the Executive approach Young Fabian activity, but increasingly new media forms an important – and sometimes central – component to our activity.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
JAMES GREEN EDITOR, ANTICIPATIONS
Over the course of this year Anticipations has gone from strength to strength. The quality of its content and profile of its guest contributors is testament to the success not only of the magazine but also of the Young Fabians more widely. Anticipations has included contributions from top politicians, leading journalists and key opinion formers including the new leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband, RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor and the chair of Britain’s first ever televised leaders debate, Alastair Stewart. The Young Fabians have also created more ways than ever before for our members to contribute with a wide variety of new features and sections. The Young Fabians would like to thank the many politicians who have written for the magazine over the course of the year. We received contributions from all the leadership candidates, many of Labour’s new MPs (Emma Reynolds MP, Rachel Reeves MP, Pamela Nash MP, Gloria De Perio MP) and a good number of Labour stalwarts (Gordon Brown MP, John Prescott, David Blunkett MP). We also included contributions from key opinion formers including Ben Page, Sarah Brown, Adam Boulton and Patrick Diamond. In addition to securing strong content, we have led a number of notable innovation during this year including: • • •
• •
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A full redesign. Anticipations has been redesigned and our new look magazine has been well received by politicians, opinion formers and Young Fabian members; The first ever colour Young Fabians magazine. For the first time in its history Anticipations was printed in full colour this year; The first ever online edition. For the first time Anticipations was published online. The online ‘taster edition’ allowed the Young Fabians to reach out to a wider audience, increasing our influence and reach; An online Anticipations archive. Past copies of Anticipations are now available to read and download in full on the Young Fabians website; Posting Anticipations with Fabian Review. This shared mailing strengthened the Young Fabian brand, built a stronger relationship between us and the Fabian Society and led to significant cost savings; A wider distribution. Anticipations is now sent to a wide range of key opinion formers from politics, thinktanks and the media. It was recently referenced by David Aaronovitch in his Times column.
For further information about Anticipations, to view the magazine archive and to read the latest edition online, visit www.youngfabians.org.uk.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
CLAIRE LEIGH REFORM OFFICER
As Young Fabians we should constantly seek ways to improve how we operate. In this spirit and to coincide with our 50th Anniversary, last year our Chair decided to create the new role of Reform Officer within the executive committee. As Reform Officer I was tasked with taking a fresh look at the functioning of the Young Fabians to consider what changes we could make to become more relevant, transparent, democratic and inclusive. Through the annual members survey conducted by Adrian Prandle and other consultations, many Executive members came up with brilliant ideas for improving the way we work. Using these suggestions I produced a discussion paper, which you can now read on our website [Can we hyperlink this?], which presented a range of options for opening up meaningful participation in the society. In particular the paper looked at the way YFs recruit and elect the Executive Committee. This paper informed a range of initiatives that took place the year and will continue to affect our work, such as publishing a mission statement at the beginning of the year and actively explaining our constitution and internal structures to our members. Many of the proposed changes were adopted and some implemented ahead of this year’s Executive election, but a host of other reforms will be introduced over the coming year under the leadership of the incoming committee. So watch this space! We will be at our most effective if Executive members bring a range of backgrounds, experiences, networks and opinions to the table, as well as the talent and dedication to leverage these. Diversity has not been our strongest asset in the past, and it is vital we address the issues that underlie this.
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FOCUS ON... LABOUR LEADERSHIP CONTEST This year the Young Fabians provided a number of ways for its members - and others - to get involved in the Labour leadership contest. • Web-chats - we hosted web-chats with almost all of the Leadership candidates. They attracted hundreds of participants and allowed members across the UK to put their questions directly the the candidates. • Hustings - we co-hosted a unique hustings event in Bristol alongside WWF, LCID and SERA titled ‘Labour in the World’ to focus on issues of international development and environmental change. Over 400 people attended and the event was opened by Young Fabian International Officer Brian Duggan. We also co-hosted a hustings event in London, with the Fabians, LabourList, Progress, Labour List, Left Foot Forward and Compass. • Anticipations - the Summer edition of our magazine featured contributions from all of the Leadership candidates. They answered a series of questions such as ‘What is your vision for Britain?’ and ‘What are the lessons of the last 13 years?’
YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
MARIE-NOELLE LOEWE EQUALITIES OFFICER
In our 50th anniversary year, we dedicated an entire month to one subject: March became the Young Fabians Equalities Month. For four weeks, we held events and dedicated most of our blog content to the Equality Bill, Women in Parliament, and for the first time ever, we raised the issue of Mental Health. Our panel debate “What’s next for Equalities” with panellists Nia Griffith MP, then PPS to Harriet Harman MP, Seema Malhotra, Founder of the Fabians Women’s Network, Tom Copley (LGBT Labour) and Tulip Siddiq, BAME Officer for Young Labour, spoke to a packed room about the achievements of the last Labour Government and the next big challenges the Left had to take on to create a fairer society. Our panel debate “Equalties and Mental Health” with panellists Lynne Jones MP (Chair of APPG on Mental Health), Dr Rachel Perkins (South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust) Janet Davies (Time to Change) and Victoria Walsh (Rethink) saw an engaged and often passionate debate about the stigma people with Mental Health issues often encounter, as well as the lack of support from health services and employers they often experience. As one of the best known campaigners for Mental Health issues, Alistair Campbell wrote a very personal contribution to our blog. The highlight of Equalities Month was the launch of Young Fabian Women (YFW) in Parliament: with the support of UNISON and with our guest speaker and host Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP. Young Fabian Women provides a space on the left for young women to get involved in progressive politics, and encourages more young women to make their voices heard by joining the debate, on and offline or standing for public positions. At our YFW event in June; “Learning Lessons from the Election” our guest speakers Tulip Siddiq, then newly elected Councillor in Camden, Young Fabian Executive member Rebecca Rennison, a former PPC, and Young Fabian Executive member Pamela Nash MP shared their experiences with a packed room of women.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
PRETH RAO SECRETARY
As secretary for my main role has consisted of collating and writing the weekly email update to help inform our members of all the upcoming Young Fabian activities. In addition, in the year I organised three events. The first was a “Standing for the Young Fabian Executive” event, a follow-up from last year which aims to encourage members to stand for election or co-option to the Young Fabian Executive, dispelling myths and providing transparency on the process, this was informed by Reform agenda which was a priority for the Executive this year and will continue to be. I also organised an event with Young Fabian Women after the May election with local government and Parliamentary candidates (both elected and defeated) to ask them about their experiences in standing for political office, exploring barriers and discussing strategies to overcome them. This was a ‘Chatham House’ rules women only event and aimed to encourage more young women to stand for political office in the future, addressing the representation gap. This is one of the many objectives of the Young Fabian Women. In October I also organised an event entitled “Power to the People” with Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of the London Borough of Lambeth, Jonathan Cox from London Citizens and Young Fabian member and academic Dr Claire Russell to debate what can the progressive left expect of people with political focus and discourse centring on the concept of the Big Society and community organising which requires different expectations from individuals and society.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
VINCENZO RAMPULLA MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
This has been a great year for member development, with the Executive working flat out to increase opportunities for Young Fabians to get involved. We have moved to not just being the pre-eminent membership think-tank for young people on the political left, but we have opened up ways to grow the ‘do-tank’ side of what Young Fabians membership offers. The Executive as a whole has worked together across the year improving opportunities for our members across the UK to take part in activities and members have shown their support though a larger and growing membership, as well as an increased participation in Young Fabian events both on and off-line. This means that we enter the new Young Fabian year with an increased expectation on the Executive to develop our work to include more members and open up the the society in future years. As well as delivering some of the permanent fixtures of the Young Fabian calender: the new members’ reception, the annual dinner and the annual boat party, I have shown an appetite to branch out into delivering new social events for members. This year, before General Election fever took hold, I developed a Young Fabian Film Night focusing on racism. It was popular enough to ensure that we look forward to developing this type of social event in 2011. The General Election took up a huge amount of the year but also provided an important opportunity to show that Young Fabians as campaigners too. Our series of campaigning days in London, for parliamentary and local candidates who have shown particular commitment to issues of importance to Young Fabians: housing, international development, community action, antiracism, to name a few, were both popular and successful. The turnout for these events showed that Young Fabians are interested in campaigning and these sessions were allowed new members to get involved and meet other members in non-policy focused activities.
MEMBERSHIP FIGURES:
Nov 2009:
1,380
Nov 2010:
1,720 18
This year we also showed our ability to bring together political groups together, and organise events outside of London. We took the lead with other organisations to deliver three Leaders TV debate watch-and-campaign-parties, with a further one organised in Manchester. Members from throughout the UK were able to take part in these events through our on-line work supporting the debate screenings. Excitingly we able to show that we can empower non-Executive members to organise successful events and build activity outside of London. We have learned from this work, looking at how we can integrate on-line access for all our events to widen participation. This was particularly evident in the Leadership webchats delivered during the Labour Leader contest. With the three candidates talking to Young Fabian members throughout the UK, we were able to attract hundreds of interested young people to take part. More generally we have continued to ensure that members have been able to contribute their ideas through regular guest content on the Young Fabian blog, including the ‘Campaigner’s Diary’ guestpost series. There has been more. As testament to our membership work we leave 2010 in the envious position of having had an unprecedented 44 candidates put their name down to be part of Executive in this year’s election. It will be a tough act for next year’s Executive to beat.
YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
RICHARD LANE OFFICER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO
After being elected to the Young Fabian Executive in November 2009, I took the role of Officer without Portfolio. As part of this role I have been involved in organising a number of events and helping co-ordinate Young Fabian activity throughout the year. To mark the launch of the 50th year of the Young Fabians I secured us a special weekend of guest editing LabourList to coincide with the Fabian Society New Year Conference. In March I organised an ‘In Conversation Event’ between Oona King and Lord Kinnock in Portcullis House, Westminster, which was attended by almost 80 Young Fabian members. Lord Kinnock spoke about a wide range of topics including reflecting on his own experience of the 1992 general election and offering parallels with the General Election that took place in May 2010. Furthermore I helped organise the Young Fabian presence at both the Progress and Compass Annual Conferences in May and June 2010. At both events we had a strong presence and promoted our latest work to attendees allowing us to sign up new members in the process. I have recently organised the first Young Fabian pub quiz of 2010 where we welcomed over 50 people to compete for the top prize. Finally, alongside Vincenzo Rampulla, I have been organising the Young Fabian Annual Dinner which took place on Friday 12thNovember where we welcomed guest speaker Stella Creasy and over 50 Young Fabian members.
SHAMIK DAS SOCIAL AND MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
Over the past 12 months we have held many events, and seen a significant rise in our membership. I am particularly proud that we have branched out of London and held a number of events outside the capital. The annual Young Fabian Boat Party attracted nearly 150 guests and our events in Manchester at the Fabian Conference and during the Leaders TV debates also attracted big crowds, many of whom had never been to a Young Fabian event before. I also helped set up the Young Fabians PayPal account, which will hopefully enable us to collect payment for events and advertise our events online more easily in the future. I contributed regularly to the blog, which has flourished this year, and I believe will continue to do so.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
NICK MAXWELL NETWORK AND SCHOOLS OFFICER
In March 2010, the Young Fabians launched a new series of online collaborative Networks to enable specific professional groups to better engage with the work of the Young Fabians. We established a ‘Future of Finance’ Network and a ‘Technology and Society’ Network, which - together - aim to connect socially-minded individuals from finance, research, technology, engineering, and scientific communities with progressive politics. Our hope was that the Networks would provide an empowering opportunity for progressives, of all shades, to contribute their expertise to the effort to respond to global policy challenges. Network membership is not limited to Young Fabian members, but open to all individuals who identify as socially-minded. Since the launch we have had a number of successes. Through the Network steering groups, we’ve created a new body of active members who are in regular contact with me as the YF Networks Officer. The concept and mission of the Networks has received wide support from the Chair and YF Executive, the steering groups, our members and interested stakeholders – including the Labour Finance and Industry Group and prominent MPs. Membership of both Networks has grown steadily, including bringing in members who were not previously Young Fabians, and in particular, the Networks have secured the £2,050 in sponsorship from organisations that the Young Fabians did not have a previous relationship with. In short the networks have brought in members and funding and, through events, special publications and high quality blogs, increased our ability to comment on social and economic issues. The current Executive has produced a handover document for the next Executive to help ensure that the existing member and sponsor engagement around the Networks is not lost. Our schools work in 2010 included a series of discussions on ‘Fabianism’ and modern politics in schools within and around the London area. A number of schools were visited and talks given, including providing the John Locke lecture at Westminster School, however with more dedicated resources there is ample opportunity for the Executive to engage with school students in a more effective and comprehensive way in 2010/11.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
JAMES GREEN CANDIDATES NETWORK OFFICER
The Young Fabians Candidates Network has become an important resource for Labour candidates up and down the country. Set up last year, the network aimed to provide a space for Labour candidates to get advice, explore ideas and share best practice with each other. To foster this sharing, the network moved online at the beginning of this year. This marked an important turning point, shifting control away from the Young Fabian executive and giving ownership of the network to the candidates themselves. There was a clear demand for the network. Within two weeks of launch 75 parliamentary and council candidates had joined the network and by the time the General Election came around nearly 10% of Labour’s Parliamentary Candidates had signed up. Based online, the network allowed candidates to upload videos, blog posts and leaflets, participate in discussion forums and post any questions that they had. A great deal of innovative work was shared on the network and the Young Fabians updated network members on the latest content on a frequent basis (bi-weekly during the short campaign). Network members such as Kevin McKeever, who fought for Labour in Harborough, discussed how social media could be used to its full potential. Others such as Jonathan Todd, Labour’s candidate in Westmorland and Lonsdale, shared their experiences of hustings and working with the media. And candidates such as Howard Dawber in Bexleyheath and Crayford uploaded great leaflets that went far beyond traditional efforts. During the General Election the network offered invaluable support to Labour candidates across the country. Candidates often had similar aims, tasks and challenges and yet have few, if any, opportunities to learn from each other. In the time-pressured environment of a General Election the network allowed them to collaborate, learn from each other and share their experiences of the campaign trail. For further information and to view the network visit http://youngfabians-networks-candidates.ning. com/.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
REBECCA RENNISON TREASURER
This year has been another challenging financial year, with the significant drop-off in regular sponsorship we have often struggled to fund all our activities. Whilst the Young Fabians are run by volunteers and many of our events are hosted at no cost, we do need money to print Anticipations, pamphlets, and ongoing costs such as our website and mailing provider, and ideally to provide social and reception events such as the launch of Young Fabian Women. The Young Fabians is run on a very small budget and whilst we receive some money from the senior society this alone is not sufficient for us to put on a full range of events and publications and fundraising is a key part of Young Fabian activities. Unfortunately, the recession mean tough times for left-wing organisations seeking sponsorship. However, thanks to the efforts of Executive members and the generosity of our sponsors we have still managed to put on a full range of Young Fabian events throughout the course of the year and finish the year with a healthy bank balance. I’d like to thank our sponsors this year: • • • • • • •
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WWF TUC Unison TU Fund Managers Jersey Finance Prospect Magazine Egon Zehnder
YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
STEVE RACE FUNDRAISING OFFICER
As stated by our Treasurer, this year has continued to present challenges on the fundraising front, the economic conditions exacerbated for us by the General Election result. Specifically this year I co-ordinated a write-round to all Labour MPs to ask for financial support which generated a welcome sum of money. In addition I sourced raffle prizes for events including the boat party – our most successful, raising over £200. We also received ongoing donations from Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP. I was pleased to have helped our International Officer organise the Young Fabian ‘Labour in the World’ Labour leadership hustings. I sourced and booked the venue in Bristol, the Passenger Shed, which provided an impressive backdrop for the hustings and over 400 Young Fabian and Labour members in the South West. It is important that the Young Fabians organise events outside of London, and this proved our commitment to doing so. I worked closely with the Chair to help organise our event at this year’s annual Labour Party Conference. Specifically I organised and provided briefings for the speakers: Glenis Willmott MEP, Stella Creasy MP, Hazel Blears MP, and Sadiq Khan MP. I’d like to thank all the speakers who took time out of their busy conference schedules to speak to the Young Fabians. I organised an event in November titled ‘Selections & Elections: New MPs talk about the General Election 2010’ and was pleased to have Emma Reynolds MP, Luciana Berger MP, Gavin Shuker MP and former Harborough PPC Kevin McKeever on the panel. It provided a forum for MPs to talk candidly with Young Fabian members who may be PPC’s in the future. The event was chaired by former PPC and Young Fabian Executive member James Green. On December 6th I have planned an event with Lord Adonis to discuss the coalition negotiations in May of this year, and the implications for future collaboration with the Liberal Democrats. Finally, I have been very happy to co-ordinate the booking of rooms in Parliament for our events, and thanks again to Ben Bradshaw MP for being our principle sponsor on this front. It is only with this access that we are able to put on such a full and broad programme of policy panel events. I’ve endeavoured to be as useful as possible to Young Fabian members and Executive colleagues in organising their own work, and wish the 2010/11 executive all the best for their term.
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
EVENTS DIARY 2009/10
53 events – excluding all the Policy Development Group meetings which are not individually listed From the Webbs to the Web: The official Launch of the Young Fabian Blog Wednesday 18th November 2009, the House of Commons Young Fabians 50th Year Launch with Lord Mandelson – at Fabian Society New Year Conference Saturday 16th January 2010, Imperial College, London Young Fabian Film Club launch Monday 25th January, Birkbeck Student Bar, London Young Fabians/Young Labour - First-time voters telephone campaigning Tuesday 9th March, Labour HQ, Victoria Street Young Fabians New Members Reception Tuesday 9th March, Westminster Young Fabian Social at Fabian Society Conference Saturday 13th March, Manchester Young Fabians Equalities Month: “What next for Equalities?” 16th March, House of Commons Young Fabians Equalities Months: Reception to celebrate the launch of Young Fabian Women with Patricia Hewitt MP 18th March, Portcullis House Young Fabians Equalities Months: “Mental Health and Equalities: What more can he Government do for young people?” 23rd March, House of Commons Young Fabians campaign with National Volunteer Taskforce Wednesday 24th March Launch of the Young Fabian Networks - “Technology and Society” and “Future of Finance” Networks Thursday 25th March, Association of British Insurers, London Young Fabians 50th Year Event - election Special with Lord Neil Kinnock Chaired by Oona King Monday, 29 March, House of Commons Young Fabians campaign with National Volunteer Taskforce Wednesday 31 March Young Fabian community campaigning with Stella Creasy MP and Cllr Mark Rusling, Waltham Forest Saturday 3rd April
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
Young Fabian community campaigning with Cllr Kate Groucutt and Conor McGinn, Islington Saturday 10 April Young Fabian community campaigning in Islington South and Finsbury with Emily Thornberry Sunday 11th April Young Fabian Women and Unite4Labour “Winning 4 Women” Phone Banking Day Wednesday 14th April Leaders’ Debate Campaign Event and Launch of the Labour LGBT Manifesto Thursday 15th April, Old Compton Street, London Young Fabian community campaigning in Barking and Dagenham with Hope Not Hate Saturday 17th April Young Fabian community campaigning in Islington South and Finsbury with Emily Thornberry Sunday 18th April Young Fabians Phone Canvassing and Leaders’ TV Debate event Thursday 22nd April, New Oxford Street, London Young Fabian community campaigning Westminster North Saturday 24th April Young Fabian Women and Unite4Labour “Winning 4 Women” Phone Banking Day Wednesday 21st and 28th April Young Fabians Phone Canvassing and Leaders’ TV Debate event Thursday 29th April, The Strand, London Young Fabians Phone Canvassing and Leaders’ TV Debate event Thursday 29th April, Manchester Young Fabian community campaigning in Bethnal Green and Bow Saturday 1st May Young Fabian community campaigning in Harrow West Monday 3rd May Young Fabian Post Election social gathering with David Miliband and Ed Miliband Wednesday 19th May, The George, London Young Fabian event at the Swedish Embassy – ‘The Swedish Model of Equality’ Thursday 27th May, Swedish Embassy, London Young Fabian Boat Party 2010 Friday July 9th, Westminster Docks Young Fabians co-hosted Labour Leadership Hustings Monday June 14th, London Young Fabian Women: Learning Lessons From the Election Tuesday June 15th, House of Commons The Young Fabians Budget Debate: Cutting waste or wasting potential? Co-hosted with Progress Tuesday 22 June, House of Commons Young Fabian Campaign Session: Chadwell By-election 3 July
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YOUNG FABIANS ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10
Young Fabian London Theatre Outing Thursday 15th July, Tricycle Theatre, London Standing for the Young Fabian Executive Monday 19th July, House of Commons Young Fabians next Leader web-chats: Ed Miliband MP Friday 13 August Young Fabians next Leader web-chats: David Miliband MP Friday 27 August Young Fabians next Leader web-chats: Andy Burnham MP Thursday 2 September Young Fabians co-hosted Labour Leadership Hustings - Labour in the World Thursday 9th September, The Passenger Shed, Bristol Young Fabians and Movement for Change special Community Organising Workshop 13th September, Westminster Young Fabians Campaigning trip to Sweden 16th -20th September Young Fabians Embassy event: ‘Indonesia - Islam & Democracy’ Thursday 16th September, Indonesian Embassy, London Young Fabians ‘Future of Finance’ Network event - “Balance in the boardroom: How to get more women leaders in the City?” Wednesday 22 September, London Stock Exchange, London Young Fabians Embassy event: ‘US Mid-term Elections and Foreign Policy - Discussion and Reception’ Thursday 23rd September, U.S. Embassy, London Young Fabians Labour Party Conference Rally Sunday 28th September, Manchester Centre Young Fabian Pub Quiz Tuesday 12th October, Old Star Pub, Westminster Launch of ‘The New Generation’ pamphlet Thursday 21 October, , House of Commons, London ‘Power to the people’ - a debate on co-ops, mutualism and community organising Monday 25th October, House of Commons ‘Protected or pilfered? - What the CSR really means for R&D and science in the UK?’ Wednesday 27 October, House of Commons ‘Selections and Elections: New MPs talk about the General Election 2010’ Monday 8th November, House of Commons Young Fabians Annual Dinner Friday, 12th November, The Rose, Albert Embankment, London Young Fabians AGM Saturday 13th November, London
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