The Young Socialists - Labour's Lost Youth"

Most of this Young Guard pamphlet by Mike Coggins is given over to a comprehensive history of the Young Socialists since its inception in 1960, This section is thorough, reasonably objective and tells the story of the depressing “evolution” of the Y.S. Some points of emphasis can be faulted. In discussing the faction fighting within the Y.S., Cogzins comments, "Many of the leading members of the left factions had achieved a political sophistication that enabled them to discuss issues which to an outsider would seem obscure and trifling.". I would be tempted to use a word other than "sophistication", unless it was meant in the original sense, Coggins also scores highly when he discusses what steps should be taken to get the Y.S. out of its present impasse. He favours autonomy within the Labour Party for the Y.S, An executive committee must be allowed, with democratic control of New Advance and the right to discuss politics at all levels of the organisation. NALSO is even given a pat on the head, in spite of its "small" size. Coggins estimates the Y.S. as having 5,000 members, NALSO has some 7,000, All this will, no doubt, please those Y.S, members who, at the 1962 Y.S, Conference, voted for a "NALSO-like constitution." Even posthumous support is welcome. It is unfortunate that Coggins falls into the usual semantic trap. He calls for an autonomous and fully integrated Y.S. "This demand is not, as some have suggested, a contradiction in termSeeee' Unfortunetely it is, As any Regional Youth Officer would have told him, and Len Williams most definitely, an integrated organisation acts on the same policy as the adult party and has a national advisory committee as opposed to an executive committee. This, of course, does not affect Coggins! argument for a self-governing youth movement with the fullest links with the adult party at local level. Coggins! pamphlet is a start to the reappraisal and argument that is necessary before Labour can@hieve a strong and useful youth movement, The delegates at Malvern later this month are left with the responsibility for deepening the analysis and organising to exert pressure to get their conclusions implemented.