Labour Youth to donate 0.7% of it's budget to ODA

by Asking a question Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:01

Can someone from Labour Youth tell us how much 0.7% of their budget is?

by Belfield oldtimer Sat Jun 25, 2005 14:47

Great to see that former SWP member Donal is doing such great work donating 0.7% of LY's budget which is probably a megre amount of money anyway. Donal says nothing about where the money is going and who will control it. He also says nothing about the need for socialism to solve the problems of the world.

by Chris Bond - Labour Youth, UCD Left Sat Jun 25, 2005 14:54

More bullshit from Psudo hardleft layabouts hiding behind alliases., Labour Youth have done more to challenge the conservative consensus in this country and worldwide than you people will do in your lifetime.

by Seán Sat Jun 25, 2005 15:00

Fair play to Labour Youth, Im no fan of the LP or LY but at least they are doing something - far more than the armchair begrudggers such as 'belfield old timer'.

The world is in a mess will socialism save it? At socialisms current rate of progress probally not, and certainly not led by the current 'socialist cadre' and the 'trots in tots' who possibly couldnt lead themselves out of a paper bag.

So fair play to LY and dont mind the pathetic internet attacks such as 'belfield outsider' - by an individual who wont bother to put his name where his mouth is.

by Mark P - Socialist Party (personal cap) Sat Jun 25, 2005 15:52

Actually I think the first question asked is very reasonable and despite the unneccessarily hostile tone of the second comment some of the points made are reasonable too. Of course the tone of the second poster leads straight to the empty and foolish bluster of Chris Bond's response.

This is a nice gesture I suppose but without the real details - how much money, where is it going, who will spend it - people are always going to see it as primarily a mildly clever publicity stunt. And either way, are charities and state aid really the way in which the world can be changed?

by another belfield oldtimer Sat Jun 25, 2005 16:20

Chris, grow up.

Sean, the above comments are completely resonable and fair. Where is the money going? what ngo ill they give it to? what outcomes will result? how efficent is it being used? these are important issues to be dealt with if one wishes to go down the route of redistibuting money to solve global problems as opposed to tackling the ecomomic, social, affective and political structures that give rise to the problems in the first place. if they are attempting to make a symbolic gesture and lead the govenment by example then should they not raise it above 0.7? no one would deny it is a fair gesture. more money is not the soultion to global poverty. make capitalism history. giving more money is like giving an anti biotic- it attempts to remove the face of the problem as opposed to getting to the root of it. if one removes the root then Labour youth and every other political party will also become obsolete. Thus , fair play to the gesture but your damn well fooling yourself if you think it is going to make any genuine difference.

by Chris Bond Sat Jun 25, 2005 17:17

Im the one that needs to grow up?

Every thread that appears on this website to do with labour or labour is inevitably turned into a pro labour vs anti labour slagging match, even if the labour happen to be doing more about the issue at hand then the people on the tread who are voicing criticisms of the party.

by Mark P - SP (pc) Sat Jun 25, 2005 17:29

There is plenty of unneccessary sniping on this website. That is in part a consequence of the immaturity of some of the contributors and the total anonymity giving free-reign to people to have a go at their perceived rivals. That said, I don't see why Chris seems to think that the Labour Party should be able to regularly post its press releases without encountering questioning, criticism and alternative points of view.

In the absence of more details this story seems to me to amount to "Labour Youth gives small amount of money to charity". People have responded by asking how much money? Where is it going? Is charity or state aid really the way in which the neo-colonial world can break its economic chains? And to be honest, while some of the contributions both from Labour's critics and its supporter, have been unneccessarily bad tempered and harsh, these strike me as perfectly legitimate questions to ask.

by Séin Sat Jun 25, 2005 19:32

This really is absurd. Labour Youth are doing something worthwhile good on them - its not going to change the world but its still a gesture and more of a gesture that the SP have made (or anyother party for that example).

The questions raised are legitimate - however the manner in which they have been raised aren't. The petty point scoring is just damn silly and a turn off.

LY dont have to justify themselves to anon armchairs questioners - equally the SP is entitled to ask legitimate questions but this childish attitude of 'Im more socialist than you/ Im better than you etc' is simply childish and is largely one of the reasons why most people are so tired of the bickering that goes on in the left.

Lads cop yourself on - again to point out Labours donation wont change the world but fair play to them its a donation equally blatent political point scoring is just petty and a turn off.

Mark if you and the SP have questions about the scope of Labours donation (considering that you really care which I doubt you do) contact them rather than wasting all our time by engaging in this point scoring

by Mark P - Socialist Party (personal capacity) Sat Jun 25, 2005 20:02

Hang on a second, Séin. The Labour Youth people started a thread on this subject. Not me. The original posting was vague and people have every right to ask questions in response to it or to make political comments about it. That's how indymedia works. If the Labour Party want to publish press releases without others having the ability to ask questions or make comments then they have their own website for that.

Nobody from Labour Youth has told us how much money they are talking about, where it is going, or what role they think charity and governmental aid has to play in changing the world. I'm baffled to see someone argue that it is unfair to raise these issues in the context of the original article. I quite agree that one or two of the comments made on this thread have been unnecessarily hostile, but that doesn't change the validity of raising these issues.

On the side issue of the Socialist Party and donations to good causes in other country, I have no problem discussing that. We are regularly involved in fundraising efforts - although our efforts tend to go towards helping socialist and trade union causes rather than towards unspecified "overseas aid". The highest profile example recently was probably the appeal made by socialists in Sri Lanka. However we have also recently been involved in donating money to trade union campaigns in Nigeria and elsewhere. I suppose you could look at this as the difference between solidarity and charity.

by JackJack - N/A Sat Jun 25, 2005 22:50

It's a gesture, nothing more. 0,7% of LY's budget is miniscule, but it's a gesture. Pure and simple. Now imagine if every other youth wing and opposition party pledged that, to say nothing of the Labour Party itself and we might actually be getting somewhere in terms of actual money, but even that's fairly irrelevant. LY's gesture is merely to keep the issue in the media spotlight, and I say fair enough, it's a despicable thing that the Government went back on their promise and to highlight it again is fair game.

by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin Sun Jun 26, 2005 08:36

How many other youth wings get a 'budget'?

by Realist Sun Jun 26, 2005 15:08

Surely any organisation is allowed to keep their financial records to themselves... if Labour Youth got on and told you 0.7% of their budget ant it isnt so hard to discover what their entire budget is - thats their own business


Also something the trots have yet to learn is that some (read as most) NGO's don't want to be linked to a political party as an activist in the community sector I was well pissed to see the attempt to hijack the MPH campaign

by . Sun Jun 26, 2005 15:13

the socialist party too doesn't want to be linked to ngos, they often do great work but by nature are less political as they often depend on governments for funding.

by Chris Bond - Labour Youth Sun Jun 26, 2005 15:28

When we make a press release, people are more than entitled to offer their comments, viewpoints and constructive criticism. The thing that pisses me off is that if we post a thread about something like the coke boycott, use of shannon warport it inevitably degenerates into a rant about the tax amnesties or something like that which is nearly always purpotrated by members of other polictical parties and movements from behind psudonoms. Even if current members of the Labour party where in different organisations at the time, and did a lot more to oppose that type of thing than people voicing their criticisms on that thread. When we hold meetings with guest speakers in UCD, many people come along and offer their viewpoints and criticisms, and we think that thats a good thing. However if we go along to a meeting of a few other organisation, with a few notable exceptions we are told either to join or get the fck out. I also find it even more laughable that armchair begrudgers like to rant about the pros and cons of labour, on a thread about labour youths support for the coke boycott, when they have done nothing to further the coke boycott themselves.

by anonymous! Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:06

people really do need to watch jay and silent bob strike back! the definition of the internet is a forum to anonomously attack each other!!!!

by Love me I'm a liberal - feed the world Wed Jun 29, 2005 13:16

do they know it's christmas? i bet you they don't!