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Socialist Environmental Alliance policy paper on young people - June 2001

uploaded 19th February 2004

Imagine starting to look at issues about men by talking only about rapists - or asylum seekers by talking only about 'bogus' claims. It would be considered unacceptable and rightly so. Yet this is the way any discussion of young people by politicians and the media usually begins.

The Socialist Environmental Alliance starts from a recognition that the overwhelming majority of young people want to have a stake in society, to play a positive role in their communities and to have their point of view heard.

But they can contribute to society only if they feel connected to it. In order to feel connected, they need:

  • To have access to resources;
  • To feel their contribution will be listened to and taken into account
  • To feel their expectations will be met, in terms of jobs that pay a decent wage with proper conditions of employment.

We know that young people living in poorer areas are more likely to be excluded from school, to opt out early of the school system which has let them down and to leave school without any formal qualifications, often without basic literacy skills. Some of the problems with the school system here can be traced back to the effects of selection when children are told at the age of 10 or 11 that they are 'failures'. But poverty and a lack of hope about their future are the main cause of these young people's alienation from their communities, from mainstream politics and from society generally.

The patronising attitudes of all the mainstream parties on the Council to the problems facing young people in Derry and the demonisation of young people by politicians and media alike will do nothing to help improve their lives nor to tackle the anti-social behaviour of the minority.

In many working class areas, there are virtually no facilities for young people. This means young people have little choice but to gather at street corners. Groups of young people on street corners, around mobile shops and in shared stairwells tend to upset and even frighten residents in the areas, especially older people and the parents of young children. The fact that they are frequently drinking underage, smoking cannabis and being generally loud leads to them being seen as 'disruptive' and 'anti-social' and the issue quickly becomes a policing one and the young people are treated as petty criminals. Soon, any young people who are 'hanging around' are described as 'anti-social' and moved on by either the state or community police.

The SEA approaches these issues from a totally different direction. We see the problem of street drinking as symptomatic of the social environment young people are growing up in. Unemployment is endemic in these areas and this means that young people cannot afford to socialise and meet others in clubs and leisure centres. Without access to any facilities, they opt for the only social outlet available to them, buying cans of beer at off-licences and standing in public spaces in their own areas. This not only disrupts the local residents but it also demeans the young people themselves.

When decent alternatives are provided, young people flock to them and are then let down. So, the Nucleus had to close for a while at the start of the year due to lack of funds. The Nerve Centre had a non-alcoholic club for younger teenagers on a Friday night - it was closed due to being TOO POPULARŠ too many young people were turning up, so they stopped it!!

Our proposals

  • Treat young people like human beings and they will act accordingly.
  • Involve all young people, not just the well-off articulate ones, in decisions that affect them.
  • Provide informal educational opportunities for those young people who have been let down by the education system, especially those with literacy problems.
  • CCTV, punishment beatings and exile orders are not solutions to under-age drinking and street violence. Instead we need the kind of solutions outlined here i.e. support, not surveillance.
  • The Council, together with the Youth Service, should provide a facility in each area run by young people themselves where they can socialise and organise functions for themselves, to suit their own tastes and culture.
  • Schools and youth clubs should be opened at the weekends and throughout the summer.
  • Youth clubs, which close at about 10pm at present should keep the kind of hours that nightclubs do. Otherwise, the young people will continue to leave them once they reach 14 or 15 - the very age when they need them most.
  • Encourage young people to get involved in local community and campaigning groups - give them a stake in society and they will blossom.





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