Influx and exodus
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-09-22Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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ACCORDING to the National Executive Committee report, total Labour Party membership stood at 6½ million in 1982, a decline of 100,000 on 1981. This decline came almost wholly from the affiliated trade union membership, which stands at just short of 6.2 million.
The individual membership stayed almost the same, at 273,803. The Report comments:
NATFHE may then be forced to consider how far its members should take on the role of police. At the same time, the MSC may well clamp down on what can be discussed in class, raising academic freedom as a union issue.
THE National Advisory Board 'Many constituency parties recruited a substantial number of new members in the year, only to see their year-end total reduced by a larger exodus of members. The reasons given for this are mainly the cost of membership when the economic climate is depressed, lack of attenlar servicing of their mem tion by many parties to the regubership, and political reasons"
In short, socialists employed on YTS within FE must quickly build links with others involved via the youth and careers services, the schools and other workplaces, work out a principled approach towards YTS, and fight to get this accepted by NATFHE.