With alumni including former prime minister Gordon Brown and Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray, Edinburgh Labour Students (ELS) is one of the biggest and most active political societies at the University.
“I see our role as being split in half,” says ELS Chair Jonny Alvarez-Buylla.
“Half of it is very campus focused and half of it is very party focused and city focused.”
“…We’re out every week with between five and ten members, campaigning, speaking to people, knocking on their doors, finding out what the issues are amongst them.”
“It’s a really good way of getting students out of the student bubble and into the city of Edinburgh as a whole.” Xavier Cottrell-Boyce, ELS’ Publicity Officer, adds.
“Places like Colinton and Fairmilehead you wouldn’t typically go to,” continues Xavier, in reference to the Colinton/Fairmilehead council by-elections that took place this winter.
Remembering ELS’ “low point” of the past year, Jonny recalls the “six months of campaigning, non-stop, every single day,” only to see the Liberal Democrats win.
“Although,” he continues, “the day before the election happens, this same Liberal Democrat puts her house up for sale and moves to Dubai… So we did the whole [by-election campaign] over again.
“Trudging around the same housing estates 10,15 times – it was quite demoralising.”
ELS’ efforts were rewarded when the Labour candidate Conor Savage won a seat on the City of Edinburgh Council.
This built on the Scottish Labour Party’s success in last year’s general election, with 37 of Scotland’s 57 constituencies returning a Labour MP.
Since then, there has been suggestions that young voters, a demographic the Labour party can typically count on the support of, have been disappointed by the party in government.
“We’ve had 14 years of Tory austerity that a Labour Government came in to try and sort,” Jonny explains.
“There are some decisions that people aren’t going to be happy with, there are some decisions that some of our members will disagree with, and there are some decisions that we’ll obviously disagree with… [but] that’s perfectly normal, that’s perfectly healthy.
“…We [students] may have different ideologies and different beliefs of how things could happen, but we all want to make campus a better place.”
“Some of the choices the University management make go a long way in politicising students,” Xavier half-jokes before citing proposed staffing cuts as an example.
Jonny continues, “obviously, the Labour party is the party of the trade unions. We are always standing up for workers’ rights and that [staff cuts] is something we personally are very concerned by.”
“We will stand with UCU [University and College Union] on picket lines. We’re also making representations with Members of Parliament, with MSPs, and with Pam Duncan-Glancy, the Shadow Education Secretary at Holyrood.”
The conversation moves back to the social aspect of ELS.
“We’re just a bunch of friends. We get on really well…We are a social society first and foremost.”
ELS hosts weekly events including karaoke, “pints and policy”, and talks by MPs and MSPs.
When asked who his dream guest speaker would be, Jonny mentions former Chair of ELS Gordon Brown.
“We have been speaking to a few people,” he admits when pushed. “We’ll see what happens… He’s a very busy man.”
Image via ELS