Recent Events

Hi Everyone,

There will be a newletter sent out informing everyone of recent events at the club in more detail very soon.

Firstly, we’d like to say thank you to Anas Sarwar MSP who came to the club on 30th September and for the excellent attendance by club members. There was a very interesting discussion in which Anas Sarwar MSP presented his ideas for the future of the Scottish Labour Party. The Q & A session which followed allowed for a very useful dialogue between club members and senior party members in which both no doubt learnt a great deal.

On 7th October, the club held a very interesting debate titled “This House Believes Labour should move to the centre ground. ” What followed was a useful debate regarding who the Scottish Labour party should meet modern political challenges and how traditional Labour ideology affects it’s modern policy.

We’d to like Glasgow City Council Leader Gordon Mathieson and others for taking the time to meet the club and personally take us on a tour of the city chambers on 14th October. Members gained a great insight into the workings of the council and it’s interesting history. Hopefully this provides a good base work for members to participate in the forthcoming Scottish Council Elections and keep Glasgow Labour.

The club’s quiz night on the 19th October tested members’ political triva knowledge, or lack there of. Winners we Paul and Richard with their astounding ability to recall political detail of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Party members are invited to participate in the forecoming Hillhead by-election and the following Council Elections. For those wishing to get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact a committee member who know doubt will be able to help.

Finally, Happy Birthday to Paul Hynds and Lewis Miller who both turned 20 on Thursday and Friday respectively. Lewis’s night out was full of sober fun and intellectual debate. Hopefully you can all make it along to Paul’s which I’m sure will be much the same.

Peter.

Special Guest – Drew Smith

Hi Everyone,

As you may all know by now, Drew Smith MSP will be coming to meet the club on Wednesday to talk to us about his life in Holyrood, his role in the trade union movement and hopefully about the future of the Scottish Labour Party. This is an excellent opportunity for new members to learn about the workings of the Scottish Parliament, the life of an MSP and the Labour party itself.

Wedneday 24th Oct, 7pm, Strathclyde Union, Room TBC

Hopefully you all can make it!

Special Guest – Anas Sarwar

Hey everyone, as members may remember from the last meeting, Anas Sarwar will be coming on Friday (tomorrow) to the club to talk about his life in politics and the Labour Party. The event is starting at 7pm at the Lounge in the Union. Hope to see you all there.

A successful Fresher’s Stall and Starting the year ahead

First of all, thanks to all who signed up to become part of our club and thank you to all who came to help out at the stall. It was a long day but the club had a great achievement in signing up so many people and hopefully everyone will stay involved with the club because of the good that we do.

We will be going out tomorrow night (probably to the Ark) at 7pm (meeting outside the Union) in a relaxed event where you can come and get to know a little more about the club, meet the other members who have gotten involved and also have a great night out.

This is our first event of the new year! And we have plenty more planned. The blog, twitter, facebook and e-mails should always have details of any event we are having. There will be one every week and a variety of events are already planned.

As we hope you have read, the club is part of a party passionate about social justice, equality and trying help people get a better life for themselves. Labour Students is working on the Living Wage Campaign which we will be a part of. Here is a video for more information about this campaign.

So thank  you again to all those who signed up. This is a club filled which has been a big part of everyone who has taken part. it’s given them opportunities to learn, to make a difference and to make lifelong friends. We hope that all freshers have a great week and a fantastic first year.

Freshers Week 2011!

We have a lot planned for the coming weeks and this week is the most important of the year!

We will be having our Freshers stall in the Barony (level 2) of the Union. It’s on from 9-3 and any help that we can get is welcome. You can RSVP on our facebook or send us an e-mail to strathlabstudents@gmail.com and we’ll make sure you have a great day with us all!

We’ll all be wearing something red, whether it is a t-shirt, rosette, hat or whatever. What you will be doing is ether manning the table and getting loads of new members ready to sign up or handing out leaflets explaining what the club does to freshers and directing them to the table.

For Freshers: This year will be a fantastic year. We have lots of great speakers and events organised for the year! From Curry nights to campaigning for a better deal for students, the club is a great chance to get involved with a variety of events and make lots of new friends. Our club is always growing and if there was a choice of the best year to join it would be this year.

You can find us in the Barony bar. We’ll be fairly easy to find and everyone will be happy to tell you about the great benefits of coming along. You can even join us for a drink afterwards if you like!

On Thursday we will be having a night out to (possibly) the Ark. We’ll be meeting outside the Union at 7pm and you can come and get to know the other members of the club. It should be a great night out with lots of banter and good memories.

This year could easily be one of the best for the club. We have so much on offer and so many opportunities. Even if you have never been involved with politics or just want a club to make friends at then this club is for you!

Big changes made to Strathclyde Uni Labour Club

We had a great turnout at our pre-freshers get together where we made many decisions about where the club should be heading and what we will be doing in the year ahead!

At the Fresher’s Stall, we can never have too many people to come and help. We will be in the Barony in the Student’s Union (so those not from Strathclyde will have to get signed in by a member). We will also try to be wearing red shirts, or rosettes or anything red to make us stand out.

We will be having a Drink night with the Freshers on the 22nd and a Quiz night on the 28th of September. All are welcome to come along to them, more details of up and coming events will be on the blog during and after fresher’s week.

The club adopted a Student Rights Campaign which will campaign for the Living Wage, for paid intern-ships and to make the minimum wage for 18-21 year olds equal to that of those aged 21+. In the short term we said we would oppose RUK fees at Strathclyde reaching £9000 a year. We will also be taking part in the Scottish Council Elections later this year. These campaigns show how as a Student Labour club we are committed to fighting to improve our community and society.

We also voted unanimously to be the first club to affiliate to Glasgow City Labour Students, which is an organisation intended to create larger events, with larger turnout and bigger speakers.

This year there will be a new post of Equality Officer making the number of Executive Liberation Officers two out of six. As well as this the Constitution of the club will be re-written.

Our Fresher’s Fair is on the 21st September in the Barony 9am-4pm. All are welcome to come along. If you want to join us then please e-mail strathlabstudents@gmail.com.

Fresher’s Events and the New Year

Firstly, we hope that everyone has enjoyed their summer!

September is the month where all the fun and activity of the club will start again. We have quite a lot planned and the best way to keep up with events is to like our page on Facebook. If you can make it to any of these events and aren’t on Facebook (if that is possible) then please send us an e-mail to strathlabstudents@googlemail.com.

6th September - City of Glasgow College Fresher’s Stalll – 10am-4pm. Help get people at the college involved with the party, all are welcome.

8th September – Club Meeting – 4:00pm – 5:00pm – Our first meeting of the New Year! We will discuss changes to the way the club works and events which we will want to hold. It’s a good chance to have a say about how the club should function. As well as this, we will be looking at campaigns to adopt for the year. You will only be able to vote if you are a member. Drinks may follow…

21 September – Freshers Stall  – 09:30 - 16:00 – Come join us at the Freshers Stall. There will be a variety of things to do like handing out leaflets to unsuspecting freshers and also manning the stall by getting freshers to join and giving them sweets. You can join us for drinks after too!

At the Club meeting we will decide on a small get together on the week of Fresher’s Week to see what Freshers have joined, and in early October we hope to have a larger get together with a possible event.

Our target should be to double our paper membership at Freshers week and keep as many people in the club as we can. This is an exciting start to the year, and we hope that this year will be a great one.

Scottish Labour Students Committee Elections

Strathclyde Labour club was recently present at the Scottish labour Students and Scottish Young Labour Policy forum where Mary Roberts was elected new Chair of SLS. We wish her the best of luck in her new role and look forward to working with her.

There will be elections of Vice Chair, Secretary and Student Union Liaison Officer to which all members should recieve communication concerning. If members would like any information regarding activities over the summer then please get in contact with Lewis by e-mailing the club account.

News!

Firstly congratulations to our new Women’s Officer Ailsa Tweedie. With a full exec the club is in gear to get cracking on freshers’ week and beyond!

The club is hoping to attract new members at the fresher’s fair and most importantly keep them! It is a great time to get involved with the club as it is the beginning of a new year and the start of the new meeting schedule. The plan will to be having weekly meetings on a Wednesday night with a variety of activities such as organising campaigns, having speakers and just talking about politics (and other things)!

It is the aim of the club to get more people than before by offering a fun climate to be in. And we know how to have fun whether that be pool competitions (watch out for the secretary), singing “things can only get better” on the Karaoke and having a laugh.

More details of next years plans will be available next year. If you are interested in getting involved please e-mail strathlabstudents@gmail.com.

A thank you and plans

Thanks to all members who took the time to come campaigning. Despite the size of our club, we managed to put on a good show every day and was one of the hardest fighting Univeristy Labour Clubs around.

Now the election is over we need to keep moving forward.

The club is happy to announce that we have plans to work together with other Labour clubs to bring bigger events and speakers over the next year. We are also at the early stages of preparing our freshers fair stall and looking at how we can expand and improve the club.

Now the election is over, we can work to expand the club and begin preparation for the next year. Due to it being exam time just now, it is unlikely there will be many meetings before freshers week. We hope you all had fun on the campaign trail, and remember that your hard work got labour members elected in not just constituencies but also on the list. We could have asked nothing more of the students this election.

So now on to next year!