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London & Eastern Regions Joint Youth Education Event

13 November 2009

Youth Weekend

Trade Union History & Globalisation

13th - 15th November

Over the weekend ten youth activists spent the weekend at Alvescot lodge training centre on a course devised by the CWU Education and Learning Department and London / Eastern Youth Regions. This course was designed to educate young activists in the history of Trade Unions and learn about Globalisation and its effects.

We met at Alvescot on Friday 13th November to start the course at 17:30. The first subject we looked at was The Nature of History. We looked in to what history is and debated subjects in Trade Union that have made history like:-

1834 - Robert Owen founds The Grand National Consolidation Trade Union

1853 - Cotton workers in Preston on strike for over one year but starved back to work

1869 - Trade Union Congress formed

1910 - Miners dispute

1984 - Miners strike

1995 - CWU formed

On the Saturday we started off understanding changes in Trade Union strategies and tactics and then went on to discuss European Works Councils and how they work.

After lunch we went on to identify the main features of Globalisation and assess the effects it has on workers and Trade Unions. Once we had collected as much information as we could find we were given a project in groups to design a PowerPoint presentation on:-

What can the CWU learn from the new and new model Unions?

What is globalisation and can Trade Unions combat it in their present form?

On the Sunday we were given tinkering time to improve the presentation and then in our groups we present it to the rest of the class.

In conclusion we all found that we have learnt a lot more about Trade Unions and how we can make in impact to people in their working lives and home lives. I believe that new young activist went home thinking about what we had learnt over the weekend and understand a bit more about how and why Trade Unions exist.

I just want to say a big thank you to all the people involved who made this course happen. This is the way forward in educating young people in complex subjects like Globalisation and Trade Union history and hope other courses like this will happen in the future. Remember, history shapes our future.

Darren Bracey - Wright

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