International Socialists (CWI Scotland)

There is anger and disbelief in Dundee at the jailing of two teenagers who were involved in joke Facebook pages “organising riots”. Four youth, the youngest being fourteen, were arrested by Tayside police in August as riots swept across cities in England.

Thousands of young people, trade unionists and other supporters joined the Jarrow marchers in London on the final leg of their long march from Jarrow. In a display of determination, enthusiasm and solidarity, the Jarrow marchers led the way from the Embankment to Trafalgar Square, where a lively rally was held to mark the end of this 2011 march, a re-enactment of the original Jarrow to London march against unemployment 75 years ago.

The Jarrow to London youth march for jobs has begun. 50 young people from across Britain including three long term unemployed Scots are part of the recreation of the 1936 march from Jarrow to London organised by the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign. Jamie Cocozza from Glasgow, Matt Dobson from Dundee and Luke Ivory from Brora are joining the march as it progresses to London.

Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), a campaigning organisation, is marching from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October 2011. This is on the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, when 200 unemployed workers took a similar route to raise awareness of mass unemployment.

It’s that time of year again when a fresh batch of school leavers will be thrown head first into the world of unemployment. t will make little difference how many qualifications we have, or how hard we’ve worked at school, almost all of us will be in the same boat.

The situation for young people looking for work in this recession is still desperate and it is getting worse. Unemployment among under-25s is nearly one million. Wasn't the message when we were growing up: try hard, do well? What a lie that turned out to be! Instead of financial independence and the first steps on the career ladder, young people find they are thrown on the scrapheap.

The response of the New Labour government to youth unemployment has been pathetic. The government is setting up a number of schemes which they say will combat youth unemployment. The largest is called the Future Jobs Fund (FJF). Employers - public and private - are invited to submit plans for job creation schemes.
Successful bidders can then have a share of the £1 billion of public money being made available. The initial wave of successful bidders for FJF money was announced at the end of July. There were 117 successful bids, 62 of which are local authorities.

Last Sunday, 20,000 people took to the streets of Kilmarnock to defend the 900 whisky jobs due to be cut by multinational drinks company Diageo. This colossal turn out, almost half of the town’s 44,000 population, showed the huge support for the campaign, with thousands on the streets marching and even more signatures on petitions, calling on Diageo to keep the jobs. The anger has been fuelled by the greed of Diageo whose profits were up 17% in the last six months of 2008.

Leah Ganley - Youth Fight For Jobs campaign

This summer sees 600,000 school, college and university graduates leave education and enter the world of work.

Leah Ganley

Many will be searching for a job for the very first time, but all will have a difficult task getting a job with over 2.2 million people already unemployed across the UK, with this figure set to reach 3.5 million within a year. Princes' Trust research shows that youth unemployment is costing Scotland £2 million a week and the number of 18-24 year olds claiming Job Seekers' Allowance has soared by 72% in the past year.