Young, angry and in debt: why Gen Z could turn to Corbyn

The Herald Scotland

13 hours ago

The opportunities are out there – to almost be a left-wing version of the populist right Reform. Standing for subterfuge and scapegoating, Reform seeks to protect the elite few. Corbyn can offer hope of a better future for the many.
Last month More In Common polled 1,408 people on whether they'd vote for a Corbyn-led party. Regardless of gender, it found 10% would, with the Farage-led Reform on 27% and Labour on 20%.
Much more interestingly and importantly, 32% of 18-24-year-olds – the highest for this age group for any party – said they would also do so. Reform was on just 7% for this age group. Among 25-34-year-olds, Reform moved ahead with 21% support compared to Corbyn's 14%. Support amongst older age groups continued to decline at roughly the same rate as it grew for Reform, suggesting a battle of the generations.
In other words, the Gen Z generation – those born between 1997-2012 – are far more attracted to Corbyn and his politics than to Farage and his.
And support across all ages in Scotland, at 18%, was the highest amongst any of the nations and regions in Britain.
Without any policies yet declared, what will Gen Z be looking for and what will Corbyn and his comrades need to offer to keep them away from the clutches of a charlatan like Farage?
The far left that hopes to have a home in the Corbyn party suggests a plethora of platitudes, whether it be welfare not warfare, ending austerity, taxing the rich, freedom for Palestine, climate action, and anti-racism.
And since Corbyn lost the Labour leadership in 2020, he has led his Peace and Justice Project, focusing upon environmentalism, international peace cooperation, social inequality and corporate power.
Read more by Gregor Gall
None of these issues should be lightly dismissed but there needs to be something much more concrete to get Gen Z to turn up en masse at the polling booth to vote for the Corbyn party. It's called the security of self-interest.
Unless Gen Zers have rich parents, they're the first generation that will be poorer than their parents were when they had them.
So top of the priority list of policies must be housing, debt, and employment.
Unless helped by the "bank of mum and dad", Gen Z-ers cannot afford, let alone get, a mortgage to put a foot on the property ladder. Forced to rent, they have no security of residence as rents rapidly rise. As demand outstrips supply, what they get for their money is pretty grotty.
Thus, policies of house price control, council house building and more first-time buyer financial support as well as rent controls for flats and landlords licensed only where minimum quality standards are met.
Next many have gone to college or university and graduated with debt. And that's with having worked through the time they did their degrees. Though student loan debt repayment only kicks in when earning above a certain level, the irony is that many do not get to that point for some years.
Thus, reintroduction of student grants, abolishing fees, cancellation of student debt, price controls on basic food stuffs, free public transport, and a new national state bank offering low interest loans.
Upon entering the jobs market these days, many will end up in jobs that are no better paid and with no more security or prospects than the ones they did during their degrees. Artificial intelligence will reduce, not increase, job opportunities at this end of the labour market.
Thus a doubling of the minimum wage to £25 per hour, ending temporary employment contracts, and job security for the first five years of a job.
To bastardise Oscar Wilde's saying, you can only look at stars when you're not lying in the gutter. So, only then with that firm basis securely established can the policy platform then add on those more altruistic aspects like "world peace".
But before we run away thinking it's just about the policies on offer, we need to remember that the issues of the personalities and processes are important too.
With chants of "Oh, Jeremy" still heard today, a party built too much around a single leader comes with dangers.
Yes, it needs a clearly identifiable and credible leadership but putting too many of its eggs into one basket can be a ticking timebomb. We know this from the experience of the likes of Tommy Sheridan and George Galloway. Corbyn could easily suffer a stroke under the strain of it all.
Zarah Sultana has stepped up to the plate by leaving Labour (Image: PA)
Now Zarah Sultana MP has stepped up to the plate by leaving Labour. She is a still young – but not quite Gen Z - 31 year-old woman with Pakistani heritage. It could be a case of replicating the current practice of the Green parties either side of the Border of having two co-leaders.
And, just as many young people flocked into Labour when Corbyn became leader in 2015, many also became disillusioned by their inability to change the party to sing in tune with him.
This should not be a problem in the new political party but that does not mean that members will be happy to become just the shock troops that knock on doors and hand out leaflets come election times.
All is to play for. There will be competition with the Greens because there might be some policy overlap, especially if the radical candidates win the leadership here and down south shortly.
Time is of the essence, as a party not yet established and with no name has a hard hill to climb to fend off Farage.
The youth and vigour of the 32% of the young Gen Zers need to be tapped into now to bring on board their peers and others.
Professor Gregor Gall is a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow