This week Her Campus Leeds talks to Jamie Ali, the Chair and LGBT Officer for Leeds Labour Students.
Hi Jamie! So, tell us a bit about yourself…
Hi, I’m Jamie Ali! I’m a 4th year studying French & Politics and I’m originally from The Wirral which is just outside Liverpool. I’m not ashamed to admit I cried when I saw Florence & the Machine at Glastonbury, I love Hidden Café and I’m the Chair & LGBT officer for Leeds Labour Students.
How did you get involved with Labour Students?
My family’s always been Labour (and passionately so!), but the first ‘political’ thing I ever did was take part in a protest to my local town hall in Wallasey against the £9,000 tuition fees in 2010. London was too far away for us, but my whole year did a walk-out of class. I joined Labour Students when I was in second year and loved it.
What is your favourite thing about the society?
We’re such a strong network of friends and I’ve met some of my best friends through the society. We try and get down to Mixtape at Hifi every few weeks and I’ve met random politicians through it. We met Ed Miliband during the election (still not over him losing…) and I also led a voter registration drive last term and organised a visit from Jeremy Corbyn in the Great Hall to encourage students to register. Labour’s also a good way to get involved in the local community. We’ve campaigned with local councillors to get better recycling in Hyde Park for example, and they’re not piloting a better bin scheme round Ash Road.
What’s a typical week like for you?
Busy. We have our committee meeting on Mondays and we normally head down to Old Bar or Hidden Café afterwards for our ‘Pint & Policy’ event where we chat about a particular issue (think tuition fees, EU, etc.). It’s pretty chill. We also sometimes have MPs come in and speak and we try and have as many socials as possible. I’m not in uni many hours a week this year, because of my dissertation, but final year’s getting hectic. I normally round the week off by making a show of myself on the Fruity dance floor, to be honest.
How can people get involved in Labour Students?
Check out our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/339391492837091/?fref=ts) and Twitter (@LeedsLabourClub). We try and promote our events as best we can and we have many different kinds of events pretty regularly. Feel free to drop me (or anyone else from the committee) a message.
Anything exciting planned that we should know about?
Well, as LGBT officer, I’ve been trying to do a few things for LGBT history month. We’ve got a film screening of Pride on Monday 22nd Feb at 8pm in Hidden Café. We’ve also got our AGM in the last week of term – feel free to nominate yourself if you want to get involved. We’re trying to get hold of some MPs to come in and talk about the refugee crisis and other issues like mental health. We’ll be doing a lot of campaigning ahead of the local elections in May and we’re going to be really involved in the ‘Remain’ campaign in the European referendum.
For my part, I’m running to be Community Officer in this year’s LUU leadership race. I’m running to cut the cost of living with a rent freeze in halls and more flexible September-starter housing contract. I also want to improve student safety and show that we all have a responsibility to leave Leeds a nicer city when we graduate than it was when we arrived as Freshers.
Anything else to add?
Follow me on Twitter @JustVoteJamie and watch me try and change the world one drunk tweet at a time.