Young NIMD
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The Young Socialists (Jonge Socialisten in de PvdA, JS) is an independent political youth organization with close ties to the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA). The JS as it is known today was founded in 1973, but the first political youth organization with ties to the Labour Party was founded much earlier, in 1895. Currently the JS has about 1300 members.
The JS wants to interest young people in politics and stimulate them to have an independent and critical opinion on all kinds of political matters. The JS stimulates youth to fight together for a just society. With that the JS supports the interests of all youth, it doesn’t matter if they are black, white or yellow, student or working, unemployed or hunting for a house.
The JS aims to hold a critical view towards the PvdA, and often the JS has a different opinion on a subject because they think the PvdA’s policy is not strong enough. For example the JS disagrees with the PvdA on student grants and the legal position of youth.
In it’s political program the JS formulates it’s ideal as follows: “The Young Socialists strive for a peaceful and just world with happy and involved people.” Apart from this the JS also has four main principles: people should be able to live in freedom, everyone is equal, solidarity has a binding power on society which means that the strongest shoulders should carry the heaviest burden, and sustainability means that people should use the world in such a way that future generations will still be able to enjoy the world in the same way.
Members of the JS are often given the opportunity to participate in international activities. These can reach from workshops or seminars to being active in international organizations. Often the JS sends members abroad to visit a seminar or to take part in a exchange program. Apart from this the JS has a study group on international policy which regularly organizes activities on international subjects, such as discussions or workshops. Also the JS the takes part in two big umbrella organizations: IUSY (the international JS) and ECOSY (the European JS). The international activities of the JS in not limited to the above, the JS works also with a number of organizations on subjects such as sustainability and democracy.
Two of the five aspects the JS recognizes as aspects of the Dutch society are international cooperation and democracy. In making these aspects work successfully, in combination with the above mentioned ideal and principles, the JS looks beyond the borders of the Netherlands. The JS supports Young NIMD because the JS thinks that it is important that youth is stimulated to participate in politics, since their future is at stake!
Representative of JS:
Judith Verkuil
ynimd@js.nl
