Editing Labour Students (section)

== History ==
The Labour Party's first organisation for students was the National Association of Labour Student Organisations (NALSO), which was founded in 1946 but had its recognition by the party withdrawn in 1967 after it was taken over by supporters of the Trotskyist [[Socialist Labour League]]. While the Scottish organisation continued, the Labour Party was left without a national student body.<ref name="encyclopedia">Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations''</ref>

In 1970, some Labour supporters created Students for a Labour Victory, a group intended to coordinate campaigning in [[1970 United Kingdom general election|the general election that year]]. That group then became the '''National Organisation of Labour Students''' (NOLS), which held its founding conference in 1971. Despite changing its name in the early 1990s,<ref name=encyclopedia /> the current body, Labour Students, is still sometimes referred to by the [[Acronym and initialism|acronym]] NOLS.

In its early years, NOLS was divided between two factions — members of the [[entryism|entryist]] [[Militant tendency|Militant]] group<ref>Originally known as the [[Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1957)|Revolutionary Socialist League]], this name had been dropped internally within Militant by 1969, see John Callaghan ''The Far Left in British Politics'', Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987, p.177; Michael Crick (''The March of Militant'',London: Faber, 1986, p.60) has the change occurring by 1967.</ref> and a mainstream left group, associated with the [[Tribune (magazine)#Tribune Group of MPs|Tribune]] group of Labour MPs, which formed in January 1974 called [[Clause Four Group|Clause Four]], after the central political statement of the Labour Party constitution. Militant controlled NOLS from January 1974 to December 1975.<ref>Michael Crick ''The March of Militant'', London: Faber, p.97</ref>  Members of NOLS in the 1970s included future parliamentarians [[Charles Clarke]], [[Bill Speirs]], [[Peter Mandelson]], [[Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton|Sally Morgan]], [[Mike Gapes]], Mike Jackson, Nigel Stanley,<ref name="encyclopedia" /> [[Margaret Curran]] and [[Johann Lamont]].

During [[Tony Blair]]'s premiership, Labour Students opposed the Government's planned introduction of [[Tuition fees in the United Kingdom|university "top-up" fees]]. Labour Students were broadly supportive of [[Gordon Brown]]'s government.

In 2016, the national conference adopted a one-member-one-vote (OMOV) system for internal elections, through an amendment of its constitution. However many member clubs perceived this as being implemented incompletely and slowly, with accusations of vote-rigging in 2019.  In the early 2019 Labour Students leadership election there were 507 eligible voters, out of a claimed approximately 30,000 Labour Party student members.<ref name=guardian-20190917/><ref name=labourstudents-20190823>{{cite web |url=https://labourstudents.org.uk/2019/08/23/2019-labour-students-national-committee-election-results/ |title=2019 Labour Students National Committee Election Results |publisher=Labour Students |date=23 August 2019 |access-date=21 September 2019}}</ref> As a consequence, about half of member clubs, including [[Oxford University Labour Club]] and [[Cambridge University Labour Club]], disaffiliated from Labour Students.<ref name=labourlist-20190716>{{cite news |url=https://labourlist.org/2019/07/why-university-labour-clubs-should-disaffiliate-from-labour-students/ |title=Why university Labour clubs should disaffiliate from Labour Students |last=Vernon |first=Rob |website=LabourList |date=16 July 2019 |access-date=20 July 2019}}</ref><ref name=cherwell-20190222>{{cite news |url=https://cherwell.org/2019/02/22/oulc-to-disaffiliate-from-labour-students/ |title=OULC to disaffiliate from Labour Students |author=Ben van der Merwe |website=Cherwell |date=22 February 2019 |access-date=24 October 2019}}</ref><ref name=cherwell-20190320>{{cite news |url=https://cherwell.org/2019/03/20/cambridge-labour-to-follow-oulc-in-disaffiliating-from-labour-students/ |title=Cambridge Labour to follow OULC in disaffiliating from Labour Students |author=Ben van der Merwe |website=Cherwell |date=20 March 2019 |access-date=20 July 2019}}</ref>

Further to the disaffiliations by Labour university Clubs, a motion was tabled by [[Jon Lansman]] at the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] NEC meeting in September 2019 to dissolve the current organisation on the grounds that it did not pay its affiliation fees nor submitted its political rules to the party.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-students-wing-nec-momentum_uk_5d7ffe70e4b03b5fc8883d89|title=Labour's 'Moderate' Student Wing Facing Replacement With More Pro-Corbyn Body|website=[[HuffPost]]|date=16 September 2019|first=Paul|last=Waugh}}</ref> At the NEC meeting this motion passed and Labour Students is no longer affiliated to the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].<ref name=guardian-20190917/> This action was challenged by the incumbent Labour Students leadership, but they were unsuccessful.<ref>{{Twitter|id=LabourStudents|name=Labour Students}}</ref>

A new, refounded National Labour Students (NLS) was passed at the 2021 [[Labour Party Conference]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://labourlist.org/2022/02/refounding-labour-students-how-the-new-nols-was-won-and-how-it-will-work/|title=Refounding Labour Students: How the new NOLS was won and how it will work|first1=Fraser|last1=Amos|first2=Nabeela|last2=Mowlana|date=8 February 2022|website=LabourList}}</ref> National Committee elections were held in August 2022<ref>{{cite web |url=https://labourlist.org/2022/08/why-we-are-standing-to-be-reps-on-the-national-labour-students-committee/ |title=Why we are standing in the National Labour Students committee elections |last1=Amos |first1=Fraser |last2=Charilaou |first2=Alex |date=2 August 2022 |website=LabourList}}</ref> and Ben McGowan was elected as the inaugural chair of the organisation on 2 September 2022.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://labourlist.org/2022/09/results-released-in-nec-national-policy-forum-and-youth-wing-elections/|title=Results released in NEC, national policy forum, youth and student wing elections|first=Elliot|last=Chappell|date=1 September 2022|website=LabourList}}</ref> Internal elections in 2024 saw the victory of the "Organise" faction, backed by [[Labour First]] and [[Progressive Britain]], which defeated the left-wing "Socialist Future" group: Ruby Herbert replaced McGowan soon afterwards.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belger |first=Tom |date=2024-04-08 |title=Labour Students and Young Labour election results in full: Pro-Starmer candidates win control as left routed |url=https://labourlist.org/2024/04/young-labour-students-election-results/ |access-date= |website=[[LabourList]] |language=en-GB}}</ref>