Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) was founded in 1919 to provide a voice for Labour Party values and for socialism and social democracy at Oxford University, England. It is the largest and oldest university Labour club in the country.
The club caters for any students who are interested in the ideals of the labour movement whether a lifelong member of the Labour Party or entirely new to politics. Stewart Wood, special adviser to Gordon Brown and politics tutor at Magdalen College, said that 'OULC is held up as an exemplar of what needs to be done.' During his visit to Oxford in July 2009 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reported as having praised OULC’s 'brilliant contribution to progressive politics in the University, the city and the country.' The club was instrumental in returning Andrew Smith to Parliament for Oxford East at the 2010 General Election with a 4.1% swing to Labour, the largest in England outside London.
OULC holds regular speaker events, social events, topical discussions and takes part in year-round campaigning activity, in the student movement for the Labour Party and on issues decided by the membership. In recent years, the club has hosted a number of high-profile figures from the Labour movement including Tony Benn, David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Andrew Adonis, Neil Kinnock, Lord Falconer, Alastair Campbell, Harriet Harman, Jeremy Corbyn, John Denham, Stephen Twigg, David Blunkett, Brendan Barber, Derek Simpson, Nick Cohen, Tessa Jowell and Jack Straw.
In the past, it produced a termly magazine called Look Left which has gone online-only as of 2012 and can be found here: http://lleft.blogspot.co.uk/. It hosts an annual John Smith Memorial Dinner and has recently added an annual Barbara Castle Memorial Lecture.
Read more about Oxford University Labour Club: Constitution and Organisation
Famous quotes containing the words oxford university, university, labour and/or club:
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Painting consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”
—Groucho Marx (1895–1977)