From 4 March to 6 March 1988, around 70 green students from across the country founded the Green Student Network, and formed a Coordinating Group. They soon had green groups, societies etc, mostly from universities and colleges - over 100 addresses on the mailing list. It's all documented in great detail and much more besides in the first edition of their magazine - Green Student. However the activity dwindled and the Green Student Network was moribund by the end of the millennium. Consequently the Young Greens was set up by young members of the Green Party of England and Wales in 2002. It was officially announced as being founded at the 2002 Scarborough GPEW Spring Conference by Ros Leeming. The organisation aimed to build local groups at universities, colleges, higher education institutions, sixth form colleges and schools, with no lower age limit for joining. It included students of any age due to the previous Green Student Network having been so inclusive, but was even more inclusive as non-students could join. Since then, it has grown to a membership of over 20,000 young members of the Green Party, over 60 local groups and regional groups in the North, the North East, South East, South West, the Midlands and London, as well as working with young people who are in work, unemployed or not in education. Many Young Greens have been elected to County or City Councils, including Adrian Ramsay the former deputy leader of the Green Party in Norwich; Matt Sellwood, a former chair of the Young Greens, in Oxford, as well as Sam Coates also a former Chair, and Ash Haynes, a former Co-Chair and youngest ever Green councillor, in Norwich. The Green Party of England and Wales' deputy leader, Amelia Womack is a former member of the Young Greens "30 under 30" training scheme.
Structure
The Young Greens is governed by a constitution, the original being adopted at a Young Greens meeting at the Green Party's 2014 Autumn Conference. A new constitution was adopted by the Young Greens Convention in October 2017. The group has an executive known as the Young Greens Executive Committee. The Committee is assisted by the Young Greens Coordinator who is employed by the Green Party and works at the party office.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee consists of nine positions: two gender-balanced co-chairs, a treasurer and six non-portfolio officer positions. The current holders of these positions are as follows: Elected to serve from Spring 2019 - Spring 2020.
Campaigning
The Young Greens have a national campaign called "Fair Pay Campus". The campaign aims to achieve a living wage for all staff, including contracted staff, working at universities; transparency of the pay of Vice-Chancellors and senior management; and a pay ratio no more than 10:1 of highest and lowest paid employees at any individual university. On 17 October 2013, the Young Greens released a report called "The Fair Pay League" which analysed the pay conditions at UK universities and ranked them in a league table. The report received coverage in various publications including Times Higher Education and The Independent. Imperial College London and London Business School were highlighted as "worst performers" and University of London and the School of Oriental and African Studies were highlighted as "best performers". At Green Party Autumn Conference in September 2014, the Young Greens launched a new campaign called Get Organised! The campaign is aimed at getting Young Green Groups to work with Trade Unions locally and to encourage young people to join Trade Unions.
Representation
Young Greens regularly contest elections at all levels of government, and are actively involved and represented within bodies such as Students' Unions and the National Union of Students.
National government
Though there are no Young Greens elected to Westminster, members of the party and executive regularly stand for elections to it. In the 2017 General Election, around 35 members of the Young Greens stood for election to Westminster, including former Co-Chair Hannah Ellen Clare, former Executive Committee members Alice Kiff and Arran Rangi, and current Executive Committee member Nate Higgins.
Local government
A number of Young Greens hold positions in local government including Jamie Osborn, Amy Heley, Hannah Clare, Martin Osborne, Jo Norton, Sara Hall and Nannette Youssef who were elected in the May 2019 elections in the most successful elections thus far for the Young Greens.
At the 2006 NUS Conference in Blackpool, Young Green, Joe Rooney was elected to the 'Block of Twelve' on the NUS UK National Executive Committee standing on the Education Not for Sale slate. In 2008, Joe Blakesley was elected as an FE officer on the NUS Wales NEC and to NUS UK Council. There have been a number of Young Green sabbatical officers with Student Unions such as LSE, Portsmouth, Keele Postgraduate Association, Manchester, Warwick, Teesside and Edinburgh. Young Greens have held non-sabbatical positions at many more campuses including Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Royal Holloway and Stanmore College. In 2014 Young Greens Co-Chair Clifford Fleming and Green Party member Hannah Graham were elected to the NUS block of 15.
