From 1 October 2005, the minimum wage will increase to £5.05 for workers aged 22 and over and to £4.25 for workers aged 18-21.

While Socialist Youth supports these increases, they still allow employers to get away with what is essentially poverty pay. However, workers aged 16 and 17 are not going to receive any increase and will still be entitled to a paltry minimum wage of just £3!

Bosses' organisations have attacked the increases in the minimum wage. This is despite the fact that, as a share of the economy, profits are at their highest for 25 years while wages are at their lowest. Shell, the oil multinational, announced profits of $18.5 billion! The average salary of a chief executive from one of the top 200 companies in the UK is almost £1.5 million per year.

The government and employers try to justify this by saying that young workers are less productive than their older counterparts. However, independent studies have shown that this is simply not the case. Young workers are being super-exploited as a source of cheap labour. A 17 year-old fulltime worker could expect to take home as little as £120/week before tax! This simply isn't enough to provide a decent living in today's world. But what can young workers do about it?

The answer is to fight back the only way we can, through hitting the employer were it hurts; their profits! Socialist Youth is re-launching its End Low Pay Campaign.

We will be naming and shaming low-pay employers and doing other activities to highlight and fight against the exploitation of young workers. Socialist Youth held a picket of SuperValu in Omagh last year, when 16 and 17 year-old workers informed us that they were being paid just £2.58/hour, which had been increased from £2.50 by trade union negotiations.

Disgracefully, this was completely legal at the time. We called on people to boycott this employer for paying poverty wages. The great response we received plus the subsequent publicity embarrassed the management into increasing workers' wages to £3/hour well before they legally had too.

Socialist Youth says young workers must organise and fight back against exploitation and poverty pay. We campaign for a minimum wage of £6/hour with no age exemptions as a step towards the EU Decency Threshold of £8/hour. If you are unhappy with your pay, if you have a problem with your employer or have any questions about your rights at work, contact Socialist Youth on 07821058319.

The Socialist Society, a student organisation which was set up by members of Socialist Youth, intervened at the end of September in university freshers' fairs.

Already having a sizeable presence in Queen's University Belfast, we decided to branch out this year to the campuses of Jordanstown and Coleraine in the University of Ulster.

In response to not being allowed to hold our stall in Queen's, letters of protest were sent from Cllr. Mick Barry and Joe Higgins TD forcing the students' union to back down. 29 students joined the Society. This will mean that we have a bright prospect in the Students' Council elections but, more importantly, a large platform to put our ideas forward to the mass of students and campaign on a number of issues.

In the campus at Coleraine, 23 students joined the Socialist Society, which we can use to build a branch within the university. However, Jordanstown proved more difficult as our members were forced to leave the premises and were denied their freedom of speech by the undemocratic Students' Union management. We will be working with our new members there to build a presence in the campus so that next year we can ensure a stall at fresher's fair and develop our organisation within the student population.

Our stalls openly displayed socialist ideas. We discussed our politics with students and our stall was by far the most approachable and informative of the left groups on campus. The Socialist Society will continue to be the most active left-wing student organisation in the North.

I've been in Socialist Youth for just over a month now. I'm a strong believer in human rights and equality for all.

Watching the news these days, I'm becoming more and more angry over issues such as the war in Iraq, the crisis in Niger and the disasterous handling of Hurricane Katrina by the Bush administration.

Over $200 billion have been spent on the occupation of Iraq and NASA recently spent $80 billion to send another mission to the Moon. Meanwhile, a million are left homeless in New Orleans and Niger is starving. Can you believe the audacity of capitalist governments?

Right-wing capitalist politics have failed to provide a fair and peaceful world. A glimpse of what can be achieved can be seen in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, where the wealth from the country's massive oil production is used to benefit the masses rather than going into the pockets of the super-rich. This has resulted in huge improvements in living standards, education and healthcare and shows the benefits of public ownership of society's resources.

That's why I joined Socialist Youth, and I would strongly recommend that you do the same. After all, we are the future.