Youth Activism

Youth Climate Activists Turn Up The Heat

July 6, 2023 Keerti Gopal, The Lever. Resist! climate crisis, Congress, Direct Action, Youth Activism

On Tuesday, youth-led direct action organization Climate Defiance shut down a 2024 swing state fundraiser at the Harvard Club in New York City, headlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The activists were protesting Schumer’s hand in approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline and his ties to the company leading the project, utility giant NextEra Energy. “Schumer, get off it, put people over profit,” chanted the protesters as guests looked around uncomfortably and Schumer walked out of the room. In the three months since it was founded, Climate Defiance has organized high-profile actions.

Young Montana Residents Bring Climate Change Case To Court

June 12, 2023 Dharna Noor, The Guardian. Resist! climate crisis, Constitution, Legal System, Montana, Youth Activism

A groundbreaking climate change trial will begin on Monday in a courtroom in Montana’s capital city, involving 16 young residents who allege state officials violated their constitutional rights to a healthy environment. Filed in March 2020, the lawsuit, Held v Montana, will mark the first-ever constitutional climate trial in US history. “We’re asking the government and the courts to do their job and protect us, along with the rest of Montana’s citizens and our incredible home state; this case is one big opportunity for the state to become a leader in preserving a safe, beautiful and prosperous future for Montana,” Grace Gibson-Snyder, a 19-year-old plaintiff, said.

Young Leaders From The US Pledge To Fight Blockade Of Cuba

May 22, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resistance Report Cuba, Economic Blockade, US Imperialism, Youth Activism

From April 24 to May 3, over 150 young organizers from the United States traveled to Cuba as part of a brigade organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) to learn about the Cuban process and stand in solidarity with the island nation against the criminal US blockade. The organizers returned to the US with an even greater commitment to continue building their struggles at home and to fight for the end of the blockade of Cuba. Peoples Dispatch spoke to Phil Agnew of Black Men Build, D’Atra “Dee Dee” Jackson of Black Youth Project 100, Kawenaʻulaokalā Kapahua of Academic Labor United, Lillian House of the Party for Socialism and Liberation...

May Day In Havana: International Solidarity To Resist The US Blockade

May 6, 2023 Walter Smolarek, People's Dispatch. Resist! Cuba, Economic Blockade, May Day, Youth Activism

This year’s May Day celebration in Cuba was interrupted by severe storms that knocked out electricity in much of the country. Authorities had no choice but to postpone the traditional mass marches. But for over 150 young grassroots organizers from the United States who had traveled to the country to mark the holiday, this turn of events was just more reason to deepen their efforts to end the US-imposed blockade of the country. Miya Tada, a brigade participant from New York, explained how this showed that “the biggest obstacle the Cuban people are facing is the repression and economic warfare of our own government, and that just inspires me to further the struggle against the blockade back in the United States.”

Norway: Youth Demonstrated Against ‘Green Colonialism’

May 1, 2023 Matthew Walters, Left Voice. Resist! Energy, Green Colonialism, Indigenous Rights, Norway, Sami, Youth Activism

On March 3, the largest civil disobedience action in recent Norwegian history came to an end. 16 Sami activists occupied the lobby of the Oil and Energy Department, and over 1,500 demonstrators attended in Oslo, including around 100 activists partaking in the occupations. Beginning as a single day occupation to spread awareness about the illegal construction of wind turbines on Indigenous land, the demonstration ended as a burgeoning, semi-mass movement. Although the movement forced the current government to meet with movement’s leaders, unfortunately nothing was won; the demonstration ended without the government agreeing to a single demand or concession.

Climate Campaigners Blockade White House Correspondents Dinner

May 1, 2023 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Resist! climate crisis, Joe Biden, White House, Youth Activism

Members of the corporate media were greeted by hundreds of climate action organizers Saturday night as they arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. Youth-led direct action group Climate Defiance staged a blockade of the event to demand that President Joe Biden fulfill his campaign promise to end fossil fuel extraction on public lands. The protest came weeks after the Biden administration approved Willow, the massive oil drilling project on federal lands in Alaska, and a month after an oil and gas lease sale of 1.6 million acres of offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico went forward.

150 Young Organizers From The US Travel To Cuba Defying The Blockade

April 26, 2023 Zoe Alexandra, People's Dispatch. Organize! Cuba, Economic Blockade, Socialism, Youth Activism

Young organizers from across the United States have arrived in Havana, Cuba, to take part in a 10-day brigade organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly. During the brigade, the young leaders will meet with different sectors of Cuban society to hear firsthand about the impact of the US blockade and the experiences of the Cuban people in building socialism. They will also share experiences and challenges that they face as organizers against capitalism, racism, and oppression in the US. The brigade participants hail from organizations such as Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Black Men Build, Black Youth Project 100, the Palestinian Youth Movement, CODEPINK, Unión de Vecinos, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the People’s Forum, and others.

Zionism In Crisis: Palestinian Resistance Forges A New Horizon

April 19, 2023 Palestinian Youth Movement, Mondoweiss. Resist! Israel, Liberation, Palestine, Youth Activism, Zionism

Over the past few weeks, significant events have been unfolding across historic Palestine. January 7, 2023, marked the start of Zionist protests in response to proposed Israeli judicial reforms. In parallel, we have also seen an intensification of the ongoing settler colonial violence perpetrated by the Zionist entity against Palestinians – January was the West Bank’s deadliest month in nearly a decade, and the last few weeks have seen heightened violence towards Palestinians in Al-Aqsa. In response to these assaults, we have seen increased resistance efforts from groups across historic Palestine, as well as Lebanon and Syria.

Montana Repeals State Energy Policy As Climate Trial Nears

April 4, 2023 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. Resist! climate crisis, Energy, Human Rights, Legal System, Montana, Oil and Gas, Youth Activism

Montana has repealed its 30-year-old energy policy – including a 2011 amendment that prioritized fossil-fuel development. The move comes as a June trial date approaches for a youth-led climate lawsuit against the state. In the lawsuit, Held v. State of Montana, sixteen Montana children and teenagers say that by actively promoting a fossil-fuel based energy system that is dangerous to the climate, state officials are violating the “right to a clean and healthful environment” for present and future generations under the state Constitution. It is the first constitutional climate case to go to trial in the United States.

Youth Organizers Unite Marginalized Communities To Stop Atlanta’s Cop City

April 2, 2023 Ngakiya Camara, Truthout. Organize! #StopCopCity, Atlanta, Black Radical Tradition, Cop City, Georgia, White People, Youth Activism

A crowd of youth organizers have mastered this call and response chant, a unanimous voice talking back to a potential Cop City. Nearing the end of Defend the Atlanta Forest’s Week of Action, the energy from the In Defense of Black Lives rally held at the Atlanta Police Foundation Headquarters is palpable. There is laughter, chanting, a fire of hope that electrifies the air — folks have just finished roasting the heavily militarized police, who eye the crowd through the slits of their helmets. The solidarity between these kids is their biggest threat. Black youth organizers were at the center of this rally that was organized by the Stop Cop City Coalition, In Defense of Black Lives Atlanta (IDBL), which is a coalition movement based in Atlanta that works to defend Black life and to defund the Atlanta Police Department.

Biden Betrays Youth With Willow Project And Breaks His Own Promise

March 24, 2023 In These Times. Organize! climate crisis, Joe Biden, Oil and Gas, Willow Project, Youth Activism

Despite overwhelming outcry by young people and climate justice advocates, President Joe Biden broke under the pressure of the fossil fuel industry March 13 to approve ConocoPhillips’s Willow project — the single largest oil project ever proposed on U.S. federal lands. It’s $8 billion of fossil fuel infrastructure in Alaska that impacts Indigenous communities, that will destroy wild landscapes north of the Arctic Circle and will erase nearly all of the climate benefits of Biden’s current renewable energy projects on public lands. Willow also concretely breaks Biden’s 2020 climate promise to stop new drilling on public lands, and the disastrous decision must serve as a wake-up call for all of us.

High Schoolers Have Spent A Decade Fighting Baltimore’s Toxic Legacy

January 31, 2023 Andrew Tarantola, Yahoo News. Strategize! Air Pollution, Baltimore, Environment, Maryland, Waste, Youth Activism

There was a time in the last century when we, quite foolishly, believed incineration to be a superior means of waste disposal than landfills. And, for decades, many of America's most disadvantaged have been paying for those decisions with with their lifespans. South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood, for example, is home to two medical waste incinerators and an open-air coal mine. It's ranked in the 95th percentile for hazardous waste and boasts among the highest rates of asthma and lung disease in the entire country. The city's largest trash incinerator is the Wheelabrator–BRESCO, which burns through 2,250 tons of garbage a day. It has been in operation since the 1970s, belching out everything from mercury and lead to hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and chromium into the six surrounding working-class neighborhoods and the people who live there.

We Defend A Socialist Society Where People And Planet Come First

December 9, 2022 Muhammed Shabeer, People's Dispatch. Organize! Belgium, climate crisis, Socialism, Youth Activism

Belgium - An acute cost of living crisis marked by soaring food and fuel prices has hit working class households across Europe. In Belgium, students have been standing alongside workers at the forefront of protests demanding effective measures from the government to tackle the crisis. Peoples Dispatch spoke to Sander Claessens, president of the Comac student movement in Belgium, about their involvement in the protests against the cost of living crisis, political interventions in campuses and society, and the policies of the government towards education, among other issues. Comac is affiliated to the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA). The name Comac is an abbreviation of the goals of the movement itself: Change, Optimism, Marxism, Activism and Creativity.

Anti-Imperialist Youth Intensify Campaign To Free Kononovich Brothers

November 22, 2022 People's Dispatch. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Political Prisoner, Ukraine, Youth Activism

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and its federating progressive youth groups across the world have intensified their campaign for the immediate release of Aleksander Kononovich and his brother Mikhail Kononovich, communist youths imprisoned by Ukrainian authorities. Both the Kononovich brothers belong to the leadership of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine (LKSMU), a member organization of the WFDY. The WFDY leadership also demanded an end to all deadly, imperialist wars raging across the world. November 21 marked 260 days since the arrest and imprisonment of the Kononovich brothers by the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU). Since November 11, WFDY and its federating youth groups worldwide have organized a week-long campaign and held protest demonstrations in front of Ukrainian embassies in various countries demanding the release of the Kononovich brothers.

How Young Climate Activists Built A Mass Movement To Be Reckoned With

November 16, 2022 Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! climate crisis, Climate Justice, COP27, Youth Activism

When I became a climate organizer in college in the early 2000s, the words “youth climate movement” referred more to something activists hoped to bring into existence than a real-world phenomenon. Growing numbers of young people were concerned about the climate crisis and had begun organizing in small groups on college campuses and in communities throughout the U.S. But as much as we talked about building a mass movement, it was mainly just a dream at that point. Almost 20 years later it’s impossible to deny a very real, vibrant youth climate movement has become an important force in national politics. With the rise of campaigns like the Fridays for Future school strikes a few years ago, it burst into the public spotlight in an unprecedented way. This year the United States passed its first major piece of national climate legislation.

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