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Youth Activism

‘Mothers And Fathers March’ Stands Behind Youth Resisting Coup

On Saturday, February 26, thousands of elderly people in Sudan took part in the ‘Mothers and Fathers march’ to voice their support for the youth who, organized under the neighborhood Resistance Committees (RCs), continue resisting the military junta daily on the streets. The security forces attacked this demonstration, injuring at least 34 people, said the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD). At least 83 pro-democracy protesters have been killed by security forces, and more than 3,000 have been injured in the four months since the coup by army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan on October 25, 2021. Over 450 of the injured protesters remain hospitalized as of Sunday, February 27, according to data compiled by Hadreen Organization. 26 have lost limbs or other organs and seven are paralyzed.

High School Students Organized Thousands To Walk Out For Amir Locke

More than 3,000 high school students from across the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota walked out of class February 8 to march to the governor’s mansion and demand justice following the death of Amir Locke. Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was shot and killed February 2 by a Minneapolis Police Department SWAT officer during a no-knock apartment raid. Locke was neither named in the no-knock warrant nor a resident of the apartment. In an area beset by the police killings of Black residents — including 46-year-old George Floyd in May 2020 — Locke’s death sparked marches and car caravans across the Twin Cities. Twin Cities high school students organized quickly through social media to demand the demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department, the resignation of those culpable in the killing of Amir Locke, and a ban on no-knock warrants.

A ‘Gen U’ Of Starbucks Baristas Is Powering A Growing Push To Unionize

After notching a first win late last year, two Starbucks company-owned stores have formally organized after a December vote and hearing before the National Labor Relations Board. To date, more than 30 company-owned stores from Massachusetts to Tennessee and Arizona have filed for union elections at Starbucks, according to a CNBC analysis of NLRB filings. An industry-wide labor crunch and the high-profile union push from Starbucks workers could mean more chains see their employees follow suit. “I do think, right now, this is the canary in the coal mine for the union and for the industry,” said MKM Partners analyst Brett Levy. The petitions to organize have come faster than even those involved first believed possible, according to Richard Bensinger, union organizer with Starbucks Workers United and a former organizing director of the AFL-CIO.

Occupy Biden Activists Will Rally On January 1

This week, environmental advocates addressed intensifying fossil fuel pollution, climate injustices, and the Biden administration’s failure to take the lead on climate crisis solutions during the Occupy Biden protests near Joe Biden’s Wilmington, DE home. Their goal remains to increase the pressure on the President to declare a climate emergency and end new fossil fuel projects. The actions are being led by local community leaders and supported by dozens of environmental and social justice groups from around the country, and have resulted in hundreds of people taking action. The Occupy Biden actions began on Christmas Day, December 25, and will culminate in a rally and march at 1 pm. New Year's Day, January 1.

COP26: On The Outside, Always Looking In

As the first-ever person from my city to attend the biggest summit in the world about climate change, the hype was real. My friends and family were very much eager to see what would happen in the most anticipated COP since COP21, and the local government gave me their full support to report back the important things that could be echoed back to my community. Unfortunately, my disappointment was even bigger than I thought imaginable, and this COP turned out to be quite uneventful on my part. Coming into the Blue Zone (the area where the official negotiations took place) for the first time and seeing the giant globe suspended from the ceiling, I was full of excitement.

The Imperial Legacy Of Climate Change

The student movement is no stranger to protests and direct action. From marching against South African apartheid to fighting for justice for workers, students have a long history of daring to reimagine the world we want to live in and uncompromisingly working towards it. Perhaps it is unsurprising then that students and young people are once more at the forefront of a campaign—one fighting for climate justice and our very ability to exist. For several decades we have been told that our individual actions alone can reverse the climate crisis. The truth is paper straws and bags for life cannot compensate for decades of missed COP targets, government inaction, and the wealthiest 1%—predominantly in the Global North—producing double the emissions of half our global population combined. We urgently need systemic change.

Activist Interview: The Life Force, And The ‘Pipe Filled With Poison’

Shay Lynn Sampson is determined she won’t be telling her children what salmon used to taste like or what it was like to live close to their land. She is one of the Indigenous people preventing Coastal GasLink (CGL) from running a pipeline under Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), the pristine water source for the Wet’suwet’en and their close downstream allies, the Gitxsan. Twenty-two-year-old Sampson spoke to me on November 8 from behind a blockade inside a “Tiny House,'' purposely built with many other structures to shelter the people putting their bodies on the line to stop the project. Sampson is also the youth engagement coordinator for Indigenous Climate Action. This young Gitxsan woman is helping to ensure the Coastal GasLink pipeline never gets built.

How To Fight For A Better World When Hope Feels Scarce

This question of what we do doesn’t exactly feel like it gets at the heaviness that’s in me, that’s in us. I’ve spent the last three years asking, in the face of enormous difficulty, “What do we do now?” and I’ve learned that coming up with a smart answer to that question may offer some high for a period of time, but it’s pretty clear it can’t sustain us. I think that’s because the significance of what we’re staring down doesn’t just beg questions about potential shifts in strategic emphasis, it also raises much deeper questions about what we do when hope is scarce. What do we do when it’s quite reasonable to believe that things will get harder? When we assume that more of our campaigns will fail? When the suffering around us keeps increasing?

Rainbow Warrior To Defy Glasgow Port By Sailing To COP26

If the voyage is successful, the four youth activists on the Rainbow Warrior plan to meet fellow members of the Fridays for Future climate strike movement on 1 November outside the summit to deliver their message. They’re warning that the climate talks should not go ahead without the people who are most affected. But they say many activists have been shut out by a failure to distribute vaccines equally between countries and travel restrictions. Meanwhile major nations have big delegations attending. The Rainbow Warrior set sail from Liverpool on 30 October. It contacted the Clyde port authority to request permission to berth outside the COP26 conference, but it was told it couldn’t sail up the Clyde and that the area was controlled by police.

Activism Needs To Be Part Of Any Meaningful Climate Education

Last month, crowds of young people and supporters gathered in 1,500 locations around the world for one of the largest youth-led climate protests since countries began emerging from the most restrictive phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many students skipped school or staged class walkouts to participate in the Sept. 24 day of action, the latest surge of activity from the school strike movement that launched in late 2018. The protest was a sign that youth climate activists, who have had to adapt to COVID lockdowns and restrictions on large gatherings, are ready to reassert themselves through mass mobilizations. In just the last few years, young people have raised the profile of climate change as a national concern in the United States, made climate a major issue in Congress for the first time in over a decade, and persuaded colleges and universities to divest billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies.

Youth Activists Confront Shell CEO At TED Talk

Environmental campaigners took over the stage at the TED Countdown conference in Edinburgh which was hosting a panel discussion with Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben van Beurden. The activists say they raised concerns with TED Countdown organisers that a fossil fuel company, like Shell, has no place speaking at an event that positions itself as a “global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis". Despite calls from activists to remove van Beurden from the panel, he was allowed to retain his speaking slot on the main stage. One young activist, only named as Lauren, was invited onto the stage and used the opportunity to criticise Shell and Siccar Point Energy for steaming ahead with the Cambo oil field during the climate crisis.

Big Banks Are Funding Fossil Fuel Projects — Let’s Hold Them Accountable

The biggest banks are using your money to fund the climate crisis. We have seen this story before. In 2008, the recklessness of megabanks sank the global economic system. Now, in 2021, the youth climate movement is saying that we’ve had enough. We’re not going to let the banks bring down the entire planet too. On October 29, young people are occupying and shutting down banks across the globe to demand an end to fossil fuel financing and the beginning of a Fossil-Free Future, and we need you to join us. Over the past few years, the youth climate justice movement has mobilized historic numbers of people. Together, we’ve brought a new awareness to the climate emergency and inspired a generation of young people in the fight for climate justice. We called on world leaders to listen to science and frontline communities and to treat climate change as what it is: an existential threat to humanity.

In Central York, Kids Rose Up To Save Books From Their Parents

The mess in the Central York School District, which includes several suburban townships just north of York, in a county where Donald Trump won 62% of the vote, started after some parents and teachers had hoped to bolster the curriculum around anti-racism in the wake of the George Floyd protest marches in spring 2020. The move backfired when some parents started complaining about the reading list proposed by a committee. “I don’t want my daughter growing up feeling guilty because she’s white,” one parent, Matt Weyant, told a recent school board meeting. Then, panicked school board members imposed “a freeze” on students using the books. To critics, it sure looked like a school book ban — with a chilling effect on teachers hoping to teach lessons against racism.

Students March For Pathway To Citizenship At ‘Welcome Back Congress’

A steady chorus of drums and symbols filled Benjamin Banneker Park in Washington, D.C., as the sun peaked in the overcast sky above. A sea of protesters joined the beat and began chanting. “Congreso, escucha, estamos en la lucha,” the crowd roared in Spanish, each repetition growing louder. Their voices rose above the percussion and were greeted by an enthusiastic organizer speaking into a microphone. The “Welcome Back Congress” march had officially begun. Around a thousand activists and immigrants — including a humble contingent from the University of Maryland — converged in Washington, D.C., Tuesday as Congress returned from its August recess. The march, organized by CASA, a grassroots immigrant advocacy organization, demanded that a pathway to citizenship remain in the budget reconciliation package.

California Kids To Teachers’ Pension Fund: Divest From Oil

The kids are mad as hell—and so are teachers who want their California teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, to join 1,000 other institutions collectively divesting $14.5 trillion from the fossil fuel industry that threatens climate catastrophe. The retirement fund divestment fight, led by retired teachers in Fossil Free CA and students from Youth vs Apocalypse and Earth Guardians, estimates CalSTRS' portfolio investments in fossil fuels at $16 billion, mostly in oil and gas delivery systems, but $6 billion in direct investments in oil behemoths, with $400 million in Exxon-Mobil, $350 million in Chevron, $250 million in BP and $108 million in Enbridge Inc. This is the same corporation sending attack dogs to maul water protectors protesting drilling at river crossings on indigenous land, where Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline will send sludgy tar sands through Minnesota.
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