Youth Activism

Love & Rage Against The Machine: Sitting In At The Yale Investments Office

December 26, 2018 Staff, Melindatuhus.net Resist! Congress, Electoral Politics, Occupation, Yale University, Youth Activism

The Sunrise Movement, an organization of young people that made its debut after the 2016 election, helped elect several new pro-climate action members of Congress this year and has been raising hell in D.C. since the election, sitting in (and getting arrested) in Nancy Pelosi’s office and visiting the offices of dozens of other Congressmembers – a thousand-strong – to demand that they support a Select Committee for a Green New Deal that would treat the climate crisis as the emergency it is, and includes a jobs creation piece that would provide employment in the clean energy sector for anyone wanting a job.

We Have 12 Years To Stop Climate Catastrophe. These Young Activists Have A Plan.

December 19, 2018 Robert Raymond, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! Climate Change, Youth Activism

On a clear and sunny morning in San Francisco’s downtown SoMa district, 40 people stand side by side with interlinked arms blocking the entrance to the San Francisco Federal Building. Just a couple of weeks ago this city was shrouded in a suffocating blanket of wildfire smoke that had traveled down from giant blazes in the north. But the haze has since cleared, and its absence has revealed a clarity of vision which stretches far beyond a healthier air quality index. “I’m here today because we have a 12-year deadline,” Lydia Macy, 18, told HuffPost from behind a 40-foot banner that she was helping to hold up. “Climate change is the No. 1 issue that we’re facing in the 21st century, and if we don’t fight we won’t have a world to live in.”

On 65th Anniversary Of Korean Truce, Activists Criticize US For Delaying Real Peace

July 31, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Resist! Anti-Imperialism, Korea, Wars and Militarism, Youth Activism

South Korean peace and justice activists have been writing to us complaining that the United States is not responding to the positive steps being taken by North Korea before and after the meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim. Their views show a great divide between the United States and the calls for a permanent peace which includes removal of US troops as just last week the Congress passed a National Defense Authorization Act which forbids removal of US troops from Korea. The activists argue that the temporary halt in war games which practice nuclear and other military attacks on North Korea are insufficient. They want to see movement toward a real peace treaty and, they want US military forces out of Korea, permanently.

‘This Is Zero Hour’: Youth-Led Marches Across the Globe For Climate Justice

July 22, 2018 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams Resist! Climate Change, Youth Activism

Declaring that climate change is "an issue of survival" that must be confronted with urgency, young activists across the globe on Saturday kicked off three days of marches and demonstrations to pressure elected officials to "reject the corrupting monetary influence of fossil fuel executives," ban all new dirty energy developments, and safeguard the planet for both its current inhabitants and future generations. "Climate change is our last chance to either fix colossal systems of inequality and emerge as a more efficient, better equipped society as a whole, or reach a chaotic state where your privilege ultimately decides if you live or die," said 16-year-old climate activist Ivy Jaguzny,

Young People Leading Growing Movement Against Low Pay And Precarious Work

June 3, 2018 By Helen Blakely and Steve Davies, The Conversation Resist! Jobs and Wages, Youth Activism

Strikes have taken place at McDonald’s and TGI Friday’s restaurants across the UK in recent months. These strikes are the first of their kind in the UK, instigated by a new generation of trade union members fighting for better pay and fairer working conditions. At the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD for short), we’ve been following these strikes on social media and at the picket lines, to discover what’s driving this fledgling movement, and how it differs to those that went before. Most young people in the workforce have experience with low pay and zero hours contracts. At TGI Friday’s, table staff were told earlier this year, with two days’ notice, that 40% of their tips from card gratuities would be taken and redistributed among kitchen staff, as part of the move towards a central pool of tips called a “tronc”.

Change Is Coming

March 31, 2018 Robert C. Koehler, Commonwonders.com Strategize! Guns, March, Youth, Youth Activism

The cries of loss and anguish become public, at last. A million young people seize the truth: “Half of my seventh grade class was affected by gun violence. My own brother was shot in the head. I am tired of being asked to calm down and be quiet.” The stories went on and on, speaker after speaker. We marched for our lives this past Saturday. I was one of the thousands of people who endured a bitter cold morning in Chicago to be part of this emerging movement, this burst of anger, hope and healing. Violence in the United States of America is out of control. It has its claws around the lives of its own children. It’s a terrifying symptom . . . of a society built around fear, of a political structure devoted to war. Something has to change. The Chicago march was one of more than 800 marches throughout the U.S. and all across the world.

March For Our Lives Awakens Spirit Of Student And Media Activism Of 1960s

March 30, 2018 By Errol Salamon, Theconversation.com Educate! Activism, Guns, Media, Youth Activism

Student journalists used media as a key tool for activism in the widespread social movements of the 1960s, journalism scholar Kaylene Dial Armstrong writes in her book “How Journalists Report Campus Unrest.” One notable student protest happened in Washington, D.C., 50 years ago. In the spring of 1968, student demonstrators occupied the administration building at Howard University, a historically black school in Washington to protest racial inequality. Starting on March 19, more than 1,000 students shut down administrative operations at the university until March 23. One of the lead organizers, Adrienne Manns, was the editor-in-chief of Howard’s student newspaper, The Hilltop. The Hilltop supported the protesters from the outset. “It is the responsibility of The Hilltop to present issues and suggest solutions,” read a front-page editorial on March 8, 1968, in the lead-up to the occupation.

Meet The Oregon Middle Schoolers Fighting For Net Neutrality

March 27, 2018 By Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo.com Create! Net Neutrality, Oregon, Youth Activism

Luca, a 12-year-old student at Mt. Tabor Middle School in Portland, Oregon, first learned about net neutrality through an Instagram post. “Before it was repealed, I was just trying to tell people about it,” Luca tells Gizmodo. Soon, she’d gotten her two friends, 12-year-old Athena and 13-year-old Lola, interested in net neutrality—an issue that is of vital importance for the internet but one that is wonky and complex even for many adults. A month after Luca saw that Instagram post, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission led by Chairman Ajit Pai voted to overturn the agency’s net neutrality protections, which prevented internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon from blocking or throttling online content and prohibited them from making “paid prioritization” deals—so-called “fast lanes” for companies willing to pay more to have their content delivered to customers at a higher quality than competitors who don’t pay up.

Badass Breakfast Club Turns Detention Into Yet Another Gun Reform Protest

March 21, 2018 By AbZimet, Commondreams.org Resist! Guns, Protests, Youth Activism

Lookit These Kids Redux: Over 200 students at Pennsylvania's Pennridge High who defied their school's ban on joining last week's nationwide walkout have transformed their ostensible punishment into Civil Disobedience 101 by turning their detention into a silent, moving sit-in. Days before the planned walkout, school officials had announced a Remembrance Assembly featuring a 17-minute silence and slide show to honor the Parkland victims; citing "safety concerns," the school board also said any students who joined the walkout would "face consequences.” Somewhat defensively, the Superintendent clarified that students would be disciplined, not because "they expressed any particular viewpoint or opinion," but for "willfully breaking a school rule about leaving the building without permission."

Let’s Not Forget What Happens When Students Walk Out To Save Black Lives

March 16, 2018 Michael Harriot, Theroot.com Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Youth Activism

As I am writing this, thousands of school-age children are walking out of classrooms all across the country to protest U.S. politicians’ unwillingness to enact commonsense gun control. The nationwide demonstration is being hailed as a groundbreaking act of civil disobedience that seeks to protect the lives of America’s most vulnerable citizens. There is no way anyone could object to something so necessary and relevant. Unless, of course, black people do it. The National School Walkout is a 17-minute planned act of defiance, protest and solidarity meant to spark action and commemorate the lives of 17 students gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Let there be no misunderstanding: Nikolas Cruz is a mass murderer, and the massacre in Parkland was a tragedy.

Today Is The National School Walkout To End Gun Violence. Read Live Updates Here.

March 14, 2018 Hayley Miller, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! Guns, Protests, Violence, Youth Activism

Students nationwide are walking out of their schools on Wednesday to protest gun violence on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland massacre. Thousands of students are expected to file out of their classrooms to join the National School Walkout, a massive protest organized by Youth EMPOWER, a branch of young activists affiliated with the Women’s March. The group asked students and faculty to walk off campus at 10 a.m. in every time zone for 17 minutes. Each minute represents one of the 17 people killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “Congress must take meaningful action to keep us safe and pass federal gun reform legislation that addresses this public health crisis,” organizers of the walkout wrote on their website.

And The Youth Shall Lead Us

February 25, 2018 Teaching for Change, Medium. Educate! Education, Student Protests, Youth Activism

In light of the outpouring of youth activism for stricter gun laws and against the militarization of schools, Teaching for Change shares these examples of young people at the forefront of social movements throughout U.S. history. We hope these can be useful in the classroom to inform and inspire this generation of activists.

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