Youth Organizing Meeting
Youth Organizing Meeting at SMoD Conference Notes
The Youth Organizing Meeting in conjunction with the Mutual Mentorship workshop at the Stopping Merchants of Death Conference was an attempt to increase visibility and improve relationships between individuals and organizations working for justice and peace with a youth focus. The following notes attempt to document who, within the SMoD network, is doing what, how our efforts fit together and within the big picture of anti-corporate/ anti-war organizing.
Present were representatives from several broad-based local and national campaigns to end the occupation of
Many felt hopeful that the energy and spirit of these campaigns was having an impact on politics and the world we live in. Many of these youth-led organizations are at the forefront of the campaigns. We discussed ways to bring that leadership to the larger movement, and identified concrete needs for support. Most of these centered around recognition of the work we are doing, awareness of the issues affecting youth and our organizing methods, better relationships, support for our short term goals, better communication among ourselves and networks to collaborate, share information and increase our impact.
Basic strategy questions:
Ω What are the short, intermediate and long term goals of your group? Ω What do you need to reach those goals? Ω How does your group’s work relate to the movement overall? Ω What resources can you provide to others?
Short Term Goals-
SPAN- Think Outside the Bomb Conference(s)
Flunk the War Machine: Books Not Bombs Agenda
Counter-recruitment
Internet activism and campus organizing to end the occupation of
Protect civil liberties of students threatened by recruiters
NYSPC- Fall Agenda
A Month of Education, Organizing, and Action!
* OCTOBER 10TH-OCTOBER 15TH BOOKS NOT BOMBS KICK-OFF TO KICK OUT:
Examine the
* OCTOBER 16TH-OCTOBER 22ND TEACH-INS & FILM SCREENINGS:
Organize Teach-Ins and Film Screenings on the Iraq War at your school or in your community.
* OCTOBER 23RD-OCTOBER 29TH STUDENT SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ
Invite Iraq Veterans Against the War members to speak on your campus and support their resistance! For more information, visit www.ivaw.org
* OCTOBER 30TH-NOVEMBER 3RD TURN UP THE HEAT WEEK:
Make yourself visible and your voices heard at public events, rallies and candidate engagements demanding "Books Not Bombs"!
* NOVEMBER 3RD-NOVEMBER 6TH PEACE PARTIES:
Be social with your actions! Celebrate cultural resistance through art, spoken word, hip-hop, and partying! Get together, devise strategies to end the war and build community!
* NOVEMBER 7TH WALK OUT TO GET OUT OF IRAQ
National youth walk out. Mobilize to show the opposition of young people to a war that is killing our peers. Be creative, help people get to the polls and speak out!
Not Your Soldier Network-
Not Your Soldier Action Camps bring together young people who are heavily targeted by military recruitment. At the camps, youth learn how to take action to fight military recruitment, the poverty draft, and the corporations that profit off of war.
Not Your Soldier Days of Action are coordinated days of creative, non-violent direct action where youth take leadership and tell recruiters, "We are Not Your Soldiers!"
· Take back your school! Check out the War Resister's League book, "Demilitarized Zone: A Guide to Taking Your School Back from the Military." You'll get a lot of ideas about organizing to keep military recruiters out of your school, including detailed legal information, concrete campaign suggestions, and up-to-date statistics.
· Protect your privacy! Make it hard for recruiters to get your home number by joining Military Free Zone's Opt Out campaign. If you "opt out", your school can't give your information to the military.
· Educate your friends! Show AFSC's video "Before You Enlist." Invite a local veteran from Iraq Vets Against War to speak to your class or club. Get copies of the comic book, "Addicted to War" and pass it around.
Other organizations represented at the conference: AFSC, YAWR and
What We Need To Reach our Goals:
Communication- Some conflicts over language and tactics, especially around nonviolence and the limits of militant action
Transformation- The ability to turn enemies into allies
Knowledge of who has power and access to it- as well as different approaches to challenging it
Mutual Mentorship- Elders who are willing to remind us of history and past successes and failures, but also willing to learn from us
Network- That allows us to support each other’s efforts and join multiple campaigns with varying tactics and strategies for maximum effect
Nonviolence theory and praxis
Common Analysis
Diverse tactics
Discipline- The military has it, we should too. We can redefine and reclaim what it means to be on point and effective leaving hierarchy and domination out of it
Relationships with workers in the military and war-making industries
Non-cooperation with corporations, universities and government policy decisions that take away our freedom and humanity
Teacher allies- Especially around the use of school walk outs, some concern about the goals of walk outs and their intended targets. Often teachers suffer as an unintended result and are alienated as a result from campaigns they would otherwise support.
Messaging- Ability to point out the contradictions made by those in power in catchy, memorable ways
What Resources We Provide to the Movement:
Imagination
Grassroots power structure of linked campus organizing
Counter-recruitment energy and leadership (nationally and locally)
Meditative energy/ healing practice/ spirituality
Diversity and multi-cultural coalitions
National networks like NYSPC, SPAN, NYS
Self-reflection and dialogue about our own participation in a culture of violence and materialism
Self-care culture
Punk/hip hop/ electronic/ dub/ rap music
Educators
Community
Deep relationships
posted by Meems at 12:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home