My organizing mentors (those who have been in the struggle for 20, 30 years) often ask me why more young people aren’t out in the streets rallying, acting and pushing the way they did in the 60s. As someone who works directly with people aged 16 to 35, I often ask myself the same question.
The one answer I hate is: “They’re apathetic.” Well, excuse me, but I am not apathetic. I give a damn, but my actions today won’t be the same as if I had been 27 in 1968. It’s time that we all acknowledge that the world young people are living in and the realities we are facing are quite different from those of a generation ago. We must refrain from pointing the accusatory-finger-of-apathy at young people and take a look in a mirror. There are tons of reasons that youth activism today looks and feels very different from the 60s. However, for people who are most concerned with getting more young people involved in politics and political action, there are three challenges that young people face that I believe are the most significant.
First and foremost is the role of student debt and decreased value of wages. Students today are being slammed with decades worth of debt that forces them straight from the classroom into the workforce. Moreover, while students are in school they must often take on a heavier load of work-study or outside jobs. Then, once they enter the workforce, their wages go towards sky-rocketing urban rent prices and increased food and gas prices. Let’s face it, our salaries don’t stretch as far as they used to. All of these factors create a perfect storm, making political and social street activism either impossible, or detrimental to a young person’s well being. We’re treading water here folks and we need help. I defer to Mike’s recent KJ article for deeper analysis of this issue.
This does not, however, mean that the student debt crisis kills all youth activism. Rather, it means that young people must find different ways to fight for social justice. Rallying during the middle of a work day, or heading into the streets while working 2-3 part-time jobs is just not a feasible entry point into social activism for many young people. Social media and online forums are one of the ways that some youth are creating social activism spaces. We are constantly looking to innovate more of them. To find them, all one has to do is listen.
The second major factor is that young people are growing up in a very different political system- one that is corrupt in a much more transparent and jaw-dropping way. When I look at film from the McGovern race, and see all the young people who got involved in that campaign, I am reminded of images of young people working hard for Dean, and then for President Obama. Young people get involved in elections, but unfortunately the elections they are working on are not entirely the same. The role of corporate money and influence in elections, and the flagrant disregard for campaign finance laws (hello, $400,000 of illegally dumped money in 2010 state elections) makes it harder and harder to mobilize anyone to get involved in elections. When our elections and our political decision makers stop being about voters, and are more blatantly about the highest bidder, one feels that one’s vote is less and less meaningful. The scary realization is that that feeling at the pit of our stomachs may be more and more true. How can you convince young people to stay politically involved longer than one campaign cycle when they can see so clearly how the game is rigged?
The third and final factor in why I believe youth activism looks different today from the 60’s, is that we struggle with the weight and burden of past activism in our search for possibilities for the future. When I first learned about the civil rights movement in middle school, I was inspired. As I grew up, and saw the continued structural racism and classicism in my community I became disgusted. The young idealist in me could not understand how so much potential in the civil rights movement could be squandered. As I’ve grown further I’ve come to understand that our fight is not really a fight to win once, it’s a fight to win each new generation- and so I must take up my work and fight. Put another way, when you feel like you are doing something for the first time, you are likely to take more risks. When you can clearly see the mistakes and shortcomings of previous attempts, sometimes it’s harder to make the leap to action.
I was only able to come to these conclusions through in-depth conversation with a mentor. I sat with her after having lost a major campaign, and asked how she had stayed in the fight for over 40 years. She told me that once she realized that it wasn’t about winning or losing one campaign, but it was about holding the line, pushing the line forward, and passing on skills to the next generation she had all the stamina she needed. Young people do not often get the chance to have these sorts of conversations and work out the difficulties that arise when working for social justice. The civil rights movement was a deeply intergenerational movement. If we don’t have more spaces like that, young people can never develop the perspective and internal strength to keep fighting.
Given these three obstacles, there are three actions that we as young people can call on our older generation to do when they point the accusatory-finger-of-apathy at us:
1) Fight student debt and push for living wage, sustainable jobs.
2) Fight political corruption and unjust corporate influence in campaigns and governance. In other words, help build a political system your kids can be proud of.
3) Create intergenerational spaces where young people and adults can share their different perspectives and build community. Mentor a young person, or be mentored by a young person- and discover the new ways that young people are fighting for social justice today.
