www.yawr.org End the occupation of Iraq - Bring the troops home now!
The occupation of Iraq is about oil and U.S. corporate interests in the Middle East. It’s doing nothing to bring genuine democracy to Iraq. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis want U.S. troops to go, and any truly representative Iraqi government would make this demand their top priority. The Iraqi people will never give in to colonial domination. Prolonging the occupation will only mean deepening the cycle of violence.
Money for jobs and education, not war!
The U.S. military receives half a trillion dollars each year of our tax money. Meanwhile public education continues to crumble. Schools are closing, class sizes are growing, and programs are being cut. College tuition is rising, pushing many out of higher education. Most young people are forced into dead-end jobs with no prospect of a decent future. With the money spent on the Iraq war alone, over 75 million young people could have gotten four-year scholarships at public universities.
Military recruiters out of our schools!
The failing occupation in Iraq means the Pentagon is dramatically stepping up recruitment efforts in our schools. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” forces schools to give students’ personal information to military recruiters. These recruiters have to fulfill quotas and get bonuses for signing us up, so they tend to say just about anything to trick us into joining. Instead of explaining the horrific realities of war, they make exaggerated promises of college money and job training. In reality, two thirds of recruits never get a cent for college and even less receive relevant job training. Recruiters target schools in working class communities, and black and Latino youth in particular. For working class youth faced with a choice between unemployment, dead-end jobs, and enlistment, targeted recruitment amounts to nothing less than a poverty draft!
Say NO to racism and attacks on our civil liberties!
Since September 11th, there has been a racist backlash against immigrants, and particularly against Arabs and Muslims. The USA Patriot Act and other repressive immigration policies have led to thousands being rounded-up and secretly thrown into jail on secret evidence, as well as mass deportations. This repression has created a climate of fear for millions more, amid widespread racial and religious profiling, harassment, and discrimination in jobs and housing. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are racist wars, and Bush promotes a racist nationalism to justify U.S. violence abroad.
Movies
Books
check out YAWR's new twin cities newsletter RESISTANCE!
Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) is a diverse group of high school students, junior college and university students, youth and young adults organizing to change our schools, communities and our nation. We are student activists starting YAWR clubs in our schools and non-students who are supporting that work and working with other groups. Our generation wants change and were gonna be the ones to make it happen!!
STUDENT STRIKE
Against the RNC!
A Theatric Walkout and March to Arrest the War Criminals
September 4, 2008
The Republican National Convention is coming to the Twin Cities September 1 – 4 to promote their criminal policies of war and corporate corruption. On the fourth day of the Convention, George W. Bush will be in town to crown John McCain the Republican candidate for Commander-in-Thief, and the corporate media will broadcast their speeches to tens of millions worldwide.
On this day we need to send a very different message to the world. We will not allow business as usual to continue while our city is used to promote the unending occupation of Iraq, paid for by under-funding public education, and fought by those recruited in the Pentagon's racist poverty draft.
That's why Youth Against War & Racism and others are calling for a massive student walkout on September 4th, followed by a festival of resistance featuring music, speakers, workshops, and more. It will all lead up to a huge, theatric, visually spectacular "March to Arrest the War Criminals." Details of time and place to be announced soon!
*** Get leaflets for your school BEFORE summer break!
Call Tyrus at 651-210-5342 to arrange getting leaflets, or pick some up at the next YAWR meeting this Sunday @ 12pm @ 3024 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis (by Midtown Exchange on Lake St.)
*** Get active! ***
We need your help mobilizing this summer at concerts, festivals, and other gatherings. We need artists, musicians and actors to prepare an amazing day on Sept. 4th. There will be lots of volunteer opportunities and regular planning meetings all summer, so get in touch and plug in!
651-210-5342 | against.war@gmail.com | myspace.com/yawrMN
Facebook Student Strike: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=15454797647
YAWR on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2812201110&ref=ts
Counter It! Training To Confront Militarism and Oppression.
DATE CHANGE!
An overnight camp at Garden Farme, Ramsey, MN Aug 8 - 12, 2008
A project of Youth Against War & Racism and Not Your Soldier
Counter Militarism, Counter Oppression, and Counter the Republican National Convention being held in St. Paul, September 1-4. At this activist training camp for youth and youth organizers, we'll develop the analysis and skills to meet our organizing challenges for the upcoming year. Together we'll takes an in-depth look at U.S. militarism, its links to class and race oppression here at home, and the wider issues facing our generation. Counter It! is a place for activists and organizers to improve non-violent skills to confront military recruiters, the 2008 Republican National Convention, and to organize for a just future for our generation.
Our amazing facilitation team will include trainers from Not Your Soldier partner groups, including the California based Ruckus Society and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. We'll also have local trainers from Youth Against War & Racism, Socialist Alternative, and Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Workshops will be designed to emphasize peer-to-peer teaching and democratic team-building while at the same time bringing out the knowledge and experience of our facilitators.
Key Information:
• Counter It! Training to Confront Militarism and Oppression
• When: Aug 8th through Aug 12th
• Where: Overnight Camping at Garden Farme, Ramsey, MN www.gardenfarmecsa.com
• Who: About 25 participants alongside 12+ facilitators and support staff
• Cost: $50 - $250 sliding scale participation fee (scholarships available upon request)
• Workshops Include: Anti-Oppression, Counter Recruitment, Why Protest the RNC, Direct Action 101, Popular Theater, Campaign Strategy, and much more.
Goals:
• Prepare activists for a mass Twin Cities Student Strike and theatric protest against the Republican National Convention.
• Increase our ability to counter the military's racist poverty draft in our schools.
• Build a growing, inclusive youth movement where sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of oppression have no place.
Counter It! is made possible through generous financial support from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, and the Youth Resistance Project.
Contact Tyrus | 651.210.5342 | tyrusathompson@gmail.com
Who I'd like to meet: Youth in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area interested in fighting back against the occupation of Iraq and against military recruitment in our schools!
Hello. World Peace Before 2021 became YourFriend some time ago. Now I am much more accustomed to how MySpace works. So please forgive me for not 'commenting' until now. My eight-year-old-peace-activist son Axil Kollist's quest for World Peace Before 2021 is gaining momentum! I'm so proud of him. Please embrace him AND his song "World Peace Before 2021" which he performs beautifully. His performance can be seen on MySpace, his webpage www. worldpeacebefore2021. com and/or YouTube (by searching his name Axil Kollist.) It is my intention to post a new video of him singing his song every few months so people can watch his talent grow as impressively as the momentum for his quest! I'm inviting you to contact my son directly too via his email address worldpeacebefore2021@hawaii.rr.com .I'm sharing two photos with you. The first is of my son distributing his free world peace bumperstickers and the second photo is of him singing at Maui's Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Day Festivities in January 08. Very best regards, Axil's mom
I really respect YAWR. I had the opportunity to participate in the youth march on the fifteenth, and I really enjoyed the speakers at the rally. Hopefully the more time I spend in MN the more involved I'll be able to become. I wish you luck in your work.
On May 30th - June 1st, 2008, folks from all over the Midwest will be heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota to flesh out solid proposals in regards to how we’ll work together against the RNC/DNC come September and August.
This three day event will include essential party-crashing workshops, networking, and intensive strategizing. If you have a specific workshop you’d like to see or facilitate, get a hold of us at the email address at the bottom of this release.
TO GET INTO THE STRATEGIZING SESSION YOU MUST BE VOUCHED FOR. If your planning on making it to the strategizing session, please send an RSVP (to the e-mail at the bottom of this release) specifying your willingness to be apart of it. At this point we’ll send you a form to complete and send back to us.
THE REST OF THE WEEKEND IS OPEN TO EVERYONE. Because of this, we ask that folks to keep security culture in mind to create the safest space possible for all parties involved.
PLANNING EARLY. We are asking people to send their proposals and ideas for the strategizing session ahead of time so we can go into this organized. You can send your input to the email address at the bottom of this release.
CHILDCARE. We will be providing childcare for most (if not the entire) convergence. Please give the organizers a hand and RSVP ahead of time to the e-mail at the bottom of this release. We need to stock up on toys and supplies!
Please RSVP to the following email address well ahead of time so we know what we can expect for food, housing, numbers, ect.
On Wednesday, February 13th, at 11:00 a.m., in the Capitol Rotunda, over 1000 ex-offenders, their family members and supporters of justice system reform will come together to highlight the importance of second chances. This effort is being lead by a consortium of non-profit leaders and justice system advocates. On behalf of this consortium, we are asking for your support in drawing statewide and national attention and in raising the awareness about the barriers facing individuals with criminal records. There are currently 155,000 Minnesota adults under some form of correctional supervision; 142,000 on probation, 4,200 on some level of supervised release, and 9,100 in prison. And there are at least as many with a criminal record who have satisfied all the requirements of their sentence. This equates to one in every sixteen Minnesotans having the stigma of a conviction they must overcome to qualify for housing, employment and student loans, among other things. Legislatively we have created nearly 200 collateral sanctions over and above the penalties associated with a conviction. We ask that you and your organization support “Second Chance Day on the Hill” on February 13, 2008 by recruiting individuals to come to the capitol. It is time for us to come together and make the all too often invisible problems facing individuals with criminal records visible.
--------------- GO TO THIS!!!!! --------------- March 1st-2nd anti-authoritarians will gather @ the Belfry/Jack Pine community centers in Minneapolis, MN for the first U(nconventional) A(ction) - MN consulta in the books. href="http://www.myspace.com/unconventionalmn" target="_blank"> If you plan on attending the 2008 RNC/DNC actions and live in/border Minnesota you should consider showing up!
On March 1st-2nd anti-authoritarians will gather @ the Belfry/Jack Pine community centers in Minneapolis, MN for the first U(nconventional) A(ction) - MN consulta in the books.
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If your planning on attending the 2008 RNC/DNC demonstrations and you live in/border Minnesota it’d be extremely beneficial to get involved with this event.
Come prepared to discuss the updated RNC/DNC strategies, partake in essential party crashing workshops, and network with MN natives and all others involved.
Have a workshop idea? Want to do a workshop? Have something yo
On March 1st-2nd anti-authoritarians will gather @ the Belfry/Jack Pine community centers in Minneapolis, MN for the first U(nconventional) A(ction) - MN consulta in the books.
If your planning on attending the 2008 RNC/DNC demonstrations and you live in/border Minnesota it’d be extremely beneficial to get involved with this event.
Come prepared to discuss the updated RNC/DNC strategies, partake in essential party crashing workshops, and network with MN natives and all others involved.
Have a workshop idea? Want to do a workshop? Have something you’d really like to see come out of this consulta? Need housing? Please check in with us to the following address so we can provide enough spaces to sleep and hook you up with what you need to plug into this consulta and have a great fucking time. (It also helps us prepare enough food for everyone):
burnthroughfear@riseup.net
Figure out how to get to the Belfry with the following address: 3753 Bloomington Ave. S Minneapolis, MN
Figure out how to get to the Jack Pine with the following address: 2815 East Lake Street Minneapolis, MN
Know what your getting yourself into with the following addresses: www.unconventionalaction.org www.myspace.com/unconventionalmn www.myspace.com/belfrycenter www.thejackpine.org
