Takes up: student workers at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, who struck on March 3 to protest the elimination of a farm residency program; graduate students at Indiana University went on strike April 13 for better wages, benefits, and to stop fee hikes, and for recognition of their union; and on April 25, about 20 students at Tufts U. held a protest against General Dynamics recruiting on campus.
students
Authoritarian attacks on teachers
March 19, 2022Critical piece on a “parents’ bill of rights” requiring schools to post online every piece of instructional material that will be used for the school year.
Youth in Action: March-April 2022
March 16, 2022Students at West Virginia University, Harvard and Stanford, among others, held protests and rallies against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, college students picketed the office of Illinois Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley on March 4 to protest an $8,000 campaign contribution from weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Teachers fight for health
February 7, 2022Account of the struggle between the Chicago Teachers’ Union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot over returning to remote learning while COVID-19 infections are surging, from Jan. 4 to 12.
Youth in Action: November-December 2021
November 19, 2021Young immigration activists confront Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to demand she uphold campaign promises; protests against racially biased enforcement of the student dress code in Richardson, Texas; and the demonstration marking the two-year anniversary of the uprising led by students in Chile.
Latin America Notes: September-October 2021
September 21, 2021Cubans revolt and students speak out amid food and medicine shortages and human rights violations; and Latin America suffers under climate change.
Queer Notes: July-August 2021
June 29, 2021Iranians protesting “honor killing” of Gay man Alireza Fazeli Monfared; students at Pendleton Heights High School in Indiana protest administration’s demand that Pride flags be removed from classrooms; nonbinary genderqueer Tryfan Morys Eibhlyn Llwyd, fighter for Gay liberation and the end of racism, died at age 70.
Youth in Action: May-June 2021
May 8, 2021Young climate activists prepare for the next UN climate change conference, COP26; the French Senate’s reactionary vote to dissolve the National Union of Students of France; youth protest a Japanese plan to dump more than 1 million tons of irradiated water from the Fukushima reactor site into the ocean; and more than 60,000 schoolchildren in Japan signed a “Stop Extreme School Rules” petition.
Youth in action, March-April 2021
March 11, 2021Young people in Tunisian streets call for jobs and relief from rising food prices; Kavi Vu and friends challenge rampant disinformation on Vietnamese language Facebook pages; 1,000 students at Columbia University withhold tuition, demanding 10% reduction in tuition, a reduction in campus police, and fossil fuel divestment.
News from Mexico: January-February 2021
January 31, 2021While the U.S. and Mexico argue whether General Salvador Cienfuegos and former Mexican President Peña Nieto were involved in abetting a narco-trafficking cartel, the Mexican army and navy have a despicable history of human rights violations never honestly investigated. The Zapatistas issued a “Declaration for Life” and intercontinental call for meetings.
Youth in Action: November-December 2020
November 27, 2020Youth and others in several places in Nigeria protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) who rape, extort, and otherwise abuse youth; residential advisors at several big name universities are striking over COVID-19 related issues; and students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University creatively used hundreds of padlocks hanging on a bridge to spell: “Save the 12,” referring to 12 Hong Kong youth abducted from a boat who are now being held in mainland China.
World in view: Massive student-led protests cover Thailand
November 24, 2020Tens of thousands of Thai students, many from high schools, have been carrying on massive demonstrations for months demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha; rewriting the Constitution that Prayut foisted on the country, including a Senate appointed by the military; and reining in the vast privileges and protections of the monarchy.
Detroit teachers vote safety strike
August 29, 2020The Detroit Federation of Teachers voted to authorize a safety strike, which means they will not teach face-to-face but are willing to work remotely. Most parents, students, and educators want to return to classroom learning, but COVID-19 forces everyone into choices unthinkable six months ago, choices that could mean life or death.
Handicap This!: September-October 2020
Staggering COVID-19 death toll in New York nursing homes and nationwide in nursing homes housing the disabled; impact of school closures on special needs students; Team Brit allows people with disabilities to participate in motorsports.
#FixTheElevators
March 4, 2020A coalition of students and workers at Wayne State University in Detroit have been conducting a campaign since November 2019 for the elevators on campus to be repaired. It is a disability, safety, and working conditions issue.
Youth in Action, July-August 2019
June 26, 2019Students protest in Brazil; students protest in Spain; and a sit-in at Princeton University’s Title IX administration against the way the university adjudicates reports of sexual assault.
Youth in Action: May-June 2019
May 3, 2019An action against Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School allowing the ranking of girls by boys; K-8 Charter Day School students win against sexist dress code; Savitribai Phule Pune University graduate students win stipends and demonstrate for better meals; University of Illinois at Chicago graduate student teaching assistants strike.
Youth in Action, March-April 2019
March 10, 2019School students in Oakland, Calif. support striking teachers; Belgian environment minister resigns after attacking Strike 4 Climate Action; high school students walk out in Vancouver, Canada, protesting tar sands; medical students’ direct action at Gandaki Medical College in Pokhara, Nepal, against tuition theft.
Readers’ Views, November-December 2018
December 14, 2018Readers’ Views on: Capitalism vs. the Planet; Anti-Semitism’s Inhumanity; Kavanaugh Travesty; Youth Rock!; Freedom Movements vs. Fascism across the Globe; Catholic Church Crisis; Voices from behind Bars
Youth in Action: November-December 2018
Yale Law School students sit in to protest the rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court; three Australian eighth-graders boycott school over plan to open coal mines on indigenous land overlooking the Great Barrier Reef; and California high school students attend school board meetings en masse to demand the right of 16-18 year olds to vote in school board elections.
Iran strike solidarity
Workers at Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane in Iran have been on strike for most of November. This is the latest of their walkouts this year over unpaid wages.
Youth in Action: Yale students protest Kavanaugh nomination
October 8, 2018Youth in Action that takes up how half of the student body at Yale Law School held a sit-down strike in university hallways and refused to go to class on Sept. 24, 2018.
Jasik workers organize in China
September 26, 2018This generation of Chinese workers, going on strike repeatedly to demand wages and benefits they are owed or fighting to control their own jobs, together with young intellectuals reclaiming Marx’s work, may be a threat to today’s Chinese rulers.
Nicaraguans rise up against Ortega
September 20, 2018Nicaraguans rally in San Francisco to raise awareness and support for the spreading anti-government protests in Nicaragua against President Ortega and his government’s brutal oppression.
Thousands of Mexican students STRIKE!
September 19, 2018On Sept. 5, 2018, a march of tens of thousands of students and other social groups flooded the UNAM campus in Mexico City to demand an end to porrismo, or pro-government thugs, used against students’ movements. Voices of several striking students are featured.
Protesters march against planned airport in South Korea
September 3, 2018Nearly 200 students and 150 adults participated in a three-day march in opposition to the construction of a second airport on Jeju-Do, South Korea.
Youth in Action, July-August 2018
July 25, 2018Youth in action column on a student demonstration in Delhi, India; a student rally against the alt-Right at Michigan State University, and revolt in Nicaragua headed by students.
Youth In Action: Students in India protest tainted test
June 11, 2018Nearly 1,000 college-age youth jammed the street in front of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) in Delhi when official questions to exams were found on social media on Feb. 28.
Students in Vermont decry campus racism
May 10, 2018Report on a series of meetings at the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington on Feb. 13 and 14, 2018, of several hundred students who gathered to protest school administrators’ lack of response to campus racism and to support a UVM staffer who was on a hunger strike.
Why teachers strike
May 1, 2018Public school teachers, historically underpaid as “women’s work,” have been striking or threatening strikes from West Virginia and New Jersey to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona.
Students in Vermont decry campus racism
April 5, 2018Students demonstrate at the University of Vermont in Burlington over racial inequality on campus, calling for mandated diversity and equity training for university staff as well as increased recruitment and retention of faculty and staff of color.
Chicago March For Our Lives
March 25, 2018On a bitter cold morning on March 24, 2018, over 85,000 of us jammed into Union Park on Chicago’s west side to be part of the March For Our Lives and to join with protesters in 800 other cities across the U.S. and the world.
“Spartans, this is the beginning of our revolution”
February 7, 2018Michigan State students marched in protest of the enablers of sexual abuser Dr. Larry Nassar, and demanded immediate, deep-rooted changes in campus culture.
Handicap This!, January-February 2018
February 1, 2018Santa Barbara’s jail system and sheriff are sued; Texas caps the number of students who can receive special education services; people with disabilities criticize Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary in the United Kingdom.
Martin Luther King Day in Detroit
January 31, 2018A diverse crowd at Detroit’s Martin Luther King Day rally and march was even larger than last year’s turnout, proving that we refuse to acquiesce to the blatant anti-humanism of the 45th president.
Students vs. tax bill
January 29, 2018About 50 graduate students at Caltech walked out of classes to protest Trump’s tax bill in November as each has around $50,000 in tuition covered by non-taxable waivers. Under the new bill, the tuition waiver would be treated as taxable income.
Countering white supremacists
November 15, 2017Excerpts of a talk by a young Black woman student opposing alt-right’s events at the University of California-Berkeley.
Queer Notes, November-December 2017
Queer Notes on a fictional tale of Transgender youth Zhang Wang’an in China; a sign distribution rally in the U.S. to support two neighborhood LGBT families; Pride Parade in St. Petersburg; and Pete Olson, Texas Republican, sponsoring a bill to invalidate executive orders that included Trans people as a protected class.
Readers’ Views: September-October 2017, Part 2
September 5, 2017Readers’ Views: Marx’s concept of theory; we are not a game; voices from behind bars.
Readers’ Views: September-October 2017, Part 1
Readers’ Views: facing far right’s threat; don’t scapegoat; Canadian strike; Transgender troops; women’s liberation; homeless in Los Angeles; defend dissidents; why read N&L.
Fighting back against the rise of neo-Nazi hate
August 28, 2017In-person reports of demonstrations in Chicago, Memphis, Oregon, Los Angeles and Halifax in Canada in solidarity with activists in Charlottesville, Va., fighting against neo-fascism and demanding to take down Confederate statues. .
Free college tuition?
July 6, 2017New York Governor Cuomo announced earlier this year a program called “Excelsior,” which claimed to provide free tuition for all New York college students. The reality is different.
Across U.S. students fight fascism
Students around the country protested neo-fascist speakers this spring. .
Youth In Action: May-June 2017
May 2, 2017Students in Puerto Rico agitate against government slashing funds to higher education; classmates and parents of high school student Hunter Bailey, who committed suicide, protest memorials to him being destroyed by his high school’s superintendent; students of North Carolina’s Salem College sit in demanding diversity training; students of the University of North Texas successfully rallied for the university to become a sanctuary campus.
Retirees help Detroit schools
May 1, 2017Retired teachers and community residents have come to the aid of Detroit high schools abandoned as failing by the State of Michigan and the Detroit school system.
Immigrants and allies challenge Trump’s inhumanity
April 22, 2017As the Trump administration ramps up deportations and related abuses, strikes, protests, and sanctuary cities are proliferating. The oppression of a lower caste of workers and the discrimination and violence faced by immigrants present a challenge to the Left, labor and the rest of humanity.
Mass rallies denounce Trump and defend immigrants: Florida students rally
March 23, 2017Florida college students rally for immigrants, against U.S. President Donald Trump’s first immigrant ban and against the University of South Florida’s support for companies that harm the environment or support the military.
Detroiters oppose school closings
February 7, 2017Report of the “Emergency Community Meeting on School Closings” in Detroit, MI, taking up and condemning Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to close 38 schools, most of them in Detroit.
Florida students rally for immigrants
Participant report of a 500-strong student rally at the University of South Florida in Tampa in support of immigrants and calling for divestment from companies whose products harm the environment or which produce weapons and supplies for the military.
Queer Notes: January-February 2017
February 3, 2017Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity; a Transgender boy is thrown out of a Cub Scout pack in New Jersey; and a vigil held by friends and family of people at the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, California.