A massive movement of students overthrew the dictator and aim for deeper social transformation, which needs to encompass various social forces. Can the needed solidarity between students and workers chart a way forward?
youth
World in View: Bangladesh student protests a mass movement?
August 3, 2024What started as a student protest at universities has become an expression of profound discontent about life in Bangladesh. Can this mass movement grow and force authentic change?
Lead article: A new generation of radicals against genocide
July 22, 2024Students have poured into protests and encampments because they see a genocide taking place in Palestine. They have shown how intimately their universities are embedded in the military-industrial complex that is arming Israel’s genocidal attack. This movement must be defended, supported and encouraged to develop.
World in View: Kenyan youth storm the system
July 19, 2024On June 25, young protesters stormed the National Assembly in Kenya protesting a bill raising taxes and prices on imported staples. The protests forced the president to cancel the bill. Grave contradictions exist in this supposedly “stable” country, including multiple dimensions of revolt.
Columbia meets encampments with force
May 9, 2024A participant in the 1968 antiwar student occupation at Columbia University draws parallels to students there protesting genocide now. In both cases, administrators lacking reasoned arguments ordered police assaults that failed to quiet protests and spurred actions on campuses across the U.S. and internationally.
Students against genocide speak for themselves
Interviews with several students from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., about the protest encampment there against the genocide in Gaza.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part One, A new generation of radicals stands against genocide
May 4, 2024Part I of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes up the youth Palestine solidarity movement, as well as the genocide in Gaza, its support from the powers that be and the mass resistance from below.
Draft Perspectives, 2024-2025: Part Two, Trump 2.0: A global threat
Part II of the 2024-2025 Draft Perspectives. Takes up: the global retrogression that a second Trump period would mean.
Youth in Action, March 2024: Outcry over death of genderfluid youth
March 8, 2024Nex Benedict, a gender non-conforming youth, was bullied and knocked down in their school restroom hitting the back of their head on the floor. They died the next day. Demonstrations against bullying and in support of LGBTQ+ youth followed. Nex’s mother said the bullying became worse after anti-Trans legislation was passed in Oklahoma showing the known relationship between those two events.
Climate activists march in Chicago
September 21, 2023In-person report of the Sept. 15 mobilization in Chicago to protest political inaction in the face of climate emergency.
World in View: France: Police murder sparks mass youth protests
July 7, 2023After Nahel Merzouk, a teenager of Algerian-Moroccan descent, was killed by police at a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, French youth, many of North African descent, responded with outrage. How did France come to this explosive moment?
Youth in Action: March-April 2023
March 21, 2023Students from 47 schools in Iowa walk out of class on March 1 to protest “Don’t Say Gay” bills; state legislatures are rolling back child labor laws; Scottish youth protest cuts to a youth assistance and engagement program.
German youth speak
January 25, 2023A member of the Socialist Youth of Germany (The Falcons) discusses their aim for a liberated society where people have ruptured the logic of capitalist exploitation in thought and action and taken on responsibility for themselves and their environment.
Jordan truckers strike
January 24, 2023Truck drivers in Jordan were on strike during most of December, as soaring fuel prices have left them unable to work. Other Jordanians, especially youth, who are fed up with energy prices and high unemployment, held protests which blocked two highways.
Youth in Action: November-December 2022
November 11, 2022U. of Florida students protest choice of reactionary Ben Sasse as university president; Virginia high school students protests anti-Trans plan; Greek students protest police sent onto campuses by the government.
Climate strike, Oakland, Sept. 2022
September 26, 2022Hundreds of youth participated in the Oakland event of the international climate strike on Sept. 23, 2022.
World in View: Progressives elected in Colombia
July 19, 2022The stunning electoral victory of Gustavo Petro as President and Francia Márquez as Vice President marks a new moment for Colombia.
World in View: India’s unemployment stirs youth revolts
July 12, 2022Double-digit growth in India’s economy cannot hide the gravest of contradictions—massive unemployment especially among the youth.
Youth in Action: July-August 2022
High schoolers refuse to live in fear of being gunned down at school; Fridays 4 Future “dies in” to shame carbon-happy Wall St. financiers; teenager highlights Palestinian human rights at Tel Aviv Pride.
Down with gun culture
Until recently, the outrageous power and impunity of the NRA dominated U.S. thinking on guns, opposing ANY measures to improve gun safety as a Second Amendment violation. But millions are determined to build a more humane society.
World in View: Latin American Notes
May 19, 2022El Salvador: President Bukele’s response to a spike in gang violence was to arrest 18,000 people, mostly youth, and suspend civil liberties.
Peru: a state of emergency was declared at the Cuajone copper mine, where nearby residents shut down the mine’s water supply, demanding compensation and a share of future profits.
Queer Notes: March-April 2022
March 19, 2022LGBTQ+ students are protesting injustice in Kenya, Florida and Texas; the suspected suicide of Gay mayor Kevin Ward highlights suicide risks for gay men; Black Trans woman Ju’ Zema Goldring’s unjust arrest; and the banning of conversion therapy for people under 18 in New Zealand.
Youth: Laws attack LGBTQ+
March 16, 2022Texas, Florida and Oklahoma have recently passed laws that threaten Queer kids and can be directed against any marginalized group. No matter which politician is in power or what political party is dominant, they will do little to protect oppressed groups or benefit the lives of regular people in any significant way.
Johnny Rogers (Robert Ellery), in memoriam
March 15, 2022Johnny Rogers (Robert Ellery), was one of the founding members of News and Letters Committees. The way he exemplified the immediate post-World War II generation of youth as a revolutionary force speaks to all generations.
COP26: Rulers strive to stifle youth response to climate emergency
January 24, 2022In the face of climate justice movements from below, the rulers are determined to keep control in their hands. With creative new actions and thinking raising the possibility of alternative, anti-capitalist paths of development, the powers that be are working hard to reduce that to a mere “energy transition.”
Readers’ Views: November-December 2021, Part Two
November 17, 2021Readers’ Views on Philosopher-revolutionaries; Youth, climate and the freedom idea; Climate crisis; California fires, FDA fails women, and Voices from behind bars.
Squid Game: capitalism’s essence
November 16, 2021The popularity of Squid Game is a sign that people are realizing the starkness of their situation under our current economic system. It struck a nerve with the 99%, driven by our realization that we live in a modified version of this game.
Youth hold Climate Strike in San Francisco
November 10, 2021As part of the ongoing Fridays for Future, on Aug. 27 several hundred, mostly youth, gathered in San Francisco to call attention to environmental racism, the climate crisis, and public health.
Chicago climate strike
Participant report of the Fridays for Future climate strike in Chicago on September 24, 2021.
Chicago climate strike
September 29, 2021Participant report of the Fridays for Future climate strike in Chicago on September 24, 2021.
Youth Vs Apocalypse
As part of the ongoing Fridays for Future, on Aug. 27 several hundred, mostly youth, gathered in San Francisco to call attention to environmental racism, the climate crisis, and public health.
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.
Medicare for all!
September 12, 2021A high-school student from San Jose read her poem castigating lousy U.S. health insurance at a Medicare For All (M4A) Rally in San Francisco on July 24.
World in View: Tunisia put to the test
September 11, 2021Since 2011, the opposition between a largely secular “Left” and a more religious “Right” has delimited bourgeois democratic politics. This could have been the starting point for a revolutionary politics. But the Tunisian Left has been unable to transcend this Enlightenment contradiction, despite the vital working-class participation in the 2011 revolution.
Youth demonstrate for Medicare For All
July 26, 2021A high-school youth from San Jose read her poem castigating lousy U.S. health insurance at a Medicare For All (M4A) Rally in San Francisco on July 24.
‘Generation on fire’ youth march
June 29, 2021Participant report of the Sunrise Movement youth march, “Generation on Fire,” June 10-14 in Northern California, and the lively discussions of ideas during the march.
World in View: Tunisia youth protest
Youth revolt broke out in Tunisia after police brutalized a 15-year-old. This year over 2,000 youths have been arrested in protests, many having been beaten and some tortured.
Colombia: The struggle for a better country
June 17, 2021In-person report on the revolt in Colombia and the history of displacement, repression and revolt from which it flows.
Colombia in Repression and Revolt
May 12, 2021In Colombia there is an ongoing rebellion against the neoliberal, authoritarian government of Iván Duque, who has unleashed his military and police against the unarmed population. Here we print translated excerpts from a May 9, 2021, interview with Afro-feminist Bety Ruth Lozano, a Colombian social leader living in the city of Cali, the epicenter of the revolt and also of the repressive cruelty that has resulted in deaths, disappearances, rapes and hundreds of injuries.
Biden’s broken immigration policy
May 8, 2021The number of people who cross the border without documents is rising and has been for many years. This trend has remained steady through the transition from Trump to President Biden, notwithstanding the self-promotional lies and distortions of professional smugglers and ultraconservative members of the U.S. Congress.
Youth: Marx speaks to youth alienation
Young people keep taking matters into our own hands. Our time of total crises calls for a philosophy to help us understand the problems at the root of our misery and give us hope we can create a new society. This makes Marx a contemporary for youth, looking for a way out of life under capitalism’s hopeless future.
Youth: Learning from Amazon protest
March 11, 2021A young revolutionary writes about participating in a protest for the first time, in solidarity with Alabama Amazon workers.
Youth in action, March-April 2021
Young 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.
Youth: Lived experience compels Marxism
January 30, 2021No matter how you frame capitalism, there is no way to wipe it clean. We have to start with a conception of society centered on the development of humans. So what is socialism?
Trump threatens DACA, ignores court
August 29, 2020Trump subverted the Supreme Court decision upholding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“dreamers”). It must be “upheld” by ordinary people who recognize and reject the actions of a president who poses imminent danger to their freedom.
Greta Thunberg: No One Is Too Small
November 17, 2019A review of the book “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference” by Greta Thunberg. .
Youth in Action, November-December 2019
November 4, 2019Youth in Action column on protests by Papuan students in Jakarta; an appeal by youth to “Save DACA in the Supreme Court now!” during the Sept. 12 presidential debate in Houston, and the national student strike for the climate on Sept. 20 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Voices of young and old from the Global Climate Strike
On the first day of the third Global Climate Strike, Sept. 20, 2019, millions of people, mostly teenagers, marched across the world—the biggest climate action ever. Hear the voices of youth and adults in Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco.
San Francisco is dangerous for youth
September 2, 2019D. Chêneville reflects on the dangerous situation youth face in San Francisco after learning that a 15-year-old he had just met was murdered.
Green Detroit!
Susan Van Gelder reports on a rally of youth, workers, and native people in Detroit demanding ”Make Detroit the Engine of a Green New Deal.”