Youth Activism

FORMS

There are three main forms of youth activism. The first simply relies on ''youth involvement'' in social activism. This is the predominant form of youth activism today, as millions of young people around the world participate in social activism that is organized, informed, led, and assessed by adults. Many efforts, including Education Reform , Children's Rights , and Government Reform call on youth to participate this way, often called Youth Voice . Youth Council s are an example of this.

''Youth-driven'' activism requires young people to be the primary movers within an adult-led movement. Such is the case with the Sierra Club, where youth compell their peers to join and become active in the environmental movement. This is also true of many organizations that were founded by youth who became adults, such as .

The third form of youth activism is the increasingly common neologism ''youth-led community organizing''. This title encompasses action which is conceived of, designed, enacted, challenged, redesigned, and driven entirely by young people. While there is no current national or international movement that is entirely led by youth, a number of local initiatives serve as examples, including Seattle Young Peoples Project in the US and Article 12 in Scotland.

IN THE UNITED STATES

Youth activism as a social phenomenon in the United States truly became defined in the mid- to late-nineteenth century when young people began forming labor strikes in response to their working conditions, wages, and hours. Child Labor ers in the coal mines of Appalachia began this trend, with newspaper carriers, soon following. These actions isolated youths' interests in the Popular Media of the times, and separated young people from their contemporary adult labor counterparts.

This separation continued through the 1930s, when the American Youth Congress presented a "Bill of Youth Rights" to the US Congress. Their actions were indicative of a growing student movement present throughout the US from the 1920s through the early 1940s. The 1950s saw the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. bring young people into larger movements for Civil Rights . This led to the outbreak of youth activism in the 1960s.

In recent years, scholars such as the Paulo Freire , Henry Giroux , Howard Zinn, Alfie Kohn , and Jonathan Kozol have all called for young people to become central actors in the guidance of schools and communities. Community organizations such as Children's Defense Fund, Sierra Club , and The Freechild Project have supported this call, providing training, resources, and other support. Advocates have included John Holt , Myles Horton and William Upski Wimsatt .

Another example of youth activism is seen in the Anti-globalization movement, which is made up largely of young people. A small group of youthful Anarchists gained international attention during the World Trade Organization Meeting Of 1999 when, in a formation known as a Black Bloc , they smashed windows of multinational corporations and clashed with police.

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