youth

After 21 days on the road, 2557 miles driven and countless cafeteria meals – things are both different and the same. For example, before the tour our van was just another rental car with nothing unique about it. We returned it well used, more fragrant (!) and with a new name: the planet of Tranquilandia. Maybe more importantly, when the tour started the entire country was waiting with baited breath for the results of the election. Now we know that Obama will be our next US president. According to most people I’ve talked to, this means that some positive changes are likely to come about, but that we are not going to see an overhaul of the entire world order. Before the tour, political hip hop from Detroit had nothing to do with youth resistance in Colombia. Now Invincible’s rhymes and Paula’s stories of creative resistance are flowing together… in people’s imaginations, thoughts and maybe even dreams. And yet, there is still war in Colombia, displacement in Detroit and a poverty draft of young people of color and the poor.

On Monday of last week I found myself doing simultaneous translation for the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” This play tells the story of the young 23-year-old Olympia, Washington native who was working for the International Solidarity Movement when an Israeli tractor bulldozed her down as she was trying to protect a Palestinian house from being demolished. At moments I became light headed and realized why: I was forgetting to breathe in the rush of trying to translate as much as I could for Paula. I would stop and take a deep breath and begin again. Despite all my efforts, I’m sure I only managed to translate about half of the dialogue and had to swallow back my tears a number of times when the content of what I was translating was heartbreaking in its injustice.

November 26, 2008

In the wake of today’s news from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that she will not pursue the creation of a U.S. “interests section” in Tehran – which would have created a permanent U.S. diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time in three decades – a 14-member interfaith peace delegation to Iran will depart New York tonight, November 26th. The ten-day delegation is organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the oldest and largest interfaith peace organization in the United States, and is FOR’s eighth fact-finding and friendship delegation to Iran.

By Iranian blogger Shant Baghramian

Finally the day comes. 4-th of November 2008.The American elections, and Barack Obama become the projected president of US. He is the one who convinced American people about change. It is good and fascinating.

In order to express my thoughts about this event, I want to organize my entry in two parts: a) All happenings up to the election of Obama b) After election and up comings.

a) Election of Obama

1) Lately reading political texts of Karl Popper, about the government, I liked the part that he declare the question as below: Which political power is the best one?

Counter It!
Minnesota’s antiwar youth training camp

Last summer the Pentagon was busy preparing for an ambitious “surge” in military recruitment to meet the bipartisan plan to expand the military by 92,000 troops. At the same time, young people in Minnesota were also busy preparing our response.
Twenty two young activists – high school and college students as well as several trainers – gathered for four days in August at Garden Farme in Ramsey, MN to develop our skills and strategy. Organized by Youth Against War & Racism in partnership with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Ruckus Society, and others, the “Counter It! Training” was a great success.

Last night the Drop Beats Not Bombs tour had an awesome show at Quennect 4, hosted by the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago!

The event, "Peace is Always in Fashion," started with a fashion show to protest Sear's new "First Infantry" line of military issues apparel, and to offer non-military based fashion options. The fashions were modeled by students who were involved with the AFSC Chicago's 2008 summer institute, a program for high schoolers to learn about militarism and alternatives to military service, and other friends and supporters. Following the fashion show, we were entertained by Primo Dance Troup from University of Illinois Chicago, Perfect Kiss, an excellent new wave band, local rapper Popz Crakaz, DJ Orville Kline, & Invincible, who fininshed the night with a full set including guest appearnces by Chicago based FM Supreme and b-boy Super In Light.

We have 1200 miles to drive and a minivan to get us there: our fall '08 Drop Beats Not Bombs tour includes 15 stops in 6 states, launching in Minneapolis and ending in New York city. But the minivan is only the cover of this book and not to be judged: inside we are hip hop, we are action, art, community across borders, a laboratory of resistance and visions of another world that is possible, a world that is being formed, built and created as we speak.

Police repression and unjust arrests in the Twin Cities related to the Republican National Convention have caused concern among nonviolent organizers.  

Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), a partner organization of FOR, has asked us to mobilize our members and networks to support the rights of youth to resist militarism in their schools and in our country through a nonviolent student walk-out on the last day of the RNC.  

On Tuesday 9/2, some households in the St. Paul school district received a pre-recorded phone call warning parents that the streets would be unsafe for their children on Thursday, and to please urge their children not to attend the student strike.  

YAWR has called on our support for these solidarity actions: 

It is 5 p.m. in Iran, 8 and 1/2 hours east of New York, and I am sending a first brief report from our civilian diplomacy delegation. It has been an exhausting and invigorating two days, only a few hours of which have actually been spent here in the country.