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 INTRODUCTION: Youth liberation seeks to free young people from the oppressive bondage of
age, whether in the home, at the school, or throughout the community.
Some organizations are calling for anarchy, some for reformed social
standards, but all have a common aim: the elimination of adultism and
age-based discrimination. The ideas behind youth
liberation are taking hold in many communities around the world today.
POINT TO PONDER: "Kids, I wish every mom and dad would make a speech to their teenagers
and say, 'Kids, be free, be whatever you are, do whatever you want to do,
just as long as you don't hurt anybody. And remember kids, I am you
friend.'"
- from
the musical Hair.
Organizations and Websites
CRAYON
The Chicago-area Radical Anarchist Youth Organizing Network is a group that
helps organize youth around Chicago for direct action relating to a diverse
variety of issues to foster a better world for youth and for everyone.
The End of Childhood
Fiery rhetoric and significant tools
for young people and adults who want to change the way children are seen in the
United States and Canada today.
Youth Liberation Association of Canada
"Youth rights through youth advocacy." The YLAC represents its members
by lobbying government officials and issuing press releases, as well as by
educating the public about the civil rights of youth in Canada.
The Freechild Project's Ephebiphobia Page
With links to sources to fight the extreme fear of youth throughout society,
including ZNet's Youth Watch and more.
The Freechild Project's Adultism Page
Features a unique discussion of Adultism.
Get resources on fighting adultism here!
Self-Education
Foundation
 SEF is a nonprofit organization
led by young people committed to supporting individual and community
empowerment through self-education. To this end, we utilize the tools of
grantmaking, community organizing and outreach. We believe that
self-education is the practice of freedom.
Stop Children's
Apartheid
YouthLib.Com - Tools for
Youth Liberation Activists
Includes writings on age, ageism
and adultism. Fascinating, effective and penetrating insights into the
dominating culture of adultocentrism.
ZNet Youth
Watch
"Youth are the recipients of more
abuse, pain, hunger and neglect than any other group of people. In addition
to all this children face an extraordinary amount of scapegoating and blame
for problems that simply are not their fault. Now more than ever it is
important to challenge the discrimination, exploitation and abuse that young
people face every day of their lives, and make Youth Empowerment and
liberation a central goal of movements for change." This web site contains
lots of links and articles about empowering young people.
Power to the Youth
Youth Liberation - An
Interview with Brian Dominick
Explores adultarchy and youth oppression, and builds the aforementioned
Liberating Youth.
Taking Children Seriously
TCS is a radically new and
different idea about child-rearing. Its most distinctive feature is the idea
that it is both possible and desirable to bring up children entirely without
doing things to them against their will, or making them do things against
their will, and that they are entitled to the same rights, respect and
control over their lives as adults. TCS is an educational philosophy in the
broadest sense, in that it is about the conditions under which human minds
do and do not thrive, and about how people learn and how knowledge is
created, and it has far-reaching implications for all relationships and for
all areas of life. It is a whole new world-view.
Free
Kids
“Some people think kids are too
stupid to vote. Kids are too selfish, self-centered and irresponsible -
grownups say…” Opening quote from this personal page focusing on children’s
suffrage.
Publications and Other Media
Young People's Liberation Policy
A twenty-page
statement covers Young People's Oppression and Liberation clearly and
completely. If you are new to this topic this is the place to start.
This is the most comprehensive, clearly written document of its kind
available.
ZNet Youth Liberation - An Interview with Brian Dominick
Explores
adultarchy and the oppression of young people.
Youth Liberation - An Article
Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor: Young, Gifted and
Media-Savvy
"In Ann Arbor (MI) in the
1970's... ageism was critiqued as an institutional force of oppression akin to
racism or sexism. Kids were a hot topic, not only because they were controlled
by institutions in which they had no say but also because they often had the
energy and gumption to combat it." A comprehensive history of a
historically important organization from the 1960s called Youth Liberation,
based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Student Movement and Youth Liberation in the US
By Tom Watts.
Youth Liberation 101
By Sven Bonnichsen. Begins on page 12.
Anarchism and Youth Liberation
By Marc Siverstein.
Events
Florida Youth Liberation Conference
includes detailed information about the conference held in Gainesville in
December 2000.
Minnesota Teen Liberation Conference
information about the conference held in Minneapolis in June 2001.
The SNAYR is brought to you by
The Freechild Project in partnership with
National Youth Rights Association
NYRA has been working for more than
five
years to bring young people across the United States a society where
they experience
political, social, and economic, and cultural equality, and where the rights of youth
are equal to those of adults.
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