Youth are yearning for real change

LeiLani Dowell WW photo: Gary Wilson

A statement by FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together—on the elections concluded: “Struggle will come and the millions who took to the streets in celebration of an historic event, and the millions more who watched with gleams in their eyes, will not disappear, but will take to the streets as conditions intensify. As the capitalist crisis plunges deeper, the prospects for struggle and for socialism are looking up.”

We in FIST believe those wonderful, optimistic words wholeheartedly. But as youth, it gives us a certain responsibility because so many of those who not only celebrated, but actively mobilized and organized for an Obama victory, were youth themselves.

CBS News reports that two-thirds of voters younger than 30 supported Obama, and that while “support was especially strong among Black and Latino young people ... more than half of young white voters supported Obama as well.” Surges in voter registration among youth contributed to Obama’s win in some of the swing states.

But young people weren’t just voting this time around—they were Facebooking people about the campaign, going door-to-door, blogging, e-mailing and texting each other about the campaign. Some of them weren’t even old enough to vote themselves.

Lots of analysis can be found in the news about this. Some are saying that Obama was simply the “cool” candidate—dismissing the idea that young people have minds or ideas about politics. CBS News says that “in the new multiracial, multilingual and multicultural America, he was more like them.” Well, okay, maybe they’re onto something with the changing character of the working class, but I doubt that’s where they were going.

I happen to have a little more faith in the minds of youth. This was an opening for many, many youth who have never been political before in their lives, but are yearning for real change. They’re facing an uphill struggle in this capitalist society. Their schools are underfunded; their tuitions are rising. They and their friends get harassed and beat up by the police and thrown in jail for trying to survive—especially if they’re youth of color, immigrant youth, or lesbian, gay, bi or trans youth. The ones who make it to college see few job prospects when they get out and a mountain of debt (almost everyone in FIST can tell you personally about that). Those who don’t make it to college can’t even get jobs at McDonalds, because job losses across the board mean older workers are taking jobs usually held by youth. They see this continuing war in Iraq and the threat of more wars to come and fear they’ll be drafted into the military, perhaps simply because it’s the only option available to them.

And here’s the thing—with all the contradictions of bourgeois elections, the high turnout of youth for the Obama campaign means they are trying to do something about this situation. They are not, as we are always told, apathetic. And, though we are often told so, they are not backwards, lacking in moral fiber, etc.

Of course, this is where we come in. Because not only are youth attempting to do something, but they’re looking for answers as well, particularly in the face of this tumultuous economic crisis that is hitting all of us in one way or another. The word “socialism” has been revitalized in the media, and youth are asking what it means. Of course, we have to do a lot of correcting all the crap that they’re saying about it in the media. Comrades in New York have commented on how they’ve seen more young people reading Marx on the trains, and it’s never been easier to hand out copies of our revolutionary paper.

We know that Obama’s victory was a limited one. A historic, monumental victory, but one that will not bring about the change so desperately needed throughout the world. That change will only come about with the overthrow of capitalism.

But a lot of youth, by no fault of their own, don’t know that. And so it’s up to us to let them know. And this coming period will be rife with opportunity to do so. When Obama’s policies don’t turn out to be pro-worker, we can show how bourgeois elections work and how they provide only the illusion of democracy. When he can’t solve the economic crisis—and some of us still think that he’s been set up to fail on this anyway— we can explain the cycles of capitalism, how this period was inevitable and how if we don’t destroy the system itself, these cycles will continue wreaking havoc on the lives of working people. When imperialist intervention continues, we can explain the need for the imperialist powers to constantly expand throughout the globe, how war is an inherent tenet of capitalism. Likewise, when racism isn’t even slowed by Obama’s victory, and in recent cases intensified, we can explain how racism and bigotry are used under capitalism to divide Black from white, straight from gay, etc.

I keep using the word “can.” That’s wrong. We MUST do these things.

At the beginning of the economic crisis, the national leadership of FIST discussed what we should do about it, what kind of campaign we should undertake. One result of that is an 11-point program of demands that we have come up with to reach out to youth.

Briefly, here are the main points: 1) The right to free public education and job training. 2) The demilitarization of our schools. 3) The right to healthcare. 4) The right to housing. 5) Stop the raids and deportations. 6) The right to a job. 7) Shut down the prison-industrial complex. 8) Self-determination is a right. 9) Defeat U.S. imperialism. 10) Justice and equality for all women. 11) Safety and equality for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer youth.

The program closes with a note on the necessity of the fight for a socialist future: “FIST is a youth group that ultimately believes that all forms of oppression and repression of the masses will disappear with a revolutionary change in the social relations. While it is important to fight for gains and make material demands on the capitalist government, history has shown that, especially in times of crisis, capitalist governments will always seek to erode demands in the form of social services and that the capitalist class will always seek to take away gains won against them and increase exploitation. These demands are a platform for struggle, but can ultimately be protected from bourgeois reaction by overthrowing bourgeois society for a socialist future.”

I think the idea of reaching out to energetic young people is exciting. I was at the celebration in Harlem on election night and one of the things that was sung and chanted was “We did it.” Like for once, the people could claim a victory that their efforts had provoked. I think we can channel that energy, say, “Okay, we did this, but we’ve got to keep on to win what we need to survive and thrive.”

We’ve got big tasks ahead of us, comrades and friends, so let’s take this weekend to steel ourselves for the challenge.