Stamina Over Volume: Spending days two and three with the youth of the DNC

The first day of school is right around the corner and young people around the country are relishing these last few days of summer vacation like the drippy end of a popsicle. But what about the youth who have spent the week in L.A. organizing and protesting at the DNC? Well, it hasn't been a vacation, but it hasn't been a waste of energy either. In fact two major youth-organized events happened in Los Angeles over the last week, bringing the young activists here in to a new level of clarity in their demands.

One might say that Tuesday's Justice for Youth protest and Wednesday's National Youth Convention panel ended with mixed results. On one hand they served to highlight the way that youth are are grossly disregarded by mainstream politicians and major media outlets. But on the other, this hasn't stopped young people from being involved, nor has it stopped them from having their voices heard by third party leaders.

The roughly 200 high school and college students who participated in Tuesday's Justice for Youth/End the Racist Set Up march know that youth are almost always represented in a negative light in the mainstream press. To counteract this, they included a message about talking to media in their flier: "Experience has shown that the media will try and marginalize, belittle, or basically screw up our message. To counteract that, we have media talking points and designated media spokespeople. Please don't consider taking on the mainstream media monopoly by yourself!" The youth protesters heeded the advice on the flier, and only those wearing big "Press" stickers across their chests were spoken to at all.

Protesters marched past the Los Angeles City Schools Administrative Offices and California Governor Gray Davis's L.A. office, chanting in English and Spanish such statements as "Schools Not Jails," and "Hey hey/ho ho/your racist tests have got to go." The protest was centered around 10 points, which included ending high stakes standardized tests like the Stanford 9, SAT, and GRE; building toxic-free schools; repealing Prop. 227, which ended bilingual education two years ago; repealing Prop. 21, under which youth under 18 can be tried as adults; and also repealing Prop. 209, which ended affirmative action. The march was put on by four activist youth organizations: the Coalition for Educational Justice, a coalition of teachers, students and parents centered around improving education, Communities for a Better Environment, a group of youth fighting for environmental justice in Southeast Los Angeles, University Coalition, which fights for affirmative action, and Youth Organizing Community, a state-wide group which fights for education and against the prison industrial complex.

At the governor's office, four of the protesters attempted to speak to Prop. 21-supporter Gray Davis, to present the 10 points. But when they did so, they were treated with fear and disrespect. Although the protest was entirely non-violent, the four students were escorted by as many as 10 police officers in full riot gear to Davis's office. Upon arriving at the office, the youth speakers were not given time with Davis. Instead, they were met by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a few police officers (at least these one's weren't in riot gear) who stayed around to "protect" Davis's representative from the evidently non-violent students.

"He could have at least sent the Secretary of Education," said Alfonso Gonzales, one of the four student speakers and a University of California Los Angeles student. Gonzales speculated that the multicultural make-up of the protesters may have influenced Davis' choice, adding, "He sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs because he's Latino."

Gray Davis's office did not return WireTap phone calls seeking comment on why he, nor any other education representative, refused to speak to the youth protesters.