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How to organize a ...
STUDENT REVOLUTION!
Student walkouts are a powerful act of protest. It can be a way to unite with your
peers and build a culture of resistance at your school. It is a way to temporarily turn
your school upside down and put the students in charge for a change. It is also valuable
organizing training for when the real revolution comes. And if done right, it can have a
big enough impact that actual change in the system is made.
Probably the first comment youll have is something like that will never happen
at my school. At least thats what I was saying at the beginning of my senior
year of high school. I never thought we would be able to get away with half the stuff we
pulled off. Our school was so boring, mundane, uninteresting. By the end of the year, we
had published an underground newspaper distributed in several local high schools, had
formed a network of radical student activists, and organized a student walkout of hundreds
of kids in protest of the war in Iraq.
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot accomplish the same, or better. The ultimate
achievement would be a student strike, sit-in, or walkout. But before the fun stuff comes
a lot of movement building. Set your sights high, but take practical approaches to your
goals.
Before we go any further, your movement must be _about_ something. If its just
for the hell of it, you should stop reading now because you will fail
miserably regardless. So you need a cause behind your movement? No! You need a movement
behind your cause! If you do not have a clear message, you will be quickly written off as
mindless teenage rebellion. By having a purpose for the action, you gain legitimacy among
faculty and conservative students and reduce the risk of discipline from the authorities.
So make this meaningful. Remember: this is a forum for you to express your dissatisfaction
with the status quo. Believe me, every school has something unfair about it - dress code,
censorship, abusive administrators, pledge of allegiance, etc. If you play your cards
right, something may even get done about it.
Right. So now that you have selected a few issues to raise a ruckus about, the first thing
you must do before you develop grandoise plans for student revolution is to start talking
to people. Gather their thoughts about these issues. Try to get them all riled up and
wanting to take action. While many people have their personal differences, almost everyone
if you talk to them long enough will agree on some fundamental principles that things are
incredibly unfair and something should be done about it.
You will quickly discover that one of the first things that you must overcome is any
personal inhibitions you might have towards people. Do NOT be shy or self-restrained. Dont
be afraid to go up to total strangers in a friendly way and start sharing all these
personal experiences. Reach out to people of different cultural backgrounds. Dont
let social cliques and popularity contests keep the student body divided - believe me,
everyone can unite around the common idea that school is a big waste of time.
Once you get a band of students who want to do something about it, you should call a
general meeting. Make little flyers and posters and put them up around school announcing
when, where, and why. Get everyone you can together in one room to make some decisions
about what can be done about the issue in question. Have everyone go around the room and
introduce themselves. Make sure no one feels uncomfortable or left out. I also recommend
that you read up about how to organize a meeting based on the directly democratic
concensus process where everyone is equal to share ideas on an anti-authoritarian basis.
Whether you want to organize an official student group or remain unofficial is up to you.
There are advantages and disadvantages. While being an official student organization, the
administration will be forced to consider your actions with more legitimacy, and provide
you with school resources, rooms, announcements on the PA, putting posters up around
school, etc. However, you are bound by school regulations, which may tie your hands from
any fun or rebellious activities. Of course, that does not mean that you can work
independent of the organizationIt entirely depends on the context of your school. Gather
as much information about school policies regarding student organizations and discuss this
choice with the other group members.
Now that you have an activist scene growing at your school, its time to release some
publications. Consider making an underground newsletter to bring your message to the
people. Or just make half-page leaflets. Make the content quick, concise, but most
importantly, INTERESTING! No one wants to read a dry, intellectual analysis of this old
dudes interpretation of whatever. Boredom is counter-revolutionary. Your movement
needs to be fun, enjoyable and exciting, or no one will want to participate. And when you
distribute it to students, raise a ruckus! Stand near the doors in the cafeteria handing
out your propaganda while shouting stuff! Make a scene! Blow bubbles and fill the halls
with laughter! Get hundreds of copies to your friends so that they can distribute them to
their friends and their friends, etc. Make sure every single student has access to it. And
promote discussion - bring up the debate in your classes, at lunch tables, with strangers
in the lunch line, etc. By now, it has entered the popular consciousness, the seeds have
been planted, you have a strong activist scene, and the time is ripe for an action.
What you should do depends entirely on the context your movement takes place in. Try to
coincide your action with a particular date of significance(in response to a controversial
policy made by the government or your school administration, anti-war protest in nearby
cities, etc). If possible, look at your local independent media center(indymedia.org) to
see if there are other student activist groups planning any actions - and try to
coordinate your actions with theirs. Some things to consider might be a student walkout, a
sit-in in your school, a march to join up with a larger protest downtown, or in some
situations, a simple teach-in to just discuss the issues might be appropriate. However, in
order to have any degree of success, you must find a way to bring all the unfocused
meaningless rebellion into organized rebellion with a purpose.
Weeks before the event, you should prepare some outreach propaganda. Tape posters up on
the walls, in restrooms, classrooms, bulletin boards. Make quarter page flyers explaining
where, when, and why. Make a website, advertise it in the official school paper. If you
can, try to get it on the school announcements. Make it exciting - hype it up! Make it the
topic of everyones discussion. Tell everyone you see - even people you dont
know. Do not be afraid to talk to people you dont know - get used to presenting your
movement in a quick two minute discussion, and _dont be shy_!
Handling the local press is an important factor to consider. A press release should be
drafted explaining what, who, where, when, and why. It should be short and concise, yet
still keep all the points you want to make intact. Stick to a few key phrases that are
repeated everywhere - signs, buttons, leaflets, etc. Around a week before the event, send
press releases to all the local newspapers and television networks. Try to invite
reporters to take pictures and interview people. At the least, get some of your own people
to take pictures and document the event. We were able to make it on network television and
several other newspapers.
The protest itself is a blank canvas for you to draw on. Have ideas for activities ready.
Dont be afraid of creating a ruckus - but everything you do must have an obvious
purpose. Keep things light-hearted and energetic. Dont sit still for a second - dull
moments are killer, and people will lose interest. Bring fun things to the protest itself.
Make drums out of buckets. Make flags and signs. Bring people to play instruments. Get a
dance circle going. Have lots of random shit to hand out. Consider graffiti to add some
life to your area. Make it lively, entertaining, and interesting - yet still have a very
clear, concise point which you are able to back up. When people start leaving, they should
be filled with the spirit of activism, having made contacts with other activists, and
looking forward to or organizing their own future actions. People should be energized and
empowered after the action, not disenchanted and dulled.
There is a certain high one can get from organizing a successful action. If done right,
the protest can be a liberating experience for you and your comrades beyond anything
else(even sex and the best drugs). If you are lucky enough to achieve the ecstasy of the
moment, you know you have been doing something right.
After the action, you should prepare a communique about the events, and call upon other
members and their parents to call the school board to leave their comments. Depending on
the success of your action, they may be forced to issue a statement or change policies if
you have built a solid movement with serious argument that pressures the power that be.
Youre probably wondering why this guide appeared in this magazine. Its not
about hacking. However, it is about building movements of people to accomplish something
in real life - a quality that is lacking in computers and computer users. In this
increasingly oppressive world, people need to work with others and fight for social
justice. All too often hackers consider themselves elite and above it all in the compute
realm, but when presented with injustice in the realm world, they simply submit themselves
to dominating forces. No more. Resistance is fertile!
by Jeremy Hammond of hackthissite.org
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Students from Lombard, Illinois walk out of school on March 20 to protest the war in Iraq. Later joined up with Chicago activists to commit acts of civil disobedience and shut down Lake Shore Drive. This was our contribution to the anti-war movement.
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This guide is only a basic introduction towards student organizing, and is by far not a comprehensive guide to the complexities of building political movements. However, this should point you in the right direction and help you get started. If you would like to know more, check out these links: infoshop.org, indymedia.org, rise.f2o.org, etc.
If you're going to have a protest of some sort, you should read the Avoiding punishment page.
Comments
blackgate says:
First and last, fucking educate yourself, i studied every restriction and rule and fucking princible under our school board, knowing what the teachers can and cant do it very useful in stressful situations, they cannot controlus from doing something paticular when you know damn well you can. They cannot stop us, keep the spirit alive
Tom says:
I think the best way to get attention before ignoring the rule is probably to take the situation to the press. IF something is agrivating the student body and the school isnt doing anything about it, go to the principal and threaten to take the story public. that usually gets them into action.
To find out exactly what your protesting rights in school (in America) are, go here: Student Rights.
More info at ACLU.org: Student Rights Questions.
More info on walkouts: School Walkouts Info.
General info on youth rights: Youth Rights Wiki.
Got any other useful ideas? Contact me and tell me about it :)
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