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 Over
400 people showed up at an Oakland, CA rally to call on
Congresswoman Barbara Lee to sponsor legislation to stop
deportations that are devastating immigrant families.
Organized by AYPAL,
a youth organization seeking to change the relationship
of power between young people and the policy makers, the
rally followed an 18-month campaign that aims to reform
and repeal the harshest elements of the 1996 Illegal Immigration
and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which mandates
the detention and deportation of non-citizens convicted
of non-violent crimes and misdemeanors like shoplifting,
taking a car for a joy ride, drunk driving, possession
of marijuana and vandalism/tagging. Due to IIRIRA, deportation
of immigrants has increased 400%.
At the rally, AYPAL and DataCenter released
Justice Detained,
a report that documents the economic and emotional
hardship that deportations cause to families left behind,
and recommends specific legislative changes to IIRIRA.
(Download report)
In May, AYPAL
achieved a victory when Representative Barbara Lee agreed
to co-sponsor legislation that addresses almost all the
group's demands.
Last winter, we released a first draft
of our report Oakland
Takeover, connecting what's happening locally
to larger national educational trends of incapacitating
public education and disenfranchising poor and people
of color communities. Our goals are to build basic awareness
and understanding on these issues, but also to hopefully
help folks to identify targets, strategies, and tactics
for your local campaigns and to make those national connections.
Using the research we gathered for
this report, we have been doing presentations in the Bay
Area for local youth organizations.
We presented our report at a community
forum for youth and teachers at the Malcolm
X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) School of Social Justice.
MXGM has been providing its constituents with ongoing
education about the state takeover of the Oakland Unified
School District, and they are advocating community control
of its schools as an alternative.
Last spring was the first-ever Youth
Organizer & Training Exchange for Bay Area youth organizers,
coordinated by SOUL,
Movement
Strategy Center, Youth
Media Council, and DataCenter (See Summer
2003 Projects. Out of this organic collaboration, we
together created the Youth Organizer Intermediary Council.
In January, to follow up on last year's conference, the
Council coordinated a Youth Movement Strategy Session with
two tracks, Juvenile Justice and Educational Justice. Due
to our work documenting school takeovers in the report Oakland
Takeover, the DataCenter was asked to present on
national trends in education at the strategy session. We
focused on issues of privatization, standards and assessment,
and school takeovers.
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Youth
Strategy Project
The
Youth Strategy Project provides strategic research, consultation,
and training for social, economic and environmental justice
organizations. It is tailored to build the research and analytical
skills of the next generation of movement leaders.
The
project has established partnerships with technical assistance
groups supporting youth organizing throughout the U.S. We
also conduct research and develop trainings for community-based
youth organizations and projects around the country.
Our
youth work took on national prominence during the Proposition
21 battle in California. We were the primary information strategy
provider to core youth organizations statewide. Our staff
provided research and analysis that identified and profiled
corporate targets, and helped develop the campaign strategy
to confront the role of corporate money in politics. In collaboration
with ColorLines Magazine, we developed No
War On Youth, a web resource for youth activists. We also
conducted research and information strategy trainings for
lead organizers.
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