Harry Targ
I experienced the new youth movement following the
Parkland massacre vicariously: through television, radio, and social media. I
stayed at home Saturday March 24 periodically sampling the television accounts
of the massive rallies all over the country and the world against guns, gun
violence, and the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists who prey on the
celebration of fear and violence. I even shed a tear when I saw one placard
with the sign “teach your parents well.”
While I have had bursts of enthusiasm before when
women marched for their rights, masses mobilized against war, and many stepped
up to say no to police violence and mass incarceration, I was touched
emotionally even more this time around. On reflection, I think, my optimism, my
interest in being involved, and my sense of purpose has been energized by
several features of this new movement.
First, this movement was not organized around
“identities.” While the student organizers of the rally purposefully
incorporated how people of color, women, and lower income students experience
violence differently in their lives, the central focus was on the general issues
of guns and gun violence. Individual youth organizers then spoke from their own
experiences.
Second, the students, again consciously, avoided all
sectarianisms. While there were clear messages about profit-making
corporations, lobby groups, self-serving elected officials, and the uses to
which elections were put, they did not explicitly address the role of
capitalism and class, race, and gender. They made it clear that elections
matter. They avoided the debate about whether people should support one or the
other of the major political parties or build a third party. They had organized
in 800 cities and towns to say “Enough is Enough” about gun violence, not to
raise issues of theory and practice that often divide older activists.
Third, the students had a direct, immediate
issue-oriented agenda; that is the regulation of the ownership, sale, and use
of firearms in society. Although spokespersons from Parkland and elsewhere
beautifully grounded their advocacy in broader systemic, structural arguments
about why they are mobilizing, they presented a modest but significant set of
policy goals that they wished to achieve.
Fourth, the young people who organized the marches and
rallies presented a practical plan to achieve their immediate goals. They urged
those who were old enough to vote, to do so in the 2018 elections. Those who were
going to become of voting age, they proposed, should register to vote. And all
young people should encourage others to register and vote.
Fifth, all young people were urged to participate in
the electoral arena. Activists called on youth to establish litmus tests for
each candidate from local to national office on gun issues. And, where
possible, participants in rallies were urged to run for office. And young
people were advised to reject the argument that “you are just a kid….you don’t
have the experience or knowledge to hold public office.”
Sixth, all the emerging youth spokespersons from
Parkland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere made it clear that they were not
leaders in the traditional sense but facilitators of an organically charged
mass movement. All students from Parkland who were interviewed indicated that they
were not speaking for and about themselves. They saw themselves as part of a
generation that is demanding the right to be free of the threat of being a
target of violent death.
Seventh, spokespersons for this mass mobilization
promise that “this is just the beginning.” One gets the sense from the passion,
the collective solidarity, the proposed plan of action, and the specific goals
articulated all across the country that a new movement has been born. This
movement might transform itself from its singular commitment to controlling gun
violence to a broad-based social movement for justice and democracy.
These “generation Zers” will continue to build from
their extraordinary uprising. For now they have set themselves and the nation
on a new path that should give us hope and direction. By their actions so
far, they have begun to “Teach Your
Parents Well.”
