Presentation of Line: Mission Statement, Demands, Students/Education

Each week, YPRC members present another section of our line in our meetings. For those who can’t join us, see a video of the first session at the link below.

Covered this week:

• Mission Statement
• List of Demands
• Political Line on Students & Education

DACA Update

The Young People’s Resistance Committee knows that the past few months have been full of uncertainty for the immigrant community. YPRC believes this is because it is in the best interest of the owning class, and their governmental figureheads, the Republican and Democratic Parties, to keep us, as a segment of the working class, in a state of anxiety and fear. That is why we stand by our political line of Legalization for All.

DACA, in particular, has suffered several back and forths. As of today, the program IS IN EFFECT for those who were previously protected by it. We currently have three members trained and ready to support anyone in need of filing their DACA renewal. We can support with the filing of the forms for free as well as with finding financial resources to cover fees. We will work 1:1 with those who need this support during times that are convenient to them.

If you or someone you know need this support, please send us a message on here, or an email to (yprclegalclinic@gmail.com) so we can start coordinating. Also, be on the lookout for a few events coming up which will seek to continue this support and talk more about this issue.

YPRC Stands in Solidarity with Our Sister Ahed Tamimi

By Sean Orr

On December 15, 2017, Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh to shut down a protest of Trump’s backwards decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. They came to the home of the Tamimi’s, a prominent activist family, and, while there, shot 15-year-old Mohammad Tamimi in the head. His cousin, Ahed, confronted the soldiers and demanded they leave. When one of the soldiers slapped her, she slapped him back.

Now Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year-old girl, is facing up to ten years in prison. On January 1 she was charged with 12 counts of activism and assault. Top Israeli government officials demanded that she, a child, be imprisoned for life. An Israeli journalist wrote that “we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras.”

Today, women across the United States are standing up against their abusers and oppressors. Ahed has confronted her abusers and oppressors, too. If we stand with the #MeToo movement, we must stand with Ahed. Our love must extend to the innumerable women and girls like Ahed, victims of Israeli apartheid and military occupation.

The Young People’s Resistance Committee (YPRC) stands in unflinching solidarity with Ahed Tamimi, her entire family, and the Palestinian people as they struggle, against all odds, for their freedom. We call on you  to do the same.

YPRC Political Line: Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

There is a long history of economic, political and civil rights violations at the hands of the U.S. in Puerto Rico – dating back to the late 1800s when the U.S. gained control of the island after the Spanish-American War. Since that time, the struggle for independence from the U.S. has been met with brutal repression, including active U.S. backed death squads in the 1950s, and a heartless neglect for the island’s nearly 3.5 million residents.

The government of Puerto Rico has a debt that is 70% of the island’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is more than three and half times as great as the next most indebted states, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, whose debt-to-GDP ratios are less than 20%. In addition, Puerto Rico’s electric utility also has major debt problems.

Puerto Rico’s debt woes are rooted in the fact that it is a colony of the U.S. Its economy is limited by the high cost of imports as a U.S. law, known as the Jones Act, which requires all of Puerto Rico’s imports to be carried on U.S.-made ships that are U.S.-owned and staffed by Americans. This contributes to the cost of living being almost 15% higher than in the U.S, even though incomes average less than half that of those in the U.S. Unemployment in Puerto Rico is 12%, more than twice the U.S rate. Another problem is that the U.S. government made it easier for Puerto Rico to borrow by making its bonds exempt from all U.S. taxes. Last but not least, Puerto Rico cannot take advantage of U.S. bankruptcy law like other U.S. cities, counties and states.

The Puerto Rican people would be most benefitted by a path of struggle against the Wall Street banksters who almost brought down the world economy during the financial crisis of 2008. The debt should be eliminated. The Jones Act must be repealed. YPRC believes that what Puerto Rico ultimately needs is independence – so that the their country is in their hands, not the hands of Wall Street hedge funds and their politicians in Washington, D.C. U.S. abuse and neglect will continue until Puerto Rico enjoys full independence and Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. win full equality.

YPRC Political Line: Black Liberation

Black Liberation

Modern capitalism as a system of political economy is a direct result of the period of economic growth when slavery in European colonies became the basis for worldwide commerce through the exploitation of labor. During this period of commercial welfare between the colonial powers, slavery played a key role in the advent of industrial capitalism. In other words, slavery provided the financial basis for the industrial revolution.

YPRC fully recognizes the fact that the US as it is known today was built on the backs of unpaid slave labor, and that many wealthy American families today retain their wealth from the days of slave-ownership. To quote Marx: “Direct slavery is the pivot of our industrialism today as much as machinery, credit, etc. Without slavery you have no cotton, without cotton you have no modern industry. It is slavery that has given value to the colonies; it is the colonies that created world trade; it is world trade that is the necessary condition for large-scale machine industry.”

YPRC believes in Black and Brown Unity. We know that all people of color are allies in the struggle against white supremacy. We support Black Lives Matter and the national Black liberation struggle, including Colin Kaepernick’s revolutionary Take A Knee movement. We acknowledge that Black people have faced the worst oppression in the United States and stand unwaveringly with all Black people, but especially Black women, in fighting for their liberation.   

We oppose police brutality and mourn the Black lives wrongly taken by state authority. We recognize that the original state police were runaway-slave hunters and that jails were originally a response to the dissolution of legal chattel slavery.  

As a primarily Latinx group, we recognize, oppose, and actively fight against the prevalent anti-Blackness within non-Black communities of color.    

YPRC Political Line: Women’s Liberation

Women’s Liberation

Women’s liberation is one of the most important and devastating issues of all time. Unfortunately, many progressive movements and societies have placed issues of women’s equality on the back burner. YPRC believes that women’s liberation must be an integral, everyday part of our organization and the movement for social change.

We place particular emphasis on the demands of working class women and women of color, including the right to welfare, decent housing, quality affordable child care and an end to the imprisonment of partners and children by the racist criminal justice system. In addition, we support the demands of women which cut across class lines such as full reproductive freedom, an end to domestic violence, and violence against women, affirmative action, and equal pay for equal work.

The women’s liberation movement can only achieve its objectives through the full participation and leadership of working class women and women of color. Women’s oppression is entrenched in the class system, and we are currently struggling against patterns of male domination within progressive movements, including YPRC. We are committed to advancing women’s leadership in our own organization through study, leadership development, and story-sharing.

YPRC has a strong and beautiful reputation for women’s leadership and majority composition. This is a great source of pride for our organization, and something we plan to continue through our recruitment strategies and targeted political education. Although we welcome men into our ranks, we understand that the movement for liberation of all people must be, and inevitably will be, led by women, especially women of color.  

YPRC Political Line: Immigrant Rights

Immigration / Immigration Rights

Young People’s Resistance Committee is a proud affiliate of the Legalization For All network (L4A). L4A demands genuine immigration reform for all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. The L4A network is made up of dozens of organizations from around the country all demanding the same thing: an end to the political and economic repression of undocumented people and, of course, legalization for all – nothing less.   

Other central demands include: No militarization of the border. No guest worker expansion. Increasing militarization makes it essentially impossible for undocumented people to find work within the U.S.. The U.S./Mexico border is already overly militarized, resulting in thousands of unnecessary and tragic deaths every year. We stand against any measures that make it more difficult for people to find work in the U.S., regardless of where they were born. “Guest Worker” programs are a fundamental assault on workers’ rights. By definition, these programs allow labor rights and other necessary rights to be restricted from migrant workers, creating a sector of second-class workers inherently more vulnerable to dangerous work conditions. We stand against any guest worker program that functions only to further exploit the work of undocumented people.  

YPRC Political Line: Education

Students / Education

We organize against budget cuts to education at every level. We believe that education is a human right, and that public education should be cost-free.

The rise of racist and discriminatory rhetoric at public institutions for higher education is a national shame, in our community students and faculty have lost faith in the administration’s willingness to keep us safe. We aspire to organize all working class and minority students in the interest of their already besieged education. We envision a society where students have the resources they need to be safe. Now is the time to hold administration – who have knowingly accepted the role to serve and protect the student body – accountable for our safety.

YPRC believes that interactions with university administration should be positive and limited. When students have a negative interaction with administration or law enforcement, the experience can have adverse psychological effects on them. Students should not be detained, arrested or sanctioned for any status offense or act that would be legal if they were off campus under any circumstance, except in cases involving a deadly weapon. Sanctions should only be utilized in clearly defined situations involving physical violence. Public institutions should be demilitarized and rid of repressive policies. We believe that the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee should employ personnel trained in conflict resolution to handle behavioral disruptions and other conflicts.

YPRC Political Line: Palestine

Palestine

The roots of the Palestine-Israel conflict can be traced to the late 19th century, with the rise of national movements, including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Zionism is the modern movement for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. Today, many confuse being “anti-Zionist” with being “anti-semitic”. YPRC is not in any way anti-semitic. We stand firmly against the mistreatment of Jewish people by fascist states throughout history and the white supremacists of today.  

The Zionist movement calls for the establishment of a nation state for the Jewish people in Palestine, which would serve as a haven for the Jews of the world and in which they would have the right for self-determination. Historically, Zionists increasingly came to hold that this state should be in their “historic homeland”, which they referred to as the Land of Israel. The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund encouraged immigration and funded purchase of land, both under Ottoman rule and under British rule, in the region of Palestine. The Arab population in Palestine vehemently opposed the increase of the Jewish population because the new immigrants refused to lease or sell land to Palestinians, or hire them. During the 1920s, all relations between the Jewish and Arab populations deteriorated and the hostility between the two groups intensified.

The Peel Commission of 1937 was the first to propose a two-state solution to the conflict, whereby Palestine would be divided into two states: one Arab state and one Jewish state. The Jewish state would include the coastal plain, Jezreel Valley, Beit She’an and the Galilee, while the Arab state would include Transjordan, Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley, and the Negev.

Between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that soon became Israel. These people are known today as Palestinian refugees.The Palestinian refugees were not allowed to return to Israel, and most of the neighboring Arab states, with the exception of Transjordan, denied granting them – or their descendants – citizenship.

According to information obtained from the Israeli Department of Defense, Israel revoked the residency status of more than 100,000 residents of the Gaza Strip and of around 140,000 residents of the West Bank during the 27 years between Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian Authority in 1994. Working in secret, the Israeli government revoked the residency status of Palestinians who studied or lived abroad for longer than a period of time and these revocations have barred nearly a quarter of a million Palestinians and their descendants from returning to Palestine. Israel is now employing a similar residency right revocation procedure for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.The first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) erupted in December 1987 and lasted until the Madrid Conference of 1991, despite Israeli attempts to suppress it. After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, the Second Intifada broke out in September 2000, bringing a period of intensified Palestinian–Israeli violence which has been taking place up to the present day. Palestinians and their allies, including YPRC, consider the Second Intifada to be a legitimate war of national liberation against foreign occupation, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.

Today, Palestinians are fighting for their lives and their home under the brutal, fascist Israeli occupation. YPRC stands in solidarity with Palestinian freedom fighters against a two-state solution. We support the Palestinian national efforts to end internal Palestinian division and restore national unity as an urgent necessity on the basis of a formulation of a program of national struggle, meaning a complete break with the Oslo Accords and its economic and political commitments. YPRC recognizes the need to develop a unified strategy for the Palestinian national liberation movement.

We urge the expansion of the international struggle alongside all forces for peace, justice, and liberation in the world, and all who stand with the struggle of the Arab and Palestinian peoples for freedom and liberation. We support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement and salute with all of those involved in the campaigns for the boycott of the Zionist entity.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.    

YPRC Political Line: The Philippines

The Philippines

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the archipelago was established.The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Catholicism becoming the dominant religion. During this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons.

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick succession the Philippine Revolution, which spawned the short-lived First Philippine Republic, followed by the bloody Philippine–American War of conquest by US military force. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, when the Philippines was recognized as an independent nation.

Today, the Philippines is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country which is in chronic crisis. It is agrarian and underdeveloped, and the majority of people live in the countryside as peasants. The current President, Rodrigo Duterte, is a lawyer and behaves as a bureaucrat capitalist, capable of saying and doing anything – pleasing the left, the middle, or the right, depending on what serves him from moment to moment.

YPRC supports the revolutionary movement for a self-determining Philippines, especially those efforts led by Anakbayan, the comprehensive national democratic mass organization of Filipino youth and students in the US. YPRC aligns with the following statement presented by Anakbayan: “Philippine society today is not truly free nor democratic. It is under the control of U.S imperialism, along with local landlords, big capitalists, and corrupt government officials. The National Democratic Struggle seeks to realize true national liberation for the country and the realization of the democratic rights of the people.”