The fourth annual International YouthPeace Week, November 24-December 1, 2000, featured mall and shopping center actions that underlined the relationships among the products people buy (consumerism), the sweatshops that make the products (globalization) and the armies that police the sweatshops (militarism). With a growing youth movement against corporate globalization, International YouthPeace Week allowed young activists to raise consumer awareness around the highest-volume shopping week of the year. In addition, the national anti-corporate abuse group INFACT held International YouthPeace Week screenings around the country of its new film, Making a Killing, which documents Philip Morris’ efforts to seduce young people into smoking. What follows is a sampling in words and pictures of some of the actions as seen by participants.
—asif ullah
Portland, OR
WRL’s YouthPeace Coordinator Portland, OR The fifth annual Children’s Peace Fair was held Saturday afternoon, November 18, in the social hall of a local church. The Peace Fair provides positive play experiences for children of all ages in a constructive, cooperative and secure environment. This year’s fair included arts and crafts projects, make-your-own snacks, non-competitive games, face-painting, storytelling, door prizes and a bake sale. We also enjoyed performances by a local puppet theater and the children’s choir from a neighboring middle school. Admission to the fair was free to all. The Children’s Peace Fair is organized in conjunction with WRL’s International YouthPeace Week, and we included a literature table with lots of information about local peace and justice projects and how to become involved. The fair was sponsored by 11 local activist organizations, and each group participated by leading an activity with children. We estimate that more than 100 people were present and actively involved for all or part of the fair.
—John Grueschow, Coordinator
Clearwater, FL
During International YouthPeace Week, on Buy Nothing Day (a.k.a. Fur Free Friday), the day after Thanksgiving, a group of local Clearwater youths went to the local Old Navy store. On the biggest shopping day of the year, our message rang loud and clear: “Think before you buy!” We went into the store and handed out flyers until an employee informed us we were not allowed to hand things out in the store. (They have reason to be afraid of the truth.) We then stood outside the store, leafleting and chanting, “Hey shoppers, beware! Old Navy is not fair! Old Navy you have a store, what do you need to use sweatshops for? Old Navy have a heart, end slave labor for a start!” We also did some role-playing, depicting the horrible conditions that workers are forced to endure. The highlight of the action was when one woman walked into the store and demanded her money back, instead of their usual credit slips.
—Kelley Hope
Columbia, SC
Amazingly, the South Carolina Peace Resource Center pulled together four events.
We began working to bring awareness around youth and violence with a peaceful toy exchange November 11 at New Bethany Baptist Church in Ft. Mott, SC (about 40 miles southwest of Columbia). About 50 adults and youth attended.
Foul weather necessitated moving the two events planned for November 25 to December 9. Both took place in Columbia, the first at College Place United Methodist Church during the morning and the second at Bethlehem Community Center during the afternoon. About 30 adults and youth attended. We held a press conference at Bethlehem Community Center that was attended by two area television stations, NBC and CBS, and each gave us air time on both the 7 p.m. and the 11 p.m. news. There were also announcements in the State Newspaper (distributed statewide) and the Free Times (covering the greater Columbia area).
In response to the interest these generated, we were invited to have another toy exchange at Zion Hill Community Center in Winnsboro, SC, where about 30 adults and children participated. The displays showed examples of violent toys, and we made handouts of information we got from WRL on youth and violence. We talked with the young people and asked them to draw pictures of what “peace” meant to them, and we facilitated interactive, non-competitive games. We partnered with several organizations in the African-American community, displaying materials about safe toys, violence against women and a Native American coalition for nonviolence. We were also set up for voter registration.
—Rebecca Rogers
New Jersey
WRL’s Root and Branch local devoted its November 18 Coffee House to the topic “Youth Working Together for Peace.” We invited a young activist to tell us about his high school group, “Speak Out,” and its recent environmental activities, particularly about protesting the expansion plans of the Toys ‘R’ Us headquarters in our backyard. In a well-forested part of the town of Montvale, the toy company is planning to clear several acres for parking space, creating a dramatic change in the environment including possible flooding and destruction of local wild life. We attended a zoning hearing in Montvale to support maintaining the land as it is. We also let the youth of our group help with holiday shopping for several families with teenage children. We know that our more affluent Bergen County cities cover up poverty in our midst; we are including some of these poor families in our activities.
Beyond YouthPeace Week, our regular Sunday peace vigil in the center of affluent Ridgewood continues with a sign proclaiming our opposition to all war. About half of our vigil members are under 18.
—Adrianna Coe
Waterford, CT
Connecticut YouthPeace activists urge holiday shoppers to think about what they give children. Photo by Joanne Sheehan.
For the Connecticut YouthPeace group, November 24 marked the fourth annual “Don’t Buy War Toys” demonstration at the Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT. It was the day after Thanksgiving, frigid cold, and by far the busiest shopping day of the year.
We started the day by holding signs outside of the mall entrance that said “Peaceful toys for girls and boys,” “Don’t buy war toys,” and “Say no to GI Joe.” People responded with the occasional infamous middle finger, and we even got shot at with a cap gun. However, more often that not, passersby gave us honks and thumbs up.
An hour later, we were ready for hot chocolate, and we made our way into the mall. We all wore T-shirts that said, “Don’t buy war toys.” We had to wear the shirts because signs and leaflets are not welcomed inside the mall, so the shirts were our outlet to express our opinions.
One man asked, “What’s this all about?”
We answered, “For International YouthPeace Week we are walking around the mall to get people to think twice about what toys they buy their children. If you buy a child a plastic gun, you are telling your child that you condone violence. War toys do not encourage children to solve conflicts nonviolently. We want to make a difference in children’s lives today, and we want to make sure that they grow up with positive creativity.”
As they had done in previous years, the security guards tried to get us to leave the mall. One said, “This is private property. You cannot be here, this is like being in my living room.” As always, we stood our ground and explained that we had every right to walk in the mall with our “Don’t buy war toys” shirts, just as anyone in a name brand shirt can walk in the mall. (However, we didn’t want to go to his living room.)
As we tried to create a peaceful mood on this mad shopping day, we ran into a man who was demonstrating for “Buy Nothing Day.” He had gotten some of the information he was handing out from the War Resisters League web page (www.warresisters.org). We also saw a father with young children who told us how stellar it was that we were at the mall, making shoppers think twice about violent toys.
