Month: July 2022

Categories
All Posts Youth Liberation

What is youth liberation?

Youth liberation is the goal of anti-ageism work, as well as something we can practice in the now. Childishness has long been discarded as “silly” and “irrational” when in fact it connects us to freedom. Young people are some of the least indoctrinated and most open-minded community members. Our curiosity and playfulness fuels the imagination needed to fight for this freedom.

Youth liberation is self-determination, power, and autonomy for young people so we can be who we are, rather than what adults and the state want us to be. In an attempt to control us, we are often dived into “bad kids” who disobey and “good kids” who mold themselves to the will of adults. DELINQUENCY offers ​​​​​​​us a framework for us to embrace our already rebellious ways or reclaim it for ourselves by resisting adult supremacy.

Youth liberation is chatting back, acting out and standing up which, despite often being criminalised and pathologised, are reactions to the frustrating discrimination that young people experience.

Resistance is the only response to repression…

What does youth liberation mean to you?

Categories
All Posts Youth Liberation Youth Oppression

What is ageism?

Ageism is a spectrum of oppression that harms, in particular, old people and children. It often looks like elders being discarded when, under capitalism, they are no longer “useful” or how we socially and systemically control young people.

DELINQUENTS stand against all forms of age-oppression and focus on the experiences of children. Young people are legally owned by our parents or guardians. Our bodily autonomy is constantly undermined. Our opinions and voices are disregarded. We exist under the doctrines of “because I said so” and “but you’re a child”.

In an ageist world, childhood is synonymous with disempowerment.
We are miseducated/indoctrinated by the school system, punished by our the adults in our lives, and forced to participate in a world within which we have no say or influence. This encourages us to accept hierarchy and abuse throughout our lives.

It re-enforces every oppression we may encounter or experience in our lives: racism, rape culture, anti-queerness, ableism, speciesism, carceral logic and more.

This means ageism is connected to every freedom struggle. If you and your communities are not intentionally including this in your praxis, you are being ageist. Each time you do not consider young people as your community members who must also be included, you weaken our justice movements.

Adult perspectives are always valued over young people because the older you are the more (legal/social) authority you hold. Therefore, adults (by existence) participate in adult supremacy and ageism, holding adult privilege. In every interaction an adult has with a young person, there is a power dynamic at play.

We call for “child” to be recognised as a political identity and for children and teenagers to be recognised as the marginalised community we are.