We fight to win: inequality and the politics of youth activism

In an adult-dominated society, teenagers are often shut out of participation in politics. We Fight to Win offers a compelling account of young people's attempts to get involved in community politics, and documents the battles waged to form youth movements and create social change in schools and neighborhoods. Hava Rachel Gordon compares the struggles and successes of two very different youth movements: a mostly white, middle-class youth activist network in Portland, Oregon, and a working-class network of minority youth in Oakland, California. She examines how these young activists navigate schools, families, community organizations, and the mainstream media, and employ a variety of strategies to make their voices heard on some of today's most pressing issuesùwar, school funding, the environmental crisis, the prison industrial complex, standardized testing, corporate accountability, and educational reform. We Fight to Win is one of the first books to focus on adolescence and political action and deftly explore the ways that the politics of youth activism are structured by age inequality as well as race, class, and gender.

Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --; Introduction --; 1. The Development of Urban Teenage Activism --; 2. Reading, Writing, and Radicalism --; 3. Allies Within and Without --; 4. Toward Youth Political Power in Oakland The Adult Gaze, Academic Achievement, and the Struggle for Political Legitimacy --; 5. Toward Youth Political Power in Portland --; 6. Gendering Political Power --; Conclusion --; APPENDIX: ENTERING THE WORLDS OF YOUTH ACTIVISM --; NOTES --; REFERENCES --; INDEX --; ABOUT THE AUTHOR