Meredith Aska McBride | Student activism isn't going anywhere

"The best defense is a spirited offense," the saying goes. And our generation has been forced to go on the defense. We're under constant assault from politicians, pundits and ex-hippies, explaining away our cohort's failure to stir up mass resistance and apologizing for our supposed apathy.

Screw that. As a student and activist, one of many, I've seen firsthand the extent of my generation's passion for social change, and there's potential for even more involvement. What I want to know is why the mainstream - that's you, baby boomers - persists in ignoring us. So I'm going on the offensive.

I'm not talking about community service here, even though my generation gives time to the less fortunate in record numbers, and even though Teach for America has become as coveted a post-graduation job as the stereotypical plum consulting post. I'm going to ignore community service for a minute because the rest of American society already appreciates our efforts in that sphere.

What I'm talking about is direct action, taking to the streets. And contrary to popular belief, it's on the rise.

This weekend, the Philadelphia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (of which I am a member) hosted the fourth northeast regional convention since SDS was re-formed in 2006. I had the pleasure of facilitating the welcome session and chapter reports on Saturday morning. We heard about counter-military recruitment efforts, urban anti-gentrification work and an examination of campus police brutality, among other campaigns. And it was a cadre of Tacoma SDS members that successfully blockaded the port in Olympia, Washington several weeks ago to prevent the shipment of war materiel.

You didn't hear about that?

Not surprising. And did you hear about Rainforest Action Network's youth-driven national campaign against Bank of America's coal investments, which has produced real corporate policy change?

Similarly, United for Peace and Justice's national coordination of anti-war mobilizations on October 27 drew a police estimate of 5,000 people to Independence Mall, despite a drenching rainstorm that morning. At least a third were under 30. We couldn't find any significant mention of the event in the news. Shouldn't anything involving 5,000 people, no matter what the nature, no matter who attends, be newsworthy?

And it's not just college kids. Iraq Veterans Against the War, headquartered in Philly, has literally hundreds of members nationwide, many of whom are on active duty and the great majority of whom are under 30. But unless you're in direct contact with someone who's involved, you probably aren't aware of the extent of the amazing work that's being done by this country's youth.

It's not your fault. I don't know whether the media's ignorance is willful or benign, but it's real and it's causing problems.

Students aren't apathetic; they're just smart. It doesn't make sense to participate in a movement that will only work if many thousands of people join, unless you know that others are standing with you. And if you don't know that an activist community is out there, you're not going to be willing to waste your time demonstrating alone.

Furthermore, to the extent that students are informed and don't join, I charge that hopelessness, rather than apathy, is at fault. Our academic culture, and this is especially prevalent at Penn, pressures us to the extreme, saying that unless we work ourselves to the bone, there won't be any decent jobs for us when we graduate.

This mentality is combined with the fact that my generation has seen time and time again that nobody really cares about our input (see Mara Gordon's November 1 column about how cell phone users - mostly university students - aren't polled for political purposes). We don't feel like we can change anything. The older generation's always moaning about how we're going to hell in a handbasket. College kids figure that if that's true, they may as well be in the best basket money can buy.

The activist community has also lost its connection to the mainstream culture, especially the media. Except as commodity, of course-you'll find more Che t-shirts on campus than activists to wear them (not that any activists worth their radical cred would). Maybe if we weren't so self-consciously counterculture, we'd reach more people. But I don't know what good that would do if the older generation continues to ignore us.

Either way, I'm sick of defending myself in response to the question, "Why aren't students mobilizing?" It's happening, and it's causing change. So I'll turn it around. Why aren't you paying attention?

Meredith Aska Mcbride is a College sophomore from Wauwatosa, Wis. Her e-mail address is mcbride@dailypennsylvanian.com. Radical Chic appears on Wednesdays.

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