On June 26, a city-wide meeting of Youth Against War and Racism activists in the Twin Cities voted to issue the following Call to Action:

Mobilize for student walkouts, protests, and anti-war education during the week of October 17-23, 2005

The time to step up the anti-war movement is now! Polls show that support for Bush and the Iraq war is falling fast. Young people are voting against the war with their feet by refusing to join the military. Plus, a growing movement against military recruitment in high schools and colleges emerged across the country this spring. Many pro-war Republicans and Democrats in Washington, DC are now making anti-war noises because they fear losing in the next elections. This shows that the anti-war movement can grow dramatically in the coming months, and that big anti-war actions can force Bush to bring the troops home. It is young people in the U.S. and Iraq who are bearing the heaviest costs for Bush’s war for empire. Young people who joined the military for college money and job training have been sent into a hellish war-zone and are coming home with psychological damage, horrible injuries, or in body bags. While our schools face severe budget crises and college tuition skyrockets, as decent paying jobs disappear, nearly $300 billion has been wasted to seize control of Iraq’s oil fields. Meanwhile, the youth of Iraq are beginning to lose any hope of a decent future. The war has already taken over 100,000 Iraqi lives, and the continuing occupation threatens to plunge the country into civil war. For this reason, it is young people who need to show the way forward to revitalize the anti-war movement! YAWR in the Twin Cities is calling on high school students, college students, and young people generally to mobilize in your schools and communities for anti-war teach-ins, youth protests, and mass student walkouts the week of October 17-23. We urge YAWR chapters in other cities, as well as other youth anti-war groups across the country, to join this call to action. Youth Against War and Racism is calling for actions on October 21-22 around the following Points of Unity:

• Military recruiters out of our schools!
• End the racist poverty draft – Money for jobs and education, not war!
• End the occupation of Iraq – Bring the troops home!
• No draft!
• No to racism, homophobia, and attacks on civil liberties!