U.S. youth bear brunt of the economic crisis

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For many youth in the U.S. today the “American dream” is very far out of reach. High unemployment rates, massive burdens of student loan debt, and rising costs of living all shape the outlook of young people in America today. Currently, only 54.3 percent of youth (ages 18-24) have a job, the lowest level of employ­ ment for this age group since the government began tracking the data in 1948. According to marketwatch. com, only 56 percent of teenagers believe they’ll be financially better off than their parents, a 37 percent drop since 2011.

Students today find themselves graduating from high school and college only to discover that traditionally higher paying jobs such as manufacturing, engineer­ ing, and high-tech sector employment are not avail­ able to them. Increasingly, these youth turn to work in retail, customer service, administrative support, and other low-paying sectors.

According to a Economic Policy Institute Report entitled, “The Class of 2012: Labor market for young graduates remains grim,” wages for high school gradu­ ates declined by 11.1 percent between 2000 and 2011 and dropped 5.4 percent for recent college graduates in the same period.

Predictably, women and people of color are earning locks out workers employees that Aug. 31 would be their last day. It is expected that the shop at 63rd St., the only union shop out of a doz­ en or so franchise locations, will re-open with a new, non-union workforce.

The workers, with the help of support­ ers from Occupy Wall Street, have been less than their white male counterparts.

Student loan debt is another major burden facing many young Americans. In 2012, the total share of student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion for the first time. Many financial analysts predict that the “student loan bubble” will be the next one to burst, threatening an­ other financial crisis in an already strained economic situation. According to the Department of Education, federal student loan defaults are on the rise, with 8.8 percent defaulting in 2009 in comparison with 7 per­ cent the year before.

With average tuition cost tripling since 1980, it’s not difficult to see why more students are forced to seek out loans to pay for college and end up graduat­ ing while tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Many students are now paying $20,000 or even $40,000 per year for tuition, room, and board. Black and Latino youth are more likely to exit college with a higher loan burden than white students.

But while the cost of higher education has risen dramatically in the past four decades, the quality has been on the decline. Many university departments face budget cuts, reduction of available courses, layoffs of faculty and staff, and ballooning class sizes. Mike, a re­ cent graduate from the University of Connecticut, told Socialist Action, “In my senior year of college, I would often arrive to history class and find there were no walking a round-the-clock picket line.

Hot & Crusty was briefly occupied by about 15 people, and about four were ar­ rested by the NYPD.

The Aug. 31 closure will mean the loss of 23 jobs. The workers have filed charg­ es at the National Labor Relations Board Marty Goodman / Socialist Action over the globe. In 2010, tens of thou­ sands turned out in the streets of London to protest a government proposal aimed at tripling tuition fees. Last year, a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico forced the president of the school to resign. In 2011-12, tens of thousands of students in Chile de­ manded the end of for-profit education, among other reforms.

This past spring, when the Quebecois government passed Law 78, a measure intended to criminalize the student protest movement in Montreal, hundreds of thousands protested in some of the most massive mo­ bilizations even seen in the Canadian province.

The United States has also seen a series of student protests in the past few years, particularly in Califor­ nia. Thousands of students first came out in 2009 to protest a 32 percent fee hike in the University of Cali­ fornia school system. Last year, when the UC Board of Regents proposed another fee hike, students again turned out to fight the hikes. This movement provoked prominent instances of police brutality such as the now-famous image of a cop pepper-spraying students who were seated on the ground in handcuffs. While heroically facing down police assault, these students’ demands for quality and affordable education were not met.

The only way to secure a brighter future for the youth is to build a mass movement to fight for good jobs, quality education and health care, and affordable housing. Such a movement must remain independent of the Democrats and Republicans, who have proven time and again they are only concerned with the in­ terests of the wealthy. Socialist Action supports the student mobilizations that have been occurring on a global scale and urges more regional, national, and in­ ternational coordination of such movements. n on grounds that the company is closing the 63rd St. shop in order to intimidate workers organizing at other Hot and Crusty locations.

Mahoma Lopez, a leader in the cam­ paign who has worked at Hot and Crusty for over seven years, told the press, ”I want to send a message that we have to change the way immigrants are treated in this country. We have to show the bosses that we can’t be treated like animals any longer. “We need to take radical action like people did in the civil rights movement, so that our voices can be heard. We are so happy to have the community here with us.”

Diego Ibanez, a member of Occupy Wall Street, emphasized the connection be­ tween Wall Street and workers, saying “we’re sending a clear message to greedy bosses that we are watching and will not allow our people in he community to be oppressed any longer.” n For more information, please contact:

Virgilio Aran (347) 394-8350, virgillio@ lwcu.org; or Nastaran Mohit (914) 5576408, [email protected].