Children in the City

Children are wonderful at noticing things adults dont, appropriating
new uses for common objects, and expressing creativity to invent, or
destroy, their environment. However, their basic needs are often
ignored, challenged, even put last, by political systems as well as
city planning and smaller social gatherings; and their proscribed
spaces (school, playground, and private homes) marginalized. Even
their natural desire to learn and meaningfully participate is often
dampened, instead molded to fit (as well as replicate) pre-existing
power structures, and their play treated with less respect than work.
Depending on various factors, some much harder others, as within any
oppressed group the most vulnerable are children: the poorest of the
poor is children and those who care for them, etc.

How do we support the different needs of our citys children, their
caretakers and communities, in an environment where access to
resources is so divided by race, class, sex, as well as ageism? How do
we create new, non-hierarchial structures of support, mutual aid, and
include all-ages in the struggle for social justice? What are the
interactions of radical collectives (like community gardens, punk houses) and local neighboring children? How are ways that we can be
aware of the safety and respect for the needs of the young? Lets
discuss and share information with each other on basic needs,
problems, and radical solutions in a city where so many struggle just
to get through the day. Group discussion will stem out of these
important, and often overlooked, subjects.