Without young people, the UK\u2019s long, patchwork-history of protest would be threadbare \u2013 we wouldn\u2019t have seen 750,000 people marching in 2003 against the Iraq War, or the Rock Against Racism movement of the Seventies. The Eighties miners’ strikes and occupation of Greenham Common would have been a little quieter, and the 1990 poll tax riots, where 3000 people clashed with police in central London after anti- Thatcher protests, wouldn\u2019t have been quite so vicious.<\/p>\n
Despite these decades\u2019 worth of protest, over the last 10 years, millennials have been framed as entitled wusses, out to ruin the economy by daring to not have as much money to spend as their parents\u2019 generation did. The London riots in 2011 were regarded\u2013and punished \u2013 by authorities as idiotic looting rather than a rallying cry of a disenfranchised youth inheriting a vastly unequal society. In the years since, a more academic cohort of millennials have garnered a reputation for prioritising \u2018superficial\u2019 identity politics over tangible change. The generation below \u2013 or ahead of \u2013 them, though, are refusing to be defined as rebels without a cause \u2013 or entitled snowflakes. Leveraging social media not just for self-expression but collective change, their own identities and experiences are helping inform where their activism goes \u2013 and therefore what happens to the world next.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77482,"id":77482,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","filesize":516972,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:03:43","modified":"2019-06-07 15:03:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1400,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","thumbnail-width":70,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","medium-width":1400,"medium-height":1920,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","medium_large-width":1400,"medium_large-height":1920,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","large-width":1400,"large-height":1920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","1536x1536-width":1120,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","2048x2048-width":1400,"2048x2048-height":1920,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":9,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_noga_002_96_dpi-e1559919871675.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1400,"wpvr_mobile-height":1920}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Noga Levy-Rapoport. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Sincere emotion tying in with a sense of pragmatism forms the crux of what they do, and it\u2019s no wonder, when the dangers can be so grave. In 2018, over a third of London\u2019s homicide victims were aged 16-24. Carol Pierre, 25, who only joined social media this year (\u201cthere are so many hashtag activists there\u201d), works with some of the thousands of young people who will have grown up around serious youth violence.<\/p>\n
Starting off in childcare, Pierre entered higher education by way of bursaries and scholarships and soon paid it forward, helping inform working class school children local to Goldsmiths University \u201cthat there is help out there, university is for everyone.\u201d She now works on youth outreach in the arts, \u201chighlighting the barriers that young people are facing accessing funds, education and youth clubs closing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serious youth violence helps inform Pierre\u2019s work, and \u201chaving known victims of serious youth\u00a0violence,\u201d she joined the advisory panel of Power The Fight, a charity aiming to equip various organisations to engage with issues of youth violence. Pierre\u2019s work, she humbly points out, doesn\u2019t directly intervene in youth violence, but provides \u201ca look at structural changes that can be made within institutions. Grassroots activism is where so much happens, but there needs to be a continuum of change and that\u2019s the direction I\u2019m taking.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77488,"id":77488,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_199","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","filesize":399317,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_199\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_199","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:04:44","modified":"2019-06-07 15:06:18","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1832,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","thumbnail-width":79,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1832,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1832,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1832,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","1536x1536-width":1258,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1832,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":10,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_199-e1559919972546.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1832}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Saffiyah Khan. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
That means sitting on EqualiTeam Lewisham, a board looking to improve equality and fairness for local African and Caribbean communities, and organising workshops with young people to help them understand their entitlement within the arts establishment. Pierre\u2019s work on the Young Historians Project, for instance, recounted how the inadequate police response to the New Cross Fire of 1981 (in which 13 young black people died in an unsolved arson attack, a catalyst for the Brixton Riots that year), went national and eventually successfully agitated for more stringent rules regarding police conduct. This history\u2019s shadow is long: in England, black people are still 40 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by the police.<\/p>\n
Alongside Pierre\u2019s hyper-local work is the international Youth Strike for Climate movement. Each month in the UK, on a Friday, in 60 towns and cities from Manchester to Exmouth, thousands of schoolchildren and students go on strike. Inspired by 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg\u2019s climate protests, the aim is to \u201crise up and take direct action where older generations have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noga Levy-Rapoport, 17, is one of the many young people rising up, and a core organiser at the UK\u2019s Student Climate Network ever since her first Youth Strike for Climate protest in February. She wanted to march that day because, \u201cI\u2019d read about it on social media. We\u2019ve always had this thing in the back of our heads saying, \u2018At some point your future will end, you just don\u2019t know yet.\u2019 And we\u2019re angry and afraid and I couldn\u2019t live with myself not doing anything about it now that I had the opportunity to.\u201d Once there, though, she was dismayed because, \u201cI saw everyone standing around and realised, this isn\u2019t going to disrupt as much as we want, this isn\u2019t going to make people sit up and listen.\u201d Her simple but effective solution was to \u201cmove up from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square to stop the cars and say,\u2018We\u2019re here, to stand.\u2019\u201dAt Levy-Rapoport loud command, thousands of children then walked up Whitehall, making the protest more visible.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77487,"id":77487,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_124","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","filesize":571384,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_124\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_124","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:04:34","modified":"2019-06-07 15:06:00","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","thumbnail-width":77,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1860,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1860,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1860,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","1536x1536-width":1239,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1860,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":10,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_124-e1559919951619.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1860}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Saffiyah Khan. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Toxicity, to Levy-Rapoport, exists in both our air and our public discourse, where she anticipates certain types of identity-based criticism as inevitable: \u201cAs a Jewish woman you\u2019re always going to come up against disagreement,\u201dshe says. Her foremost concern, however, lies with the \u201cworking class people across the world who contribute nearly nothing to climate change yet will be the most hurt by it.\u201d Levy-Rapoport is currently organising and helping front the weekly London Youth Strike For Climate protests in pursuit of a Green New Deal, and will only stop \u201cwhen I see corporate leaders realise that it\u2019s not about profit anymore, it\u2019s about survival.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly thick-skinned is Saffiyah Khan, the 22-year-old anti-racist activist who smiled in the face of a far-right EDL (English Defence League, co- founded by Tommy Robinson) protester in Birmingham in 2017. Squaring up to a shouting, aggressive man, she was calm and brave, with nothing but pity and derision for him and his politics. The image went viral after her local MP, Jess Phillips, tweeted it, commenting: \u201cWho looks like they have the power here, the real Brummy on the left or the EDL who migrated for the day to our city and failed to assimilate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khan now explains: \u201cThe EDL always have coaches of people coming from across the country.They don\u2019t understand the intricacies of social dynamics, they don\u2019t know anything apart from what they\u2019ve been told by right-wing propaganda. So when they ask, \u2018Where are you from?,\u2019 it\u2019s always best if you can say: Actually, I\u2019m from round the corner, so please don\u2019t try to educate me on minority issues in this area!\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","text":"\u201cworking class people across the world who contribute nearly nothing to climate change yet will be the most hurt by it.\u201d","source":"Saffiyah Khan"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Up until this moment of viral fame, Khan had kept her social justice activism local. That was until The Specials, the Coventry band who appeared on the shirt she wore to that protest, got in touch. At first, the anti-racist group behind political Eighties ska tracks such as Ghost Town (about deindustrialisation), The Lunatics (Have Take Over The Asylum) (about Thatcherism), and Free Nelson Mandela (an anti-apartheid anthem), offered her free tickets to one of their gigs. Since then, she has written a song called Ten Commandments with the band, touring with them across the world to perform it:\u201cI\u2019m not a poet but everything in it has come from things I\u2019ve experienced or heard of, they\u2019re incredibly important.\u201d She sees her activism as fully entwined with \u201cgetting the crowd dancing to old skinhead tracks\u201d as she DJs to the crowd before each gig The Specials perform. To her, it\u2019s about beating hate with joy. \u201cIt opposes the image [the far right] have of people on the left of politics as fragile and humourless or easily triggered. It\u2019s difficult to offend me!\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that people haven\u2019t tried, though. On Twitter (which Khan checks every couple of weeks just to \u201cknow what people are saying about me … I want to make sure people aren\u2019t keeping too close tabs on me\u201d), speculation about her personal life has been extreme. She laughs, though, at trolls suggesting that her sister is a jihadist: \u201cShe has long hair extensions and wears Adidas every day. I don\u2019t see how that works!\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77483,"id":77483,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_060","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","filesize":766845,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_060\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_060","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:03:51","modified":"2019-06-07 15:03:51","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1873,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","thumbnail-width":77,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1873,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1873,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1873,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","1536x1536-width":1230,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1873,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":10,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_060-e1559919884200.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1873}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Noga Levy-Rapoport. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Another millennial whose activism began through a confrontation with bigotry is Jamie Windust. Recently, the 22-year-old made headlines in the UK after launching a petition for non-binary people to be recognised on passports and other official documents (at the time of publication it has accrued over 16,000 signatures). While this is the first time the London-based activist has led a campaign, Windust is also the founder and editor of the award- winning LGBTQ+ contributor-based magazine, Fruitcake, which they began in response to the lack of non-binary and trans-oriented media. \u201cTheir stories were not being told,\u201d Windust says. \u201cI think the main problem that I\u2019m facing is that the UK press don\u2019t really want to talk about it,\u201d they continue.\u201d It\u2019s not the right time, or they see it more as an opinion piece rather than a news piece.\u201dEven though they consider the attitude toward non-binary identities in theUK to often be quite\u201ctoxic\u201d, Windust is optimistic, and believes that they are in \u201ca very privileged position to be able talk about these issues.\u201d For Windust, the most important part of campaigning is in having ironclad motivations. \u201cIt\u2019s a very intense, hard journey, you need to be fully equipped for that. I would also say to make sure that you have a support network around you. The thing that\u2019s important is the use of affirming language \u2013 try and remove that doubt from your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77485,"id":77485,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_084","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","filesize":385263,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_084\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_084","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:04:07","modified":"2019-06-07 15:05:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","thumbnail-width":77,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","medium-width":1500,"medium-height":1860,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","medium_large-width":1500,"medium_large-height":1860,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","large-width":1500,"large-height":1860,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","1536x1536-width":1239,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1860,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":10,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_084-e1559919935985.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1500,"wpvr_mobile-height":1860}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Jamie Windust. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Meanwhile, anti-poverty campaigner Amika George is leading the Free Periods movement as the campaign\u2019s defacto commander. The 19-year-old learned, in 2017, that \u201cgirls were missing school because they were too poor to buy period products.\u201d Shocked that the then-education secretary, Justine Greening, didn\u2019t do more to intervene, George, who\u201cwas a schoolgirl at the time, and know how stressful it was to miss school\u201d, began the Free Periods campaign for free menstrual products in all state educational institutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
On her way to success via a 271,000-strong petition and a protest of 2,000 outside Number 10, George uncovered a lot of stigma. Some towards the girls who were using socks stuffed with newspapers in lieu of menstrual products \u2013 \u201cpeople blamed bad parenting, inadequate budgeting, wrong priorities … but children are not in control of the family\u2019s finances!\u201d Some of it was simply directed towards people having periods: \u201c[Critics] said I was a typical teenager wanting something for nothing, how periods were disgusting, how I was putting people off their breakfast talking about periods all the time!\u201d<\/p>\n
So George’s work continues. As well as meeting with the Department of Education to ensure the quality of provision (\u201cthere needs to be a variety and there needs to be a focus on sustainable products\u201d), she is trying to increase conversations about periods under the hashtag #FreePeriodsStories. She explains: \u201cWe need a total change in the way menstruation is framed, and the language used around periods has to be way more positive, empowering and much less bound up in shame and apology.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":77484,"id":77484,"title":"ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi","filename":"ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","filesize":672938,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/young-british-angry\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77479,"date":"2019-06-07 15:03:58","modified":"2019-06-07 15:03:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1400,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","thumbnail-width":70,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","medium-width":1400,"medium-height":1920,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","medium_large-width":1400,"medium_large-height":1920,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","large-width":1400,"large-height":1920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","1536x1536-width":1120,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","2048x2048-width":1400,"2048x2048-height":1920,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":9,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/ln485_sleek_activists_carol_001_96_dpi-e1559919912917.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1400,"wpvr_mobile-height":1920}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Carole Pierre. Photography by Luke & Nik. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
Sadly, though, many reproductive issues exist in the shadows. Rachel Watters, 25, found it strange in 2014 that her student union at Queen\u2019s University Belfast was silent on one major issue. \u201cWe have one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe yet we had no pro-choice group\u201d, she recalls thinking, before launching her own, \u201ccalling for the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland and mainland UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watters’ activism, in a part of the UK where abortion is still illegal, has since involved \u201ceducation on abortion myths, changing her university\u2019s policy on abortion, demonstrations calling for a Yes vote in the Republic of Ireland\u2019s 2018 referendum on the legislation on abortion.\u201d She has also been involved in calling for \u2018buffer zones\u2019 around abortion clinics in the Republic of Ireland, where anti-choicers harangue service users and staff alike. Meanwhile, she\u2019s continued calling out the \u201cmisunderstanding of devolution … there is still a human rights obligation from our British government.\u201d With this work, she hopes to be the last in a long line of women who\u2019ve campaigned in Northern Ireland, for over 50 years now, for rights over their own bodies, because \u201cthe person asking for an abortion is an autonomous human being who can make decisions for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s young activists come armed with a diversity of goals and methods, able to influence each other as well as major institutions and authorities via the internet, a platform they understand like no generation before them. What doubly unites all of them \u2013 Pierre, Levy-Rapoport, George, Windust, Khan and Watters and the many like them \u2013 is a conviction to treat other young people as equals, and the belief that they all deserve so much more than they\u2019re getting. TheHansard Society has found that political interest from 16-34-year olds is at a 13-year high and is continuing to rise with every new young person coming of voting age. Just as younger ears hear at a higher frequency, it seems these young people are able to envisage a positive future with much more clarity. And what lies ahead is brighter than the rest of us can dream of.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"