people organize against war in their schools, campuses, and
communities. NYSPC demands an end to the US occupations in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and an end to a foreign policy of endless war. From
coordinating the nation's largest-ever student strike in 2003, to the
Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence and the massive anti-war march at the
Republican National Convention in 2004, to our mobilizing for the April 29, 2024 March for
Peace, Justice & Democracy, NYSPC's events and campaigns have been designed to
empower the youth movement as we call for Books - Not Bombs!
Check out our Fall Campaign!
The BOOKS NOT BOMBS Agenda:
I. Fund Education - Not Empire!
We demand the immediate restoration of all funds for public schools and universities cut
from local and federal budgets over the last three years, and the reversal of all tuition hikes in
the same period. We demand dramatic increases in assistance to low-income youth through
Pell Grants, TRIO, and all programs for students in need. We demand the repeal of the No
Child Left Behind Act's high-stakes testing regime, and of the Higher Education Act's denial
of federal aid to drug offenders. And we demand that Congress pass legislation (like the
DREAM Act) to extend educational opportunities to all immigrant youth.
II. Military Out of Our Schools!
College administrations should support the ongoing legal challenge to the Solomon
Amendment, and both colleges and high schools should make it campus policy to
prominently advertise the rights of students and parents to opt out of having student
information released to military recruiters.
III. Protect Our Civil Liberties!
Provisions that violate youth and students rights in the USA PATRIOT Act must be revised,
and school student unions and administrations should pass resolutions to oppose its
implementation on campus.
IV. Campuses for Peace - Not War!
Our campuses must be disarmed and democratized. All campuses must track, catalog and
make publicly available all military-related and funded research and investments. Students
and faculty should pass resolutions requiring campus administrators to demilitarize
education by severing all military ties. All universities and schools must end their historic
support for weapons of mass destruction and demand an end to all university collaborations
that lead to the development, testing or production of nuclear weapons.
V. Schools - Not Jails!
College administrators must divulge all university business relations -- including contracts
and investments -- with companies that profit from or finance prison construction or
operations. College administrations should set up recruitment and retention programs for
communities adversely affected by incarceration, specifically low-income youth and youth of
color. Lastly, state governments must invest more money in education and rehabilitation
programs instead of prioritizing incarceration.
