Youth Leaders Attend Their First Direct Action Camp!

A few weeks ago, two SWU youth leaders had the opportunity to participate in the Greenpeace’s Agua Fria Action Camp in Arizona. Action Camp provides a place to learn and share skills that support growing movements, campaigns, and communities working toward a common goal––a just and equitable existence for all. Here’s what our youth had to say on the experience:

Hello, friends! We traveled seventeen hours to the hills of Mayer, Arizona to attend Greenpeace’s Agua Fria direct action camp. It was a long week, filled with learning and enlightenment.

The camp was divided into six different tracks: research, climbing, boating, blockades, air division, and arts. Luckily, we were in the arts track, which was integrated in many of the other tracks as well. We had no idea so many of the unique activities offered could be used as direct action tactics.

In the arts track, we spent the bulk of our time learning how to incorporate art into direct actions as well as learning how to produce quality artwork using different mediums and techniques. Our trainers were basically geniuses in their field and we feel so privileged to have learned and created with them. Here’s a snippet of what we made:

Nearly every night, we were lucky enough to have guests come and speak to us, including indigenous people from different regions and tribes. During these workshops and presentations we learned about theories and work around anti-oppression and decolonization.

One of our favorite things about this camp was the food! As you know, we Texans sure do love our meat, and were not too excited to find out that there would only be vegetarian and vegan foods, but the food was incredible! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, AND dessert. We never knew vegan food could be so tasty.

The other participants from the camp helped us gain an awareness and appreciation for the environment and others around us. Prior to camp, we separated worker’s rights, environmental justice, and social justice. Now we realize that these things are not separate at all, but are actually vital to each other.

We are excited to bring back these skills and experiences to our community. We miss everyone (and the food) already. We look forward to doing more work with Greenpeace in the future.

––Dorian Angulo & Mina Crawford, Youth Leadership Organization