Sarah Stephen (Resistance organiser, Hobart):

We see wars and conflicts, oppression, hunger and cruelty on TV all the time. We aren't given the tools to understand it, but it disturbs our true human compassion that has not yet been distorted by years of being told that there's nothing we can do about it. So we resist and get active.

In the environment movement my experience is that the energy and enthusiasm that young people can bring continuously inspires generations of older activists.

Ro Evans (Macquarie University student, Sydney):

Resistance has been very active in supporting the democracy movement in Indonesia this year and condemning the Australian government's support for the Suharto dictatorship. Students held a 24-hour hunger strike on October 28 in support of political prisoners, many of them our age, who are awaiting trial for subversion. This charge carries the death penalty, simply for demonstrating and holding pickets like we do here. We have no choice but to protest this.

Alex Bainbridge (Resistance organiser, Newcastle):

Resistance recognised that a lot of young people were concerned about the racism that was promoted this year. But we didn't just want to show concern, we wanted to organise to combat it. We did a lot of street stalls, petitions and talking to young people and got a large number involved in the national anti-racist rallies on November 23.

Tessha Mearing (high school student, Wollongong):

Young people are really under attack. In NSW the Labor government passed repressive anti-"youth gang" laws giving more powers to the police. In Wollongong, when high school students organised two high school walk-outs, the media and school administrations tried to restrict access to information and used scare tactics to prevent students from protesting. They are seriously frightened by young people defending their rights and that's what we have to keep doing.

Kamini Junankar (Resistance member, Canberra):

Attacks on education and wages, child-care and family planning mean that the conditions that most young women face are going to get worse. But many young women are prepared to stand up and fight, despite the ideological backlash against feminism today. The collective in Canberra which organised the Reclaim the Night march this year and the International Women's Day collective are made up mainly of young women.

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