"We're teens, we're cute, we're radical to boot!

[peace4all]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/969056.asp

MSNBC reports on Radical Cheerleaders, never thought I'd see this,

<snip>

"We're teens, we're cute, we're radical to boot! We're angry, we're tough and we have had enough!"

       Radical cheerleaders might seem like an oxymoron, but in the last few years, teenage and twentysomething activists around the world have turned an American tradition into potent political theater. There are Radical Cheerleading squads from Burlington, Vt., and San Diego, as well as France, Poland and even Japan. Some squads carefully choreograph routines and wear matching outfits, complete with pompoms and megaphones. Others go for a more eccentric look.
       
'AMERICAN INGENUITY AT ITS BEST'
 
     It's a grass-roots movement, usually spread when someone sees a squad in action—at WTO protests, for example, or antiwar demonstrations. (Meredith Ryley, a history teacher, started Radical Teen Cheer after reading about a Minneapolis group.)

What unites them are causes, from protesting the Iraq war to fighting racism, sexism, homophobia and capitalist exploitation. Cheerleading is the ironic medium for their message. University of Alabama professor Natalie Adams, coauthor of "Cheerleader: An American Icon," includes Radicals in a class she teaches called "The Cheerleader in American Culture." She compares them to Twinkies, which, she says, were created when someone took conventional ingredients, sponge cake and icing, and made something new, just as activists have created something new out of traditional cheerleading. "I think it's brilliant," she says. "It's American ingenuity at its best."
<snip>

[Sephirstein]

1. Wow...

San Diego and Poland are quite conservative, while Japan is very conformist...

[JohnKleeb]

2. been hearing about these girls

I bet theys cute too :).

[peace4all]

9. not all girls

as the article says, some them are guys. :-)

[JohnKleeb]

10. well my grandfather was a cheerleader lol

yeah like dubya
Yeah I realize now they arent all girls. I wouldnt do that to get my message across, I write my points down, I write and read, I am not much of an orator but I did enjoy debating warhawks in history. I am a radical ????????.

[peace4all]

11. they do a great job

of raising the energy at demos and making people smile :-)

I couldn't do it either, but I always appreciate their contribution.

didn't someone say Bush was a cheerleader? yikes!

[peace4all]

15. shrub as cheerleader

this is the best i could find,

http://www.celebrity-pics.net/dp/2-22.htm

[PacafistPete]

3. We're teens, we're cute, we're radical to boot

I gotta get me some of that!

[Zorra]

4. As long as they are cheering...

for our team I think it's a great idea. :)

[leftist_rebel1569]

5. that's cool...

Believe me, I never saw THIS coming...:)

[JohnKleeb]

7. *bell*

You posted in GD.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. You can download some mp3s of their cheers here:

http://www.geocities.com/radicalcheerleaders/other.htm

[G_j]

8. hey that's great

I have had the pleasure of seeing Radical cheerleaders a number of times. They are way hip to whats going on in the world. They educate folks as much as entertain. :yourock:

http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0212/021232.htm

"Sanctions in Iraq? /WE AIN'T DOWN WITH THAT!/
deNYing MEDicine/PUNishing/
CHILDren!/STARVing a Nation!"


Radical cheerleaders ©Linda Haas

As I walked toward the subway on my way from the November 3 peace rally in Boston, I stopped to investigate loud, raucous, singsong chants that had drawn a crowd. At the center of the crowd were about twelve women of a range of body sizes, wearing red and black short pleated skirts and sweatshirts with anarchist skull and crossbone designs, thermal underwear, and combat boots, moving together in choreographed precision. They looked and sounded suspiciously like cheerleaders: air-slicing kicks, tight, percussive chants, and hip-grinding grooves. Yet these were not the cheers I remember from high school: no "Steven Smith/HE'S our man!/if HE can't do it/NO ONE CAN!" These cheers had hard-hitting political content:

"THIS conTAMination/IS a violation!/of UN LAW!/
they're AFTer our OIL/there's D.U.in the SOIL!/
it's KILLING/our CHILDdren!/our CHILDren!/OUR children!/
they SAY that they're after SadDAM/
but WHO gets the BRUNT of the bomb?/
they're KILLING!/
our CHILDren!/our CHILDREN!"

...more..

[gottaB]

12. Smells like Teen Spirit

Anybody else think of the Anarchy cheerleaders in that old Nirvana video?

[MSchreader]

13. That was the initial spark

The first RC groups started showing up spontaneously after that (I remember seeing Anarchist Cheerleaders in Minneapolis in 1993). They really didn't come into their own, though, until after Seattle.

Martin

[JanMichael]

16. Ack! "Teen Spirit", that's what I thought too.

Been hearing that damned song eversince...Dear lord, they're not just actresses in a video!

[E_Zapata]

14. Absolutely Splendid!

no text

[wyldwolf]

17. 2-4-6-8 who's the man we really hate!

BUSH BUSH BUSH rahhhhhhhhhhh!

[jiacinto]

18. I don't respect many of these types

They seem more interested in making noise than doing anything productive. I see them as phonies.

[MSchreader]

19. They're not phonies

They are exactly what they say they are: radical cheerleaders. They are there to cheer on the radicals. No more. No less. They are there for morale. I'm glad to have them there.

Martin

[JanMichael]

21. Um...Is there anything that you DO like about Activists?

I haven't heard many positive things from you about anyone that does something way outside of the proverbial box.

Why is that?

[thebigidea]

22. and what the heck is wrong with making noise?

as a firm proponent of Noise in All its Guises, I must insist noise can be productive. And damn fun, too.

[IrateCitizen]

23. Heed the words of Emma Goldman, Carlos...

"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution."

Despite everything you've come to believe, political activism can and should be FUN too! :bounce:

Life's too short to go through it serious all the time.

[jiacinto]

25. IC, I see many of these people as future David Horowitzes

Eventually, by their mid 20s, they will have to leave college--and heaven forbid!--start working in jobs. When they actually have to pay bills I think that their political views will change.

[MisterP]

27. that's a standard myth bandied about:

once you "outgrow" your "foolish radical past" and start paying bills and taxes, you become a Hummer-driving trickle-down Bush lover. Same old tired refrains.

[jiacinto]

32. I don't think it's a myth

Many of these "radical cheerleaders" don't have many responsiblities yet. When they actually have to start earning a living, watch many of them become conservative. Not all of them will. But their perceptions of the world will change.

[Oilwellian]

31. I work a job and pay bills...

and my commitment to political activism hasn't changed in all of my 48 years. :eyes:

[G_j]

34. this sounds more like someone else

"They seem more interested in making noise than doing anything productive."

:hi:

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. "Move, Bush"

"Get out the way, get out the way, get out the way!"

[MrPrax]

24. We got a group here!!

They were active during the peace coalition!!

I alwasy thought was a great and subversive idea!!
If done well, (God knows there must be thousands of disillusioned ex-cheerleaders in America of substantial quality!!) to carry off a fine mix of resistance, culture and thought!!!


http://radcheers.tripod.com/RC/




even the Evil One agrees!!!
I hear if you listne to his UN address backwards--it is really about free love, peace and bongs!!!

[KittyWampus]

26. What A Great Idea

The younger generation show signs of hope for humanity...

[SaintLouisBlues]

28. Next job for the Chimp starting January 2005

The Shrub can return to his true calling and start a counter group
of right wing cheerleaders to silence these America haters.

[Character Assassin]

29. Well, they're certainly teen, and they're radical.

But that's about where it stops.

[MSchreader]

30. Not quite

You try wearing a cheerleader's outfit in the middle of winter. I call that "tough"!

Martin

[catzies]

33. I want them in the Pasadena Doo-Dah Parade!!!

Please please PLEASE!!!