2-4-6-8 This Is How We Demonstrate!

[Dover]

2-4-6-8, This Is How We Demonstrate
Serious young activists root for and against political causes. Not everyone is cheering.

By Erika Hayasaki
Times Staff Writer

February 22, 2004

These cheerleaders from Northeast Los Angeles do the splits for women's rights, not for slam dunks. They protest with pompoms against sweatshops, and root for peace instead of points.

The chants of the Radical Teen Cheerleaders have the same cadences as those of football and basketball boosters, but with a very different message. At a recent Glendale demonstration against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, they shouted:

"Hey, Bush! / Who fights your wars? / Just minorities and the poor! / The CIA / kills people, yeah, / for corporations, yeah, they just want more! / Who trained Bin Laden? / Who armed, who armed Saddam Hussein? / We're out, / we're out to get, / we're out to get those hypocrites!"

The combination of peppy cheerleading techniques and serious political protest dates back to a few efforts during the Vietnam War. Over the last few years, radical cheerleading has reemerged more forcefully across the country, with squads mainly of college students and young adults rallying for environmental, feminist, gay and other liberal causes. The war in Iraq inspired a new generation eager to make a floor-shaking statement against the Bush administration's foreign policy — and have some fun along the way.

The Los Angeles group, one of the few in the nation primarily made up of high school students, includes teenagers with an intensely personal stake in protesting: Some have friends and relatives in the military stationed in Iraq.

So the students, mainly from Franklin High School in Highland Park, say they are willing to withstand catcalls from some bystanders and the sneers of more orthodox cheerleaders. "We're fighting for something. It's not 'Go team go!' " said 18-year-old Airess Depiano. "We get more pumped. We have a lot of passion for it."

Depiano was one of 10 team members cheering in the rain in front of a Vons in Eagle Rock, supporting nearly 100 striking workers and community members picketing Saturday.

As the crowd whooped and clapped, the teens hopped and swiveled in the parking lot, reciting a cheer they made up last week: "Vons / don't buy / Ralphs / let's fight / Don't cross / the line / Support workers' rights!"....cont'd


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cheer22feb22,1,4109151.story?coll=la-home-local

[Redneck Socialist]

1. Damn, that's awesome.

Nothing like the cheerleaders when I was in high school.

[DarkPhenyx]

2. But cheerleaders normally date QB's.

Who are these young ladies going to hang on at the prom? *shakes head* It's the downfall of civilization I tell you.

[ghengisjim]

4. What is? that QBs get all the girls?

maybe? Im not reading you quite right

[proud patriot]

3. Wooooooo Hoooooooo !

I've seen a group at the SF protests ..

Very creative and fun :thumbsup: