America is at war. It is a bloody war. It is not overseas, but right here at home on our streets. The casualties are youth who are dying and being injured by the hundreds of thousands, and their families, loved ones, and friends who face constant waves of pain and loss. In Los Angeles country alone, 7,388 young people were killed in street violence between 1979 and 1994. Since 1988 the leading cause of death for teen age males is by the gun.  Nationwide every day, 135,000 children carry guns to school. Juvenile arrest for murder increased by 127.9% between 1984 and 1993. In the midst 
of the violence thousands are being imprisoned. By the year 2010, at current rates, there will be more people in prison than are enrolled in college. But  the increase in imprisonment, and the building of prisons, shows no signs of slowing down the violence. The Justice Department estimates, that youth violence and crime will increase over the next 10 years. The limitations of prisons are clear, even to those who run them. 85% of the 157 prison wardens surveyed in 1993 by Senator Paul Simon's Subcommittee on the Constitution, rejected the popular crime fighting solutions of "more prisons" as ineffective. As Nane Alexjandrez, of the National Coalition of Barrios Unidos says, "what kind of society allows so many of its youth to die and be maimed without doing something constructive?" Clearly other ways must be found to more constructively bring peace to the streets. 

     Those ways are being developed through a major nationwide Youth Peace Movement is emerging from the barrios, ghettos, and reservations. This peace movement is the most significant grassroots developments since the important civil rights, farm workers, and Native American and women's movement struggles of previous decades. The Youth Peace Movement, consisting of a wide range of community-based groups led by dedicated activists, many of them with direct painful experience on the street, is aiming to end violence through constructive developments instead of 
repressive force. 

      Rather than waging a "war on crime" that simply brings more police and prisons on to the scene, peace activists are painstakingly creating a  multidimensional structure of interwoven personal/social/cultural/educational/economic supports that pull youth away from violence and toward constructive peace. In a survey I am conducting, I have, to date, 
identified some 3100 community-based peace organizations nationwide, and this is  just the tip of the iceberg. Organizations and activists working for youth peace include: "the National Coalition of Barrios Unidos/United    Neighborhoods" with over forty chapters around the country; "Stop the Violence-Institute the Peace" out of Inglewood, California; the "Pittsburgh Gang Truce Movement" in Pennsylvania; "The Institute for Violence Reduction" in Hartford Connecticut; the "Black Community Awareness Development Organization" out of Long Beach, California; "Young Voices" in Minneapolis; the Pueblo Laguna Native American Nation in New  Mexico, "El Neustro Centro" in Dallas; Bhong Hwan Kim's work in Los Angels; the "Zulu Nation" in New York; the "Coalition Against Police  Brutality" in Los Angeles; the "National Indian Youth Leadership Project" out of Gallup, New Mexico; Sojourners" in Washington, D.C., "Things that  Make for Peace" operating nationwide; the "Omega Boys Club;" "RAP" in San Francisco; the "Black Berets for Social Justice"; and the "Brown  Berets;" to name but a very few. 

      This peace movement, from which such organizations are emanating, is of significance not only for its notable efforts to end the violence, but also  because its work has direct ramifications for political strength and community social/cultural rebirth as we move toward the 21st century. Communities being shredded in civil wars among their children cannot be foundations of strength upon which programs of social justice and humane progress are   built. So, the efforts now underway to end the violence and create peace, are major steps toward a new era of community empowerment that will 
  positively effect the lives of those in the inner cities, poor rural areas and on the reservations. In a country that continues to reject thousands of people, including many white workers, from the economic mainstream, and which is responding to subsequent social distress by building more prisons, the   Youth Peace Movement is an innovative and vital concrete development with positive implications for all of the United States. 

      Although the peace movement is highly diverse, with many different types of organizations that are developing specific approaches to meet the   distinctive needs of their own communities, several core issues link these activists. While their approaches are varied, there are significant core features  that run through much of this movement.  An important aspect of the overall strategy for many peace activists is to emphasize personal responsibility and the development of positive 
 community-focused values for youth. Unlike many well-meaning but out-of-touch liberals who point only to the impact of the economic system as the cause for violence, the street wise peace activists assert that youth must take responsibility for the development and inculcation of community based  values. As Khalid Shah, director of Stop the Violence Institute the 
Peace (STV-ITP) says in an interview with Robert Wright (Unity L.A. Vol. 1, Issue 1), "Now people have no regard for life, no regard for gender, no regard for anything and it's like the principles and everything are gone ... Now it's  about, I'm not even going to get my clothes dirty. I'm just going to shoot you." Consequently, emphasizes, Shah, "We have to redefine what our values are." Simultaneously, in contrast to conservative emphasis on ruthless individualism, the peace activists also recognize that in harsh environments, youth  need various kinds of constructive support, if their taking of personal responsibility is to succeed. Trying to "pull your self up by your own bootstraps" when others are shooting at you, requires the sustenance of broad community social/cultural/economic structures that can support and inspire those struggling to escape the cold hold of the vice of violence. This providing of community support structures is based on the understanding and belief in the ultimate positive potential of youth no matter how hard-edged they have been. As Luis Rodriguez, Chicago based activist and author of La Vida Loca: Always Running, Gang Days in L.A. emphasized at the two 1996 peace summits sponsored by the National Coalition of Barrios Unidos in Santa Cruz and Washington, D.C., the transformational capabilities inherent in youth are wrongly denied by those in media and government who judge them as  incorrigibles. Like most of these peace activists, Rodriguez, who came out of the environment of violence and retribution, understands the positive  potential behind the media constructed masks of savage violence. When talking with youth, Rodriguez points to their untapped potential. "I tell you," he  says," that you have the creativity, the potential. I've been where you are, I know you can do it." Like many peace activists, he is himself an inspiring example of the success that an individual can achieve, while he is also an example of a committed activist who is providing organized community  support for others walking the same route of positive transformation. 

     The peace activists understand that to tap and nurture such potential also requires a strong economic foundation in the inner cities and on the  reservations. Some of that, say many peace activists, should come from the government. As Blanca Martinez of Neustro Centro said at the Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos Summit, "We need more education, we need more programs. They are pumping our tax dollars into more prisons, more juvenile systems, more court systems. Hey, lets give back to the barrios, it's our money anyway, because we worked for it. It's our kids, its our tears, our  blood, our sweat. This is about empowering the community." But, while recognizing a potentially positive partnership role for government, the Youth  Peace Movement offers a grassroots approach, rather than a top-down bureaucratic model that characterized much of the war on poverty in the  1960's. Today, the strategies and methods are being developed within and from the communities. Any partnership with progressive government will have to entail mutual respect and a recognition that the impetus and knowledge to save the communities is to be found inside them, rather than solely in  the hands of outside "experts" and federal program directors. 

     The key resource of the peace movement are precisely those whom much of the wider society perceives to be the problem--the youth. Although much   of the initial pathways for the peace movement are being charted by veterans of the street, it is the youth who are providing both the mass element and the next generation of leadership in conjunction with guidance from elders. For example, at the 1996 Washington. D.C. National Coalition of Barrios  Unidos Peace Summit, easily 75 percent of those present were people under 21. It was these young women and men who spoke with such fervor, 
conviction, and experience both about the pain of loss through violence, about moving toward peace rather than retribution. Importantly, a large proportion of these youth are already heads of Barrios Unidos chapters or are playing important roles in this organization. Similarly, Mike Barrero ?s  Institute for Violence Reduction emphasizes the leadership role of youth, as does the Black Community Awareness Development Organization, Stop  the Violence-Institute the Peace, Young Voices, and many others.  The peace movement leaders, from elders to youth, also are developing a unique approach to violence that emphasizes the need to develop negotiations for truces, cease-fires, and peace settlements among warring street organizations. As Nane Alejandrez points out, the "gangs are not going  to be wished away." Nor are police "crackdowns" stopping them. The historic peace between Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles is the cornerstone of  this diplomacy/peacemaking approach. But such peace negotiations are taking place around the country. Not all succeed. Not all last. Some are sabotaged by authorities as Christine Parenti, Luis Rodriguez, and others point out. Recent revelations in the San Jose Mercury News about the CIA's direct involvement in the crack cocaine epidemic that destroyed so much community infrastructure, demonstrate yet another way in which elements of official society work against constructive grassroots efforts in the cities. Nonetheless, the nationwide peace efforts continue. When connected to the  other social/economic/cultural dimensions of the peace movement, there is solid indication that the negotiation approach can bear fruit in both large scale and small ways. For example, in Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall, Barrios Unidos workers Albino Garcia and Elizabeth Ayala have effectively worked to bring together hostile factions in productive ways, despite predictions by some that such an effort would only fail. Similar efforts are taking place in cities as diverse as Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Albuquerque, and Boston. 

     Because the violence cuts its bloody path through all racial and ethnic groups, the peace activists see cooperation among different communities as essential. As Jitu Sidiki of the Black Community Awareness Development Organization stated at the Santa Cruz summit, "solidarity with Barrios  Unidos" and with Latinos in general is necessary because "what Barrios Unidos is doing also effects what happens in African-American communities as well." Similarly Khalid Shah and Henry Stuckey of Stop the Violence/Institute the Peace are developing a working relationship with Barrios Unidos. As  Khalid Shah says in the interview with Robert Wright, "We don't worry about your religion, your color, or how much money you make. But we have one common goal and that is the issue of violence that is killing us all. So, if we can come together on that issue and make leadership accountable, then we can get some things done." In is within this pragmatic alliance building context, that Barrios Unidos recently hosted visiting delegations from youth  focused organizations from several African nations; from the Pueblo Laguna Native American nation that is wrestling with increasing youth alienation  and gang membership; and the African American activists, Khalid Shah and Henry Stuckey, from Stop the Violence /Institute the Peace. In Phoenix, Barrios Unidos activist Rudy Buchanan, whose family roots are in both the African- and Mexican-American communities, and who has lost two sons to gang and police violence, is working tirelessly to create inter-racial bridges. Such alliance orientations are common among many youth peace activists.  overall, the Youth Peace Movement is creating a pragmatic living "rainbow alliance" from the ground-up. This alliance building is an important example of what I call "Transcommunality. Transcommunal cooperation does not require that communities and organizations give up their own agendas and  concerns. Rather than being a "melting pot approach," Transcommunality 
depends for its success, on cooperating groups having solid roots in their own  communities, cultures, and outlooks. In this type of alliance building, the Youth Peace Movement offers a crucial positive development that works  against the usual forms of racial "divide-and-rule" that historically drives apart those who have so much in common. 

     There are two areas that I believe are in need of further development as the Youth Peace Movement grows. First, we need more effective widening coordination of the many thousands of groups that are basically on the same page of ending violence and creating social justice. Given the diversity of the groups, and the wide variety of local circumstances, this coordination should not take the form of a top-down model in which a small elite of "central committee" members seek to direct everyone else, using one blueprint.  Rather, the expanding coordination should be built through increased direct contacts among diverse groups, such as Barrios Unidos is doing with  African-American, Indigenous, and continental African organizations. Face-to-face contacts, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally in the form of summits, round tables, and informal gatherings can help to reaffirm interpersonal ties and thereby strengthen the relationships among groups. In creating this type of Transcommunal alliance, we can effectively learn from the models of indigenous alliances such as the Haudenosaune6 or "Iroquois" people who over 500 years ago created a highly effective alliance that 
drew together previously hostile nations through a system of respect for high degrees of freedom and autonomy of the participants. Classically, the Iroquois alliance emphasizes both effective coordination and autonomy for its  heterogeneous people. Similarly, the Youth Peace Movement, with its many diverse organizations, each dealing with its own distinctive circumstances,  could productively follow the Iroquois model, and emphasize coordination, rather than the homogenization, of autonomous groups. 

      Second, a 21st century partnership role with government must be worked out. The conservative emphasis on less government simply means that  society at large takes no responsibility for what is happening to its own people. We cannot afford such irresponsible government as thousands of  children are killed, hurt, and tossed to the side. Some balance is 
needed in which government can play a positive role as an effective junior partner    when deemed necessary by communities. As Otilio Quintero of Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos points out, "We can bring our young people to the table and have them drop their arms. But there must be opportunity, not just jail  ahead for them." Just as injections of millions of dollars in aid from rich  countries are going to, or being planned for peace processes in other parts of the world, so too, must there also be an infusion of economic development right here at home. In developing our own strong communities we should be able to draw what is rightfully ours from government, without fearing its impact.  Strong communities, that have developed their own foundations for their own agendas will be able to create a framework within which government  partnership is productive rather than a danger to the community itself. 

      In sum, the Youth Peace Movement organizational foundations now being created, effectively position us for the creation of a 21st Century  "Community Renaissance/Renacimineto de la Communidad.11 This Renaissance will contain some elements that were common to previous approaches   such as the New Deal during the Great Depression and the War on Poverty. But it will differ from them because it originates from the grassroots, and  so is being fundamentally shaped by the concerns, the knowledge, and the outlooks of those who experience the "frontlines" of poverty and violence. Grassroots organizations will maintain their autonomy with their own community-based objectives, but will avoid being isolated into weak racial/ethnic  compartments, as they develop overall strategies of constructive interaction among themselves and with other diverse zones of society. 

      In his book, Where Do We Go From Here Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King, Jr. warned that we face a choice between division and  desperation on one hand, or cooperation and strength on the other hand. The Youth Peace Movement is offering us all the chance to join hands in  cooperation, and with strength, as we move toward true social justice in the 21st century. 

      John Brown Childs, professor of sociology at the University of California, and a member of the Board of Directors of Barrios Unidos, Santa Cruz, has been involved with the organizing of youth peace summits in Santa Cruz, El Paso, and Washington, D.C. He is writing  Transcommunality: Roots of Social Justice in an Age of Crisis.