INTERVIEWS
“Young People Have a Pure Sense of
Justice, Fairness, and Equality and Will
Fight for It”: An Interview with Sonya
Mehta of Young Workers United
Enrique C. Ochoa
Education takes place in many sites. During this age of high-stakes testing, the
defunding of public education, and the increased policing of youth, alternative
spaces are important for fostering critical historical and political education that can
help youth discover their place and empower them in their struggle for social jus-
tice. Sonya Mehta is a twenty-seven-year-old South Asian woman who has been
involved with Young Workers United (YWU) since its inception in 2002. A gradu-
ate of the University of California, Berkeley, she has been intensely involved with
Young Workers United’s numerous campaigns to create a more just San Francisco.
As part of their work, Young Workers United developed Education for Liberation: A
Popular Education Curriculum of Organizing Skills! This manual provides valuable
interactive lessons that can be used in organizing and teaching.
This interview was conducted by Enrique C. Ochoa of the Radical History
Review editorial collective at the “Educating for Justice: Teaching for Labor and
Community Power!” conference held at the Mission Campus of San Francisco City
College on November 17, 2007.
Radical History Review
Issue 102 (Fall 2008) doi 10.1215/01636545-2008-021
© 2008 by MARHO: The Radical Historians’ Organization, Inc.
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