Student Social Action for Labor Rights

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Activism for Workers' Rights

Throughout the Nation, students have organized to protest and fight for better rights for workers both at their instituion and outside, both at the US and Worldwide

History

"Although the first nationally organized student movement in America occured in the 1930s, student opposition to the established order had a long tradition. The history of protest within and against American colleges and universities is nearly as old as the institutions themselves. While most undergraduates have tended to be inactive and passive, the have had periods of sudden and explosive activity. From the earliest days, college students in the United States have rebelled against what they considered repressive authority and unrepresentative administrations."

(Brax, 1981, p.3)

Student activism is clearly a long-lasting tradition in the United States. In fact, the first student rebellion in a college or university in this country happened in 1766 at Harvard University(Brax, 1981, p.3). Nevertheless, this phenomenon has not had consistency throughout the decades. During the 1930s, as Brax suggests "change [...] occurred in most students' life styles and political views, change that proved to be significant because it involved students for the first time in the broades societal issues of war and peace and the protection of civil liberties." (Brax, 1981, p.17) However, the movement died out in the beginning of the 1940s with the US involvement in the Second World War, when the peace and anti-interventionism ideals lost most of its appeals.

The 1960s are, according to Robert Rhoads, the "high-water mark of student protest"(1998, p.vii). In his own words:

"It is particularly the decade of the 1960s that speaks to the actions of contemporary student activists. The democratic concerns of the 1960s [...] launched major campus movements against social inequality, limited student rights, and American Imperialism. [...] While the Civil Rights Movement had launched a momentous wave of student activism, ti was the Peace Movement that closed the door on the decade of campus unrest."

(Rhoads, 1998, p.viii-5)

The 1960s were not only a time of high student activism in the United States, but also in many other places in the world. It's an interesting coincidence to note that during the Spring of 1968, students were taking control of the Sorbonne in Paris, Columbia University in New York City and the National University of Mexico, in Mexico City.

Student Organizations

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)

Workers Rights Consortium (WRC)

Living Wage Campaigns

Campus Activism