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Celebrating Ten Years of Student-Labor Solidarity! |
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United Students against Sweatshops (USAS) is a network of students in North America who have been organizing for workers' rights since 1998. As former, current, and future workers, we recognize that we must live the principles that we are taught in the classroom now. As students, we have the power to force our universities to respect the basic human rights and dignity of workers who make our education possible. We believe our universities must respect all workers in their supply chains-- from those who serve us food in the dining halls, to housekeepers and janitors who clean our dormitories, to farmworkers who pick the food we eat in those dining halls, to the garment workers who make apparel with our universities' name. We support the right of all workers to organize unions and other democratic worker organizations, to earn living wages that meet the basic needs of their families, and to be treated with respect. We believe workers are the best monitors of their own condition in North America and around the globe and deserve a voice on the job. We define "sweatshop" broadly and use it as a representation of the horrific abuses of the global economy. However, human rights abuses and the repression of working people's struggles is not limited to garment factories in the Global South or in immigrant communities in North America. Sweatshop conditions exist in the fields, in the prisons, on our campuses, in the power relations of a flawed global system. Thus, we consider all struggles for a better world and an alternative to the current structure of the global economy to be directly or by analogy a struggle against sweatshops. To get involved in Campus and Community Solidarity Campaigns: e-mail
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To get involved in Sweatfree Campus Campaigns (including the struggle for the Designated Suppliers Program): e-mail
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If you are a high school student and would like to get involved: e-mail
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Understanding USAS Structure |
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United Students Against Sweatshops is a grassroots, youth run, student-labor solidarity organization. |
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Principles of Unity |
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The principles of unity below have been drafted as an assessment of the spirit and of the issues which bring students on campuses across North America together to create a united youth front against sweatshops. Hopefully, these principles touch on the underlying consciousness we are all developing, within ourselves as individuals and within our collectives, whether they be local, regional, national, or international. Agreement with the principles below will be used as the sole requisite for working under the name of United Students Against Sweatshops. The Principles - We work in solidarity with working people’s struggles. In order to best accomplish this and in recognition of the interconnections between local and global struggles, we strive to build relationships with other progressive movements and cooperate in coalition with other groups struggling for justice within all communities campus, local, regional, and international.
- We struggle against racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other forms of oppression within our society, within our organizations, and within ourselves. Not only are we collectively confronting these systems as inherent defects of the global economy which creates sweatshops, but we also recognize the need for individuals to confront the prejudices they have internalized as the result of living and learning in a flawed and oppressive society.
- We are working in coalition to build a grassroots student movement that challenges corporate power and that fights for economic justice. This coalition is loosely defined, thus we strive to act in coordination with one another to mobilize resources and build a national network while reserving the autonomy of individuals and campuses. We do not impose a single ideological position, practice, or approach; rather, we aim to support one another in a spirit of respect for difference, shared purpose and hope.
- We strive to act democratically. With the understanding that we live and learn in a state of imperfect government, we attempt to achieve truer democracy in making decisions which affect our collective work. Furthermore, we strive to empower one another as individuals and as a collective through trust, patience, and an open spirit.
The power of these principles to unify us as United Students Against Sweatshops ultimately rests with the individual. Self-evaluation and personal responsibility are critical to the effectiveness of our work we all must continue to struggle as individuals in order to struggle in concert, thus we strive for compassion and support for one another as we continue this endeavor together. |
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History and Formation of USAS |
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In the mid-1990's, after nearly 100 years of retirement, the term 'sweatshop' became a household term again as stories of horrific abuse and exploitation began to emerge from the factories producing clothes for the U.S. market around the globe. |
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