Reasons for Hope

by Mary Swenson, Resource Center of the Americas

In my work with educators and students at the Resource Center of the Americas, I have witnessed a growing student interest in the issues of child labor and sweatshops, as well as in the U.S. Army School of the Americas.

I want to share this exciting scene: College students throughout the U.S., including here at the University of Minnesota, are challenging their administrations to adopt codes of conduct for the purchase of school logo apparel and other school logo items. These are codes with teeth in them, as opposed to industry sponsored codes. They call for paying a living wage to workers who produce school logo apparel, and for independent monitoring of the factories.

The Resource Center's own Youth Organizing Committee on Child Labor and Sweatshops (YO!), made up of high school and junior high students, is organizing the Minnesota Sweatfree Schools Campaign. They are calling on local school districts to adopt a similar code of conduct.

YO!'s campaign is becoming a model for other high school and junior high students around the country. Students show videos and give engaging presentations to their peers in classrooms and after school programs. They communicate via email with hundreds of other interested students. They organize meetings with school administration officials. They join in leafleting about Nike and spreading the word on the Guess! Boycott. They demonstrate about Phillips Van Heusen's and Wal-Mart's treatment of sweatshop workers. Meanwhile, they are producing their own video on Nicaraguan girls who work in sweatshops.

The list of youth activism goes on: Anoka high schoolers present a "Sweatshop Style Show." Solidarity Kids Theatre puts on plays to educate about labor rights. Student Amnesty International chapters write letters on behalf of the rights of the child. Free the Children, founded by a then 12-year-old Canadian student, Craig Kielburger, has established chapters throughout the world. Free the Children has lobbied on behalf of children and has raised money for dozens of schools for former child laborers.

Often it is the same students who become interested in the School of the Americas, militarism, global economic injustices, and the World Trade Organization. They are eager to participate in demonstrations, to educate their peers, and to work toward creating positive social change. They have been encouraged to critically examine these issues by their parents, teachers, other adults, and/or peers.

These kids may still be a minority among their peers, but that is not stopping them. And they are not waiting for adults to change the world--they are taking it upon themselves and going for it!

TAKE ACTION!

YO!
Resource Center of the Americas
3019 Minnehaha Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612-276-0788
Youth@Americas.org