Workshop on Campus Organizing and the Global Economy
On Saturday, March 22, I worked with Gisselle Cervantes of Students for International Labor Solidarity and Ruthy Lynch of Workers United to lead a teach-in for college students from across Chicago on campus organizing and the global economy. Here are the slides from the workshops I led. We had students from Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois Chicago in attendance, some affiliated with SILS, others interested in unionizing student workers on their campus. Although it was a small group, we had lively discussions and the students came away with the beginnings of long-term strategic action plans to guide their activism on their campuses. SILS and I plan to follow up with a larger teach-in the Fall 2025 semester.
Policy and Strategy Briefs
Strategy Brief: Campus Activism 1: Advantages and Challenges
Student activism on college and university campuses can have a big impact on campus and off. In some ways, college campuses are good places to organize—it’s relatively easy to build and mobilize social networks, there are strong norms around freedom of speech, and campus officials feel obliged to listen to student concerns. However, student activists face the challenges of conducting their campaigns on a tight timeline within the span of a school year and dealing with college administrators who are not democratically accountable to students.
