Strategizing Against Sweatshops (Paperback)

Paperback. For the past few decades, the U.S. anti-sweatshop movement was bolstered by actions from American college students. United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) effectively advanced the cause of workers rights in sweatshops around the world. Strategizing against Sweatshops chronicles the evolution of student activism and presents an innovative model of how college campuses are a critical site for the advancement of global social justice. Matthew Williams shows how USAS targeted apparel companies outsourcing production to sweatshop factories with weak or non-existent unions. USAS did so by developing a campaign that would support workers organizing by leveraging their colleges partnerships with global apparel firms like Nike and Adidas to abide by pro-labor codes of conduct. Strategizing against Sweatshops exemplifies how organizations and actors cooperate across a movement to formulate a coherent strategy responsive to the conditions in their social environment. Williams also provides a model of political opportunity structure to show how social context shapes the chances of a movements success-and how movements can change that political opportunity structure in turn. Ultimately, he shows why progressive student activism remains important. "Tells the story of how the student anti-sweatshop movement on US college campuses was able to coordinate a massive change in strategy in response to new labor tactics undertaken by target garment industry corporations. Demonstrates that a decentralized movement can coordinate in response to changing opportunities"-- Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…