Formed in 1997, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is a grassroots organization of youth and students who believe that a powerful and dynamic labor movement will ensure greater justice for all people. We use our unique roles of students as consumers, workers, and members of the campus community to win victories that set precedents in the struggle for self-determination of working people everywhere, particularly campus workers and garment workers who make collegiate licensed apparel.

national student coordinating committee (contact info)

International Solidarity Campaigns: Gautam Kumaraswamy attends Purdue University where he studies Industrial Engineering . This is his fourth semester involved in USAS. Gautam has been working on a campaign with his university’s USAS affiliate, the Purdue Organization for Labor Equality, to get the Purdue administration to sign on to the Designated Suppliers Program, was involved in convincing the administration to terminate their Russell Athletic contract, and is currently working on making sure Purdue holds other corporations who violate the code of conduct accountable. He is a Jamaican national who comes from a professional class background and identifies as a person of colour. He enjoys watching soccer, cricket(!) and other sports as well as listening to a variety of music.

Campus Community Solidarity Campaigns: Cherie Seise is a senior at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, majoring in History and Women’s Studies. She has been involved in several campaigns with service workers on campus as a member of her college’s USAS affiliate. She has also done community organizing on voter registration, voter rights and healthcare reform as an intern with the Virginia Organizing Project. Last year she worked for USAS as a Regional Organizer for the Southeast and served as a Regional Organizer Representative on the CC. She is excited to return to the CC, having also served as the Womyn/Genderqueer Caucus Representative to the CC in ‘07-’08. Cherie identifies as a white, middle-class, queer woman and is 21 years old.

Political Education Subcommittee: Ash-Lee W. Henderson is a senior at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) studying English as well as African and African American Studies. Ash-Lee is one of the founding members of the ETSU chapter of Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), the ETSU affiliate of USAS. She is currently working to develop campaigns with PSA to address the many different struggles on campus and promoting campus solidarity between groups on campus to further unify those struggles. Ash-Lee is also actively involved in the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining, and is a member of the group known as the Kayford 8 — eight young people who shut down the Samples Mine on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia for over 5 hours by locking down to a massive rock truck. She comes from a working class background, identifies as a woman of color and is 24 years old.

Collective Liberation Subcommittee: Stephanie Adler is a senior at the University of Washington-Seattle studying Anthropology and International Studies/Human Rights. Ze has been involved in the campaign by the UW Student Labor Action Project, zir school’s USAS affiliate, for the Designated Suppliers’ Program, as well as labor solidarity with local Seattle-area unions, Jobs with Justice, and other organizations. Ze is also a member of MEChA de UW and is involved in activism focused on combating oppression and trade justice. Ze loves USAS and expressing zirself through a bullhorn. Stephanie identifies as genderqueer, white and middle-class and is 23 years old.

Regional Organizer Delegate: KB Brower is a currently a junior at the College of William and Mary where she studies Social Justice and Women’s Studies. KB is active in her college’s USAS affiliate, the Tidewater Labor Support Committee, and has worked on several campaigns with service workers on campus. She is also a member of her school’s Lambda Alliance, which works to support and serve the LGBTQ community in the greater Williamsburg area. KB identifies as a white, middle-class, queer woman and is 20 years old.

Note: The Communications & Media and the Growth & Sustainability subcommittees do not currently have representation on the CC due to eligibility requirements.

national organizers (contact info)

Jack Mahoney bottomlines campus worker solidarity campaigns and internal communications. He began working as a National Organizer for USAS in November 2009 and will help transition new national staff when Rod, Shaun, and Salma leave in the summer of 2010. He organized with the USAS affiliate at Georgetown University, where he graduated in 2008.  After working to win union-made apparel at his high school in New Jersey, Jack was politicized by joining janitors’ and students’ Living Wage Campaign as a Georgetown first-year and joining the 10-day hunger strike that won that campaign.  He continued organizing with janitors, security officers and other campus workers for the right to unionize and living wages at school, while supporting city-wide campaigns by service workers in downtown DC office buildings with SEIU Local 32BJ as staff at DC Jobs With Justice.  He also organized with the successful campaign for an LGBTQ resource center at Georgetown.  After graduating, he worked for UNITE HERE Local 25 to organize with hotel workers.  He is thrilled to be joining USAS staff at this critical moment of widespread student and worker resistance to outrageous campus budget cuts prioritizing administrator salaries over our campus communities!  He is a white boy from a professional class background, identifies as queer, and is 24 years old.

Shaun Martinez bottomlines growth and sustainability, the high school program, and the collective liberation subcommittees. He began working for USAS in June 2008, after receiving his Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California. Shaun was involved in the USAS chapter at USC, actively supporting workers that make Trojan Apparel by helping run a campaign to get the university to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium and to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. Shaun’s work in the anti-sweatshop movement extended to the local community in Los Angeles through his work at the Garment Worker Center, which organizes Latin@ and Chinese garment workers. Shaun has also actively supported various other local labor rights campaigns in the Los Angeles area. Shaun identifies as a person of color and is 23 years old.

Salma Mirza bottomlines campus worker solidarity campaigns, external communications, and the political education subcommittees. She began working for USAS in June 2008, after completing requirements for a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Salma’s involvement in the labor and global justice movements began during high school in Buffalo, NY. During college, she was involved in anti-racist organizing and Palestine solidarity campaigns. She organized in solidarity with a number of worker-led campaigns at UNC-Chapel Hill and in its supply chain with the USAS chapter at UNC and members of UE Local 150, SEANC District 25 (SEIU Local 2008), the NC NAACP, and the UNC Employee Forum. She worked as an international intern for USAS and Jobs with Justice in Delhi, India in 2006, compiling research with the Society for Labour and Development and the Delhi Laborers Union.  She also sometimes taught at a nearby Muslim Sunday school. She comes from a professional class background, is the daughter of immigrants, and is one generation removed from being a colonial subject. Salma identifies as a woman of color and is 22 years old.

Rod Palmquist bottomlines garment worker solidarity and international solidarity campaigns, including campaigns to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium and adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. He began working full-time for USAS in June 2008, after receiving his undergraduate degree in History from the University of Washington. Rod helped lead a campaign that forced the University of Washington to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program in 2007. The DSP will source UW Husky apparel from factories that respect workers’ rights to form unions and bargain for living wages. From 2007-2008, Rod served as a USAS Regional Organizer for the Northwest, and has been actively involved in Washington State Jobs with Justice, as well as various Seattle-area union solidarity campaigns. He is a white male from a professional class background and is 24 years old.

mission and vision

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is a grassroots organization run entirely by youth and students. We develop youth leadership and run strategic student-labor solidarity campaigns with the goal of building sustainable power for working people. We define “sweatshop” broadly and consider all struggles against the daily abuses of the global economic system to be a struggle against sweatshops.

We envision a world in which society and human relationships are organized cooperatively, not competitively. We struggle towards a world in which all people live in freedom from oppression, in which people are valued as whole human beings rather than exploited in a quest for productivity and profits.

organizing philosophy

1. solidarity

We believe that all of our struggles for a just world are intimately connected and that we should act in solidarity to avoid isolation and to build greater collective power. Charity does not challenge power relations, while a solidarity framework unites allies who are fighting on different grounds towards the same goal.

We have chosen the labor movement as a strategic site of struggle because a powerful and dynamic labor movement can ensure greater justice for all people.  As former, current, and future workers we recognize the need for a vibrant youth and student movement that actively engages in struggles for just working conditions. We draw upon the historical role of student movements as catalysts for broader social change and strategically leverage the unique roles of students as consumers, workers, and members of the campus community.

We recognize that our role as students in the labor movement is complex and we are committed to critically engaging with that role. In our larger society, we are privileged because the majority of people are denied access to higher education. In our schools, we are marginalized because we are denied a voice in making decisions that affect our entire campus community. We believe we have an important role to play as organizers in developing the leadership capacity of people in our communities and we believe those most impacted should lead their own struggles.

2. collective liberation

We are committed to collective liberation of all people. In the words of Lilla Watson: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.  But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” We believe that oppression does not allow anyone to be a full human being whether they materially benefit or suffer under oppressive systems. We struggle against racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, and other forms of oppression within our society, within our organizations, and within ourselves. We strive to build relationships with other grassroots movements because we believe the student-labor solidarity movement is part of a larger struggle for global justice.

3. grassroots democracy

We support the self-organization of working people to fight for better working and living conditions in the form of grassroots organizations such as unions, worker centers, collectives, and other democratic organizations. We believe these organizations, as part of a broader global justice movement, will pave the way for long-term economic, social and political empowerment for working people worldwide.

We strive to act democratically. We see participatory political education and horizontal communication as necessary for an effective democratic organization. We encourage a culture of constructive critique and strive to empower one another through trust, patience, and an open spirit.

4. diversity of tactics

We seek to use a diversity of tactics, especially nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience, which fundamentally challenge the oppressive power structures that exploit the majority of the world’s population. We believe that substantive change is created through movements of oppressed people organizing to develop and use their own power. Through taking action we find the  courage to develop our individual and collective capacities for leadership and action.

5. pluralism

We are a non-dogmatic organization and believe in building a broad-based movement. We believe that a pluralist approach to ideological positions and practices strengthens our movement. We encourage a rigorous internal political dialogue, which strengthens our strategic analysis and effectiveness. We aim to support one another in a spirit of respect for difference, shared purpose and hope.