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STUDENT LABOR WEEK OF ACTION
MARCH 31 - APRIL 4

April 4 marks the anniversary of the assassination of one of our nations most beloved heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the time of his death, he was in Memphis, Tennessee supporting 1,300 sanitation workers who had gone on strike in February 1968 to protest dangerous working conditions and dismal pay. Dr. King’s support of the Memphis strike was part of his Poor People’s Campaign, which expanded the civil rights agenda into the economic justice movement.

During the same decade, Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers along with Dolores Huerta. He too is recognized for his inspiring and selfless leadership. We celebrate the life of Cesar Chavez on his birthday March 31. Dr. King and Chavez committed their lives to fighting for dignity, justice, and a greater recognition of our shared humanity.

What is it?

The National Student Labor Week of Action (NSLWoA), which began as a day of action attempting to link various campus struggles for economic justice across the country is a collaborative effort and a powerful statement of solidarity and action that students and workers have used in many different ways to advance their local common national, and global fights for dignity, justice, and respect.

Why participate/coordinate?

All across the country there are various networks and organizations working on issues dealing with social and economic justice. While that is not something that the targets of our campaigns and folks that are actively organizing against these issues would have us believe, the NSLWoA is an attempt to –

• Show that THERE IS a national movement for social and economic justice across campuses in the US
• Move beyond the university confines and connect with local community, faith, and worker’s rights organizations for the long haul
• Find and connect with other students doing similar work ( a national grid will go up and will be regularly updated soon)

How do I get involved?

For Student Organizations:

• Support – Individuals & Organizations wishing to support the Week of Action can do so in various ways, including informing your peers about the NSLWoA and how to get involved, writing about it in your campus paper (ideally talking about your participation), or simply forwarding information to other networks.
• Sign-On – Organizations that “sign-on” to the NSLWoA are committed to supporting and participating in the NLSWoA. This can be done in many manners, including taking action on your local campaign, having an event on campus during the NSLWoA, doing a movie screening about worker’s rights on your campus, and dozens of other ways we’re sure you can think of. (Note: Materials such as videos, stickers, posters, etc can be seen at and requested from the organizing manual)
• Endorse – Endorsements are very similar to “sign-ons” for the NSLWoA, except that it pertains to larger organizations and networks (city, regional, state, national) who commit to educating their membership/constituency and assisting in coordinating larger groups of people. (If you belong to a larger network and would like to find out more information so that you can tell your comrades, please let us know! We’ll work with you to get information and materials on the NSLWoA)

For Non-Student Allies (Faith, Community, and Worker Organizations)

• Support - There are many ways to support and be involved with the NSLWoA.
• If you haven’t heard students/young people talking about it, let them know about it!
• If you have heard of students locally working on a campaign, find out more about it and offer your support.
• If there are young people/students in your organization, get them involved with it
• Let your membership know about the work of students across the country and keep them updated –pre, during, and post NSLWoA. (lets build relationships that go past this week and last for a lifetime!)