United Students Against Sweatshops

Committees and Working Groups section

At the moment this page has some introductory remarks and a bit more detailed information about the CC, but in the future it will have pages for each of the committees and working groups.

Brief explanations of ABC, IS, and CC

Coordinating Committee: The CC is the 13 member decision making body of the United Students Against Sweatshops. Six of these students are regional representatives, four are representatives from our four identity caucuses- women’s caucus, people of color caucus, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) caucus, and working class caucus- and the remaining three are elected at large by a vote of member campuses nationally.

Alliance Building Committee: Standing committee formed at the USAS national conference in August of 2000 open to anyone in USAS. It seeks to form alliances with other groups and people to work together against racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and other forms of oppression. We must address these issues in a straightforward manner- whether that be within our organizations, within our work, or within ourselves.

International Solidarity: Standing committee formed at the USAS national conference in August of 2000, open to anyone in USAS, to establish ongoing long-term relationships based on trust, and by doing this establish international solidarity deeper than rhetoric. Since we do not know what is best for workers in communities thousands of miles away (or down the street) we will build international relationships to support, not determine, the direction of organizing that is happening all over the world.

Coordinating Committee Section:

The main day-to-day decision making body of USAS is a 13 member Coordinating Committee comprised of student activists elected by their peers at USAS member campuses. Six of these students are regional representatives, four are representatives from our four identity caucuses- women’s caucus, people of color caucus, LGBTQ caucus, and working class caucus- and the remaining three are elected at large by a vote of member campuses nationally. To ensure gender equity, a majority of the committee are always women. The representatives of the committee are elected to one-year terms, although the beginning and ending points of those terms may be staggered.

The Coordinating Committee has authority over the day-to-day operations of USAS. This includes staff oversight, budget-setting, financial allocation, endorsing the efforts of partner organizations, developing new programs and working groups and overseeing current ones, allocating conference call times to different projects, taking positions on developments that fall within or outside of USAS’s campaign work, deciding whether to initiate efforts to activate campuses around emergency actions, and speaking publicly for or empowering others to represent USAS on a national level. Major shifts in strategy or demands on new campaigns are initiated only after being inititated by or consulting with each of our member campuses or at a national meeting open to all member campuses. Active consultation of member campueses for the general functioning of the Coordinating Committee but especially for major programmatic shift is the responsibility of representatives on the Coordinating Commi! tt! ee, with assistance, if needed, of regional organizers.

The Coordinating Committee has the freedom to organize its decision-making operations internally in whichever way it deems will help it function most effectively. The current Coordinating Committee has four internal sub-committees: 1) Finances and Fundraising 2) Staff Oversight 3) External Communications [i.e. media, etc.] 4) Internal Communication [newsletter, ensuring that regional organizers are facilitating, networking and regional conferences, website]. They also have two appointed seats on USAS’s two standing committees, the Alliance Building Committee and the International Solidarity Committee.