Around the world, students have been at the forefront of struggles for human rights, peace, and justice. High schools, colleges, and universities are natural arenas for education and action, and students have utilized these tools to build alliances and carry out broad and effective campaigns.

Student activism has a long history in the United States, although the issues and tactics have broadened and changed. In the 1930s, student unions challenged New Deal politicians for job opportunities for low-income students and unemployed youth, and later protested against fascism and war. The work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and other civil rights groups in the 1960s showed that student activism can be a force for profound political and social transformation. In the 1980s, students around the country forced universities to divest in companies that did business in apartheid South Africa, and organized and protested around US support for the Contra War in Nicaragua. Students got Pepsi out of Burma in the 1990s, fought sweatshop conditions by targeting US apparel manufacturers, and built alliances with labor to push for living wage legislation in Congress and wage increases on university campuses. Universities have been the backbone of the anti-corporate globalization movement in the US and around the world.

Student activism has also succeeded in transforming the educational system itself. African-American studies, ethnic studies, Hispanic and Latino studies, LGBT studies, and women’s studies, among others, exist on university campuses today because of pressure from students and professors that their histories and values be reflected in the education they receive.

Below, you will find resources to help you organize to challenge harmful US policies toward Latin America:

Starting a Student Group
Event Ideas
Hosting a Speaker