{"id":344,"date":"2014-06-18T19:35:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T19:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=344"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:05:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:05:57","slug":"why-students-dont-sweat-sweatshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/06\/18\/why-students-dont-sweat-sweatshops\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Students Don\u2019t Sweat Sweatshops"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1990s saw a surge in student activism surrounding labor issues, most prominently in campaigns against sweatshop labor for cheap clothing. College students around the country held sit-ins and rallies protesting companies like Nike and Gap that were in many ways credited with those companies improving their labor policies<\/a>. Forever 21\u2014a popular retail chain targeting youth and student shoppers\u2014recently opened a new outlet with even cheaper clothes that has the media revisiting the 90s\u2019 protests. According to an article in The New Yorker<\/i><\/a>, \u201cthe grand opening of F21 Red, however, was marked not by picketers but by customers who lined up early for gift cards. What changed?\u201d This question brings up a broader sociological question of how and why student and youth populations participate in activism, as well as how this might be changing.<\/p>\n

The student activism in the 90s was not solely spurred by a common cause against sweatshop labor amongst students. Instead, this spike in activism was in many ways led and organized by already formed networks of labor activists that intentionally targeted students. Further, the successes were limited, and the movement did little to affect perceptions of cheap labor overall.<\/h5>\n