Student Protesters Fight for Social Justice
This November about 800 students from Jesuit colleges, universities, and high schools took part in three days of social justice events outside the School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Georgia. They and thousands of others, including actor Martin Sheen, pressed on with a protest against the school, which trains military personnel from Central and South America, a number of whom have been linked to human rights abuses. The yearly protests commemorate the murders of six Jesuits and two laypeople in El Salvador in November 1989. Salvadoran military figures linked to the killings were trained at the SOA.
Joseph Carver, SJ, (right) a novice, takes part in the School of the Americas demonstration at Ft. Benning with students from St. Joseph's University, his alma mater. |
After a narrow House vote to close the SOA failed in May, the Pentagon changed the school's name to the Institute for Professional Military Education and Training. The curriculum now emphasizes fighting drug trafficking and preserving human rights, there are more civilian instructors, and classes are open to nonmilitary students.
SOA opponents see such changes as cosmetic; they want the school closed. "It is essentially impossible to reform such a fatally flawed operation," says Fr. Charles Currie, SJ, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. "In the minds of too many North and South Americans, the School of the Americas is synonymous with human rights abuses by military personnel."
Of the roughly 10,000 protestors, about 3,000 entered Ft. Benning; of those, 1,700 were arrested.
Another area of student activism is the sweatshops that produce sports gear, including shoes, caps, and t-shirts. Concerned that their schools' athletic apparel may be the products of factories in South America or the Far East where workers are subject to long hours and low wages, students on Jesuit campuses have pressed administrators to join the Fair Labor Association (FLA) or the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). The former promotes a collaborative effort between the organizations and the corporations to correct violations; the latter supports disclosure of manufacturing conditions. Over a third of Jesuit colleges and universities belong to one or both.
"WRC and FLA take different approaches to monitoring," says Boston College's Vice President for Ministry and Mission Fr. Joseph Appleyard, SJ. Boston College belongs to both. "FLA is the larger organization and, at this point, has more resources and includes manufacturers and the federal government. WRC is still taking shape but it has the participation of students and organized labor. The two groups complement each other; both deserve the chance to see whether they can improve the condition of apparel-industry workers."
Engaging in social protests is not just a college course; many students continue working for change after graduation. Loyola University Chicago alumnus and labor activist Charles Kernaghan is head of the National Labor Committee in New York. Kernaghan admits that while their staff and budget are small, companies will take them seriously because they are thinking "Where will these [campus activists] be ten years from now?" Kernaghan continues, "Five years ago we didn't have a social movement against sweatshops. But there is one today."
Reminded of anything? Eleven years ago the School of the Americas protest consisted of three people; this fall close to 10,000 gathered at Ft. Benning.