University of Houston Students for Fair Trade
Several weeks ago a post from University of Houston PhD candidate Tim OBrien, appeared on Stir It Up. He wrote about the food service related campaigns his group, UH Students for Fair Trade, were planning in the coming year. Here's a little bit of background on how UH SFT organized to become a force at the University of Houston.
A graduate student founded SFT because he wanted to buy a cup of coffee that was not made under sweatshop conditions. In less than a month all the corporate run retail coffee outlets on the 
UH campus were serving one blend of fair trade certified coffee. SFT’s consistently successful campaign is a good guide for student activists to consider when launching or continuing their own campaigns for fair food.
UH campus were serving one blend of fair trade certified coffee. SFT’s consistently successful campaign is a good guide for student activists to consider when launching or continuing their own campaigns for fair food. The slogan “Educate, Agitate, Organize” adorns a t-shirt available at the AFL-CIO online union shop. That phrase also sums up SFT’s campaign in a nutshell. SFT’s first action was to cover the campus with informational flyers about working conditions on coffee farms. SFT then agitated the UH administration and Aramark, their food service provider. That resulted in an immediate but partial victory that got some fair trade coffee on campus.
Next SFT worked towards organizing students to build the group up from its founding member. Weekly tabling sessions were held in highly trafficked areas of campus in order to speak one on one with prospective members. SFT wrote and published editorials and the founding member got elected to the student government to fight for change within the system. SFT sought allies and build coalitions off campus as well.
One of the most important lessons to come out SFT’s three plus years of campus organizing is that there are no short cuts. Social justice campaigns are won with dedication and lots of hard work. Campus organizing has a constant turnover of group members which means there is an ongoing need to recruit. New members come into the group at various stages of awareness of the oppressive capitalist system, from different socio-economic backgrounds and with different maturity levels.
It’s important for campus leaders to understand that not all members are in social justice groups because they care deeply
about the cause. Some students join a group to socialize and others join to build their resume. There are very few students that choose to get involved because they want to spend their lives working for progressive social change. Leaders in a group that is run by consensus and anti-oppression guidelines need to assess members to see how and why they are motivated and use that information to plug the members into realistic tasks that they can accomplish. This is empowers the member to own the issue and to possibly go on to the next step and take on a leadership role. Every member is capable of making a positive contribution to an activist group and in turn helping to make our world a better place.
Over the summer SFT members have been doing some on campus recruiting and attended the Campus Progress national conference where they will accept the award for Best Action Campaign of the Year. Campus Progress has funded SFT’s campaign for last two years. With the help of unions and other allies SFT has plans to take their campaign to the next level and make the University of Houston a place that treats all workers like human beings and pays a living wage to all university employees and contractors.
