About Us
Georgetown Solidarity Committee is a student organization that supports struggles by working people on our campus and around the world.
Join the GSC! We meet each Monday at 9pm in White Gravenor 202. We also hold weekly Workers Breakfasts, English classes for campus workers, and much more. E-mail georgetownsolidarity (at) gmail.com for more information. Here's some background on what we do:
- Solidarity with campus workers
- Solidarity with global sweatshop workers
- Direct service to campus workers
- History of GSC
Solidarity with campus workers
The GSC formed in the 1996-1997 school year when Marriott workers in O'Donovan Dining Hall were trying to form a union so that they would gain more control over their wages, benefits and working conditions. Ever since then, we continue to fight alongside campus workers, including our support for DPS officers' efforts to negotiate for better wages and benefits in spring 2007, and the Living Wage Campaign with campus janitors that climaxed in March 2005 with a hunger strike by 26 students, drawing national attention to the reality that many universities exploit low-wage workers.
- GU Activists Go Hungry To Help Janitors, The Washington Post, March 21 2005
- Sweet Victory: Fairness at Georgetown, The Nation, March 25 2005
Solidarity with global sweatshop workers
In the late 1990s, GSC also took on a second major campaign. We joined students from around the country and founded United Students Against Sweatshops, a national student-led organization that campaigns with the garment workers all around the globe who make clothes for our universities. To this day, we have to assume almost all Georgetown apparel is made in sweatshops where workers get starvation wages, face dangerous work conditions, and get fired or harassed for speaking out. However, after years of GSC campaigns (including the 1999 sit-in in President O'Donovan's office), Georgetown's Licensing Oversight Committee has made some significant advances in fighting sweatshops.
- Students Occupy President O'Donovan's Office for 85 Hours; Agreement Includes New GU Committee, The Hoya, February 9 1999
- GU-Linked Factory Accused of Misconduct, The Hoya, February 8 2008
Direct service to campus workers
Providing services for campus workers is crucial to building friendships between campus workers and students -- the relationships that form the foundation of our activist campaigns. GSC created a program of English as a Second Language classes for campus workers, now run in partnership with the Center for Social Justice. Early every Friday morning when classes are in session GSC holds a Workers Breakfast, serving up free food, coffee and friendly conversation to workers at the GUTS bus stops; contact Jared at jjw46 (at) georgetown.edu to join us.
GSC History through Media Coverage
Click here to browse news articles on GSC's campaigns from The Hoya, The Washington Post, The National Catholic Reporter, and more!