Image © Adrian Arbib
Take Action
People & Planet groups are incredibly creative and capable of coming up with great campaign actions. Here are some ideas to get those creative juices flowing! The actions below escalate in strength, so if your university does not respond to student demands you can move your campaign to the next level, until they do!
Get Organised
Reach out to other students and get as many people as possible passionate about the Buy Right campaign. One tactic that has worked well in the past is knocking on every door in one of your campus halls, and asking people to sign a Buy Right petition. Once they’ve done so, you can talk to them about the issues and about your actions and events.
Make a ‘Sweat-Free Washing Line’
Put up a washing line full of clothes somewhere really visible on campus. You could have a piece of paper stapled to the front of each item of clothing that tells students what sweatshop conditions are suffered by workers - wages as low as 5p per day, unhealthy and dangerous conditions, child labour and the banning of unions. On the back you can put your campaign demand, like ‘X University: Join the Worker Rights Consortium’ - Goal 2 of the Buy Right campaign. This gets other students thinking and raises their awareness, really helpful for winning their support for SU motions later on!
Lobby your VC or Purchasing Manager
Try to arrange a meeting to discuss joining or setting up a steering group to ensure human rights throughout the university’s supply chains - Goal 3 of the Buy Right campaign. Say you don’t think the university should do business with corporations that don’t respect their workers’ human rights. See our Q&A pages for good arguments.
Hand in Letters
Get as many people asking your university to fulfil the Buy Right goals (or even just one of them). This puts down on paper your demands and the reasons for them. If the university ignores you, or doesn’t engage constructively, keep handing in more and more letters, once or even more a day. You could say you’ll stay in the office until someone gives you a meeting date, if the university is not playing ball.
Dance Away Exploitation
If I can’t dance, then it’s not my revolution.
Emma Goldman
Why not put on a fundraising and awareness raising event? Put on a club night or organise a gig.
The Naked Truth Protest
What protest isn’t improved by partial or full nudity? Get down to your smalls and cover areas strategically with placards calling on your uni to join the Worker Rights Consortium. We did this during the Week of Naked Action, but it can be used as a tactic any time.
