Global Justice (GJ)

GJ uses a variety of communication tools and approaches to transform students into social activists, including: 1) Launching, staffing and overseeing student campaigns on issues of global justice; 2) Supporting campus chapters and affiliate organisations that are a part of global justice student campaigns; 3) Developing and supporting international partnerships; and 4) Promoting and supporting greater collaboration within the student advocacy community.

Specifically, GJ acts as an umbrella organisation for a growing number of student advocacy campaigns aimed at promoting a more responsible and engaged US foreign policy. Each of these campaigns operates through a national steering committee and chapters organised on a campus-by-campus basis, with chapters engaging in independent projects as well as participating in collective national initiatives. The following examples (each with additional information available on individual websites) illustrate GJ's strategies:

• The Student Campaign for Child Survival (SCCS) is dedicated to raising awareness and promoting better policies regarding child survival as part of a broader global justice agenda. Through leadership training, grassroots organising, transformative education, and direct action, SCCS seeks to mobilise a diverse movement of US students, in partnership with students internationally, to advocate for a more engaged role by government, corporations, and civil society in promoting child survival programmes.
• The Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) is a national movement with more than 85 chapters at high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States committed to bringing an end to AIDS in the US and around the world through education, informed advocacy, media work, and direct action.
• The Student Trade Justice Campaign is a national network of students committed to achieving responsible, sustainable and equitable trade policy. Participants engage campuses and communities through education and informed advocacy.
• The Black Student Justice Network (BSJN) is a US-based network of students and organisations committed to the pursuit of justice for Black people, both in the US and around the globe. BSJN works with students to conduct civic education engagement, grassroots organising training, informed advocacy, and direct action activities.

GJ also works to promote greater cooperation within the broader student advocacy movement for global justice, seeking to unite a fragmented movement of like-minded individuals so as to more aptly mobilise resources to create change. This involves carrying out concrete, cross-organisation, advocacy efforts, but also acting as a venue for promoting informed advocacy through trainings and support for infrastructural development. For example, participants in a March 2008 national conference held in Washington, DC, listened to speakers, took part in informational workshops, and engaged in skill-building focused on ending economic and social injustice around the world. For instance, sessions focused on such topics as: Working with the Media, Popular Education: Tricks and Techniques of Education for Social Change, Non-Violent Direct Action Training, Acting Up, Fighting Back: Focusing on Activism on Your Campus and in Your Community Organizing, and Basics of Coalition Building and its Benefits for Student Movements.

The GJ website includes resources to further support this learning and action process. For instance, a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Toolkit offers concrete guidance for students seeking to work together to get informed, develop comprehensive solutions, and push for real change.

Youth, Rights, HIV/AIDS, Children, Health, Debt.