In the fall of 1997, students at Duke University formed the group Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) to push the Duke administration to create and adopt a code of conduct policy that would require the companies that manufactured Duke apparel and merchandise to uphold workers’ rights and eliminate the use of sweatshops.

In September of 1997, members of SAS sent a letter to Duke president Nan Keohane informing him of their intentions. When he did not respond by the end of October, SAS members sent hundreds of emails to the administration demanding that they begin a dialogue.

Within a week, President Keohane set up a meeting between administrators and SAS members to discuss the possibility of creating a code of conduct policy.

SAS members helped push the administration to create tough standards by threatening to embarrass the university with public protests regarding the unethical business practices of the companies in which Duke invested.

After this campaign, the SAS group turned its attention to other labor issues and grew into a national organization, but its presence on Duke’s campus helps to ensure that the university upholds the original code of conduct policy.

Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, 1976-1989

In 1965 Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) president John J. Tuomy announced the intent to open a nuclear power plant in East Shoreham on Long Island New York at LILCO’s annual shareholders’ meeting. 

In June of that year, SHAD (Sound-Hudson Against Atomic Development) hosted a rally and march at the construction site of the Shoreham Plant. In June of that year, SHAD hosted a rally and march at the construction site of the Shoreham Plant. 

Members of SHAD and dozens of local groups attended. After speeches and music by folk singer and activist Pete Seeger on a nearby beach, activists marched to the construction site.

SHAD dismantled in the early 1980s, but the local protest of the Shoreham Plant continued. In 1981, 43 percent of Long Island residents opposed the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant.

By 1986 74 percent of Long Island residents opposed the plant. Local residents continued to attend meetings and distribute fliers against the Shoreham Plant.

On February 28, 1989, New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo announced that the Shoreham Nuclear Plant must close. The governor and LILCO signed an agreement to shutter the plant, increasing taxes on Long Island residents to cover the $6 billion dollar costs of construction.

In 1992, Shoreham was fully dismantled without generating any commercial electricity.

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/search_methods?page=4&field_alltactics_value_op=contains&field_alltactics_value=001.%20Public%20speeches