The SAGE (Student Activists for Global Equity) Coalition is a
non-hierarchical group of students, faculty, community members and alumni based
at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Established several years ago,
the SAGE Coalition encompasses a wide array of issues pertaining to global
justice. While SAGE has its roots in a class project that mobilized for A16, the
April 2000 actions in Washington, DC against the World Bank and IMF, many factors
played a role in increased activism on the St. Lawrence campus. QUACK
(Questioning the Undebated Ascent of the Corporate Kingdom) was a St. Lawrence
University based group that existed before SAGE that worked to raise awareness
about corporate power in the global economy. Additionally, groups of students
participated in separate actions against the incarceration of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
the School of the Americas prior to the formal establishment of the SAGE
Coalition. Although SAGE has mobilized primarily for large-scale protests against
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and national political events,
students have also been involved in regional and campus campaigns.
This documentary film was produced by three St. Lawrence students during a
semester-long independent study through the Sociology Department. The impetus
behind this project came from converging interests of publicizing information
about the SAGE Coalition, what it has been involved with, and describing the ways
in which it has been successful in some areas, and less successful in others. In
addition, our video was an attempt to provide an alternative view to the
international anti-corporate globalization protest movement, one that is
systematically excluded from all mass media coverage. Thus, our hope was that in
learning a little about the many complicated issues surrounding the current
global economic structure, the mounting resistance towards the inherent
inequities of this particular structure, and SAGE's role within this movement,
individuals and groups around the country would be inspired to get involved and
form similar groups. Additionally, our video can provide a resource for those
engaged in the study of social/environmental movements and globalization.
This video contains interviews with current St. Lawrence University students and
faculty as well as alumni whom have been and are involved in SAGE. We focus on
the origin of and impetus behind the formation of our group, as well as how we
have become involved in activism, how we organize, and some of the major
shortcomings of SAGE and the larger anti-corporate globalization movement. We
also include some of the reasons to oppose corporate globalization and some
reasons why SAGE members are personally interested in the fight for global
justice. We have included some mass media coverage of protests, often to provide
a contrast with specific accounts of the actions through footage shot by SAGE
members.
Although still in its infancy, and not without shortcomings, SAGE is a
model that has been particularly successful, and one that could be replicated,
modified, and implemented on campuses across the nation. Please feel free to
contact us with any feedback on our film, or to get more information about the
SAGE Coalition.
The film was created by:
Bethany Fleishman '03 bfleis00@mailbox.stlawu.edu Matt Gaines '04 mgaine25@mailbox.stlawu.edu Sophia Hasenfus '03 shasen25@mailbox.stlawu.edu
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