Students Against Intervention in El Salvador (saints) began in 1980 in response to, as indicated by the name, U.S. intervention in el salvador. it was a multicultural group of uc berkeley students, both graduate and undergraduate, responding to the political climate of the times. As u.s. military intervention began to pervade all of central america, the group soon changed its name to Students Against Intervention in Central America (SAICA). The goals were fairly straightforward: to stop what was perceived as imperialist intervention in central america, and to support popular movements for justice in the regions.
Once the group had really taken on this struggle, though, they realized that this fight went a lot deeper than reagan's policies or CIA-engineered coups; it had to be placed in the much larger battle for social and economic justice. with this discovery it was clear that saica could play an important role in forwarding a culture of resistance on the cal campus.
as the nature of issues changed (U.S. intervention no longer took the traditional form of a strong military presence), and as saica began to make strong links between issues we opposed abroad and conditions within the u.s. and throughout the americas, saica changed its name in 1995 to Students Organizing for Justice in the Americas (SOJA). soja came to be a place for people to develop and cultivate their organizing skills and to give a voice to the traditionally voiceless (women and people of color). we operate by consensus decision-making and rotating tasks (i.e. no official positions). we strive to live and work the way in which we believe the world should operate (and will, after the Revolution).

SOJA is now an affiliate group of United Students Against Sweatshops and has succesfully pushed the University to join the nationwide struggle to promote better conditions in facotries producing collegiate sportswear. SOJA has also become focused on supporting the workers of SINALTRINAL in Colombia, in building awareness and taking action against Coca Cola's human rights violations. Finally, SOJA has developed a strong partnership with the American Federation of State, Municipal and Country Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, in seeking better conditions and pay for UC staff.