Members
Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) is an alliance of US-based grassroots organizing (GRO) groups comprised of working and poor people and communities of color. GGJ brings GRO groups into a long-term process of relationship building, political alignment and transformational leadership development. We weave and bridge together US-based GRO groups and global social movements working for climate justice, gender justice, an end to war, and a just transition to a Feminist economy.
The populations represented by GGJ’s membership reflect a broad US cross-section: informal sector workers, domestic workers, public school & garment factory workers and other reproductive laborers in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, California, Washington, Michigan; youth organizers in Philadelphia; veterans against war across the US; Indigenous peoples in northern Arizona, across the northern plains and great lakes regions and in Alaska; migrant workers, worker centers and worker-owned cooperative projects in North Carolina, Jackson MI, Florida, Boston, rural Washington, Vermont and Southern Maine; environmental justice organizers in New York City, Providence, Albuquerque, Detroit, Seattle, South/Southeast Texas, Northern & Southern California, Alaska; and organizers who fight for housing, immigrant, environmental and economic rights in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Resource Allies
Member Assemblies
At Membership Assemblies, GGJ creates opportunities for convergence that facilitate resource sharing, popular and political education, skill sharing, dialogue, and the practice of debate and collective decision making amongst our member organizations. The Membership Assembly represents the highest decision making body for the governance of our alliance. Each assembly begins with a deep consultation process across our membership to determine where there is alignment, where there is debate and difference, and to ultimately vote on and approve a strategy for our alliance that represents the highest level of unity across our diverse membership. The members also elect the Coordinating Committee to oversee the political direction of the alliance in between membership assemblies.
2018, Atlanta, GA
We hosted our 7th Membership Assembly in Atlanta. 120 representatives from member organizations and international ally movements gathered. We affirmed next steps for our Grassroots Feminism, Just Transition, and Movement Building work, and we adopted de-militaRISE as a new area of focus. We also welcomed a new Coordinating Committee:
- Black Workers for Justice
- Southwest Workers Union
- OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon
- Philadelphia Student Union
- East Michigan Environmental Action Council – EMEAC
- About Face: Veterans Against the War
- Indigenous Environmental Network
- Just Transition Alliance
We began each morning with member-led misticas on Black Liberation, Grassroots Feminism, and Land Defense. We learned from local leaders about movement building in the South, the fight for gender justice in Africa, for land and liberation in Palestine, for small farmers in Europe, and for the defense of water in Brazil. We teamed up with our sister alliance Right to the City Alliance to host our respective member assemblies in tandem, at the same location during the same week; held sessions and gatherings to foster cross-alliance relationship building; and hosted a joint It Takes Roots rally to lead up to our collective Solidarity to Solutions week later that year.
2014, Detroit, MI
East Michigan Environmental Council hosted the 6th Membership Assembly. Over 110 people from 43 organizations came together in April. We learned about Detroit’s vision for 21st century Just Transition, and visited important local sites.
We adopted the Get it Done! Proposal, agreed to launch a U.S. chapter of the World March of Women and elected a new Coordinating Committee
We formed three program committees connected to the No War! No Warming! Build an Economy for the People and the Planet! Platform: Feminisms & Gender Justice Committee, the New Economy Committee, and the Climate Justice Committee.
2011, Raleigh, NC
Black Workers for Justice hosted the 2011 GGJ Congress, with organizations bringing up to 5 representatives (compared to the usual 2-3 for Assemblies).
The GGJ membership defined our overarching slogan that has articulated our strategy over the past decade: “No War! No Warming! Build an Economy for People and the Planet!” (this has evolved to now be No War! No Warming! Build a Feminist Economy!)
We passed resolutions in support of workers abroad and learned from North Carolina-based organizations. We began to collectively define “grassroots internationalism” through video interviews and political education discussion with international allies.
2010, Miami, FL
The Miami Workers Center hosted the 2010 GGJ Membership Assembly in Florida with over 80 participants from 29 members organizations. We affirmed our 20 year vision, 5 year goals, and three strategic priorities:
- Build and consolidate GGJ’s base of grassroots organizations to contribute vision, inspiration and leadership to the broader social justice movements within the US and globally.
- Build strategic partnerships within the US and globally to expand our capacity to achieve global justice and global well-being
- Engage in key battles that shift public consciousness and defeat neoliberal globalization, ecological destruction, and US-led imperialism
The GGJ membership approved priority issue areas for GGJ’s work, priorities for the US Social Forum, the development of new work committees. We put democracy into action and elected four new coordinating committee members: the Vermont Worker’s Center, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Causa Justa::Just Cause, and the Labor Community Strategy Center. We also supported the Miami Worker’s Center’s community building action and the World March of Women’s third international action.