Since we began organizing around gender justice and founded the US chapter of the World March of Women we have seen a huge upsurge in participation in our work, because there is a hunger in the grassroots organizing sector to talk about the impact of patriarchy on their work. Our members have been joining a wave of feminist action as part of an ongoing effort to reclaim feminism for the grassroots.
Tom B. K. Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
La Via Campesina, Climate Justice from Below Training Tuesday November 8 - Saturday November 12
At the end of 2015, Grassroots Global Justice, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Climate Justice Alliance built the It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm delegation to Paris. We took to the streets along our social movement allies from around the world to raise the critical struggles facing frontline communities who are facing the worst impacts of the climate crisis an the extractive dig-burn-dump economy.
My name is Tanika Thompson and I am a Food Access Organizer at an organization called Got Green in Seattle, Washington. Got Green is a people of color led organization fighting for living wage jobs for young people of color, access to healthy food, and community led solutions to climate change.
The SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP) is a 36 year old social justice organization whose mission is to empower the disenfranchised in the Southwest to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice. New Mexico Con Mujeres is the feminist focus within SWOP and through the Grass Roots Global Justice (GGJ) we have become a working part of the World March of Women. SWOP, since its inception, has seen the need for international grassroots solidarity and to be able to represent the US, GGJ, SWOP materializes this intention.
The World March of Women (WMW) is comprised of National Coordinating Bodies (NCB’s) from each of the 65 countries and territories represented in the global movement. The International Meeting of the World March of Women is the highest decision making body of the global movement, and takes place every three years.
Watch this video of Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network, sharing the impact on the local communities of the “Man Camps” -- camps of hundreds and sometimes thousands of men from the oil industry living in camps around the area. “The violence against women increased in our communities by 168%. We saw an increase in rape, domestic abuse, drug abuse, violent crimes against women and children.
WMW Declaration at the World Social Forum 2016, Montréal
The World Social Forum took place from the 9th to the 14th August in Montreal, Quebec, a territory that we acknowledge as indigenous territory of the Mohawk people. This acknowledgement makes visible the colonization of these territories, as well as to take collective responsibility of the challenges faced by these peoples.
These GGJ members participated in the World Social Forum:
Cooperation Jackson: Kali Akuno, Brandon King
Vermont Workers Center: Shela Linton and Zenia Muhammad, Shela’s daughter
Indigenous Environmental Network: Gitz Derange, Emy Ulloa, Tom Goldtooth
SouthWest Organizing Project: Emma Sandoval
