Metro Justice Annual Dinner- Pushing Back on the Powers that Be
Featuring Adrianne Shropshire, Executive Director of New York Jobs with Justice
- Jon Greenbaum
Sunday, May 6th
6pm
Temple B'rith Kodesh, 2131 Elmwood Avenue
Tickets for the Dinner: $15-35 in advance, $30 at the door
New Yorkers are once again experiencing a taste of what is possible in our nation. Non-stop Congressional hearings (Walter Reedgate, US Attorneygate, Plamegate, etc…) are beginning to hold the Bush White House accountable. Here in New York a new Governor has changed the political dynamic, allowing grassroots groups like Metro Justice to dare to hope for the passage of radically transformative policies (campaign finance reform, equal marriage, equitable school funding and corporate accountability in economic development subsidies).
Yet too many of our neighbors are still stuck in the cycle of alienation and civic withdrawal. They aren’t sure how decisions in city hall, Albany and DC impact their lives. And they don’t see how their collective power can transform our communities. Their response is to retreat from the pool of social action. But if the pool empties out, corporate interests and the wealthy will have the water to themselves.
The media tells us that the electoral world is divided between reds and blues, but the reality is much more purple. And many campaigns are decided with slim margins. The challenge for grassroots organizations is to push our issues into the electoral arena and mobilize our swing constituencies. If we succeed we will be able to transform the power equations toward social justice.
In order to create this reality, grassroots groups like Metro Justice need to build powerful community-based movements that are coordinated statewide and nationally.
Last year, while working with Jobs with Justice on the COMIDA issue, JwJ Director Adrianne Shropshire invited Metro Justice to participate in the Push Back initiative. Push Back brought together organizations from six states to collectively engage in voter education and mobilization work.
The results were exciting. Here in NY a new state-wide network was built during the 2006 electoral season in, combining organizations from upstate urban regions, downstate suburbs, and New York City groups from almost every borough. These eight organizations focused primarily on educating and turning out their base constituencies to the polls – low income communities, communities of color, immigrants, union members, and working class voters. Through door-to-door education on a range of social and economic justice issues important to the local communities NY Pushback groups collectively contacted over 19,000 voters and identified nearly 13,000 of those as potential long-term, progressive, supportive voters. 1,300 new activists were recruited across the state as more than 226 grassroots precinct captains and volunteers canvassed their neighborhoods.
For the past two years Push Back has been about developing bottom up social justice infrastructure. In New York City, community-based organizations worked to develop a common progressive platform for social change through NY VOTE, a Pushback Partner. They then used that platform to talk to voters from different neighborhoods about the issues that tie us together and the power of collective action. Local residents were trained as Election District Captains and lead the effort to mobilize voters in their neighborhoods. Neighbors trained each other in the issues and tactics of social change and then lead each other to the polls on election day.
You are invited to come hear Adrianne Shropshire tell the exciting Push Back story at the Metro Justice Annual Dinner. Adrianne is currently the Executive Director of New York Jobs with Justice a community, labor and faith-based coalition. She worked as an organizer for 10 years building AGENDA, a multi-issue, grassroots community organization based in South Los Angeles. As one of the founding staff members of AGENDA, Adrianne’s work focused on building sustainable multi-ethnic grassroots organizations; developing community leadership; building long-term strategic alliances between labor unions and community organizations; and directing issue-based public policy campaigns. Adrianne also helped to developed and evolve neighborhood-based electoral networks in communities of color that are the foundation of the Pushback model.