Grassroots

Grassroots can be difficult to define, as what differentiates a 'grassroots' group from more established organizations such as NGO's can be unique in different parts of the world.

According to the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN), what defines "grassroots" groups is that they share at least one of these attributes  :

• Are largely driven by "people power", ie. motivated activist volunteers, though paid staff may facilitate and coordinate this energy
• Are self-starting and self-organizing, especially at their start
• Share power and decision making responsibilities amongst group members to a smaller or larger extent 
• Have some degree of autonomy to define their own strategy, tactics and group culture, especially at the local level

Grassroots groups are critical contributors to movement ecology because throughout history, grassroots-led social movements have created dramatic moments of change.

Examples of Grassroots Groups

Adrienne Maree Brown	"I tend to think of abolition as one result of transformative justice: abolition is the end of prisons; transformative justice is the methods people use to uproot injustice patterns in communities. I tend to think of abolition as a totality, and I think that can be tricky. People set out to abolish slavery and we ended up with the prison industrial complex because while there were surface and policy level shifts, the culture did not shift. That deep underlying racism and classism remains and is now roaring to the surface as we write this. So, while I identify as an abolitionist, I find speaking about the iterative tangible work of transformative justice makes more sense to me now–I don’t simply want the prisons gone, I want a radically different way of interacting with each other to grow."
Mia Mingus	"I understand abolition to be a necessary part of transformative justice because prisons, and the PIC, are major sites of individual and collective violence, abuse, and trauma. However, transformative justice is and must also be a critical part of abolition work because we will need to build alternatives to how we respond to harm, violence, and abuse. Just because we shut down prisons, does not mean that these will stop. Transformative justice has roots in abolition work and is an abolitionist framework, but goes beyond abolishing prisons (and slavery) and asks us to end–and transform the conditions that perpetuate–generational cycles of violence such as rape, sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, intimate partner abuse, war, genocide, poverty, human trafficking, police brutality, murder, stalking, sexual harassment, all systems of oppression, dangerous societal norms, and trauma."
Amanda Aguilar Shank	Interpersonal harm is inevitable. Abolition imagines that "each moment where harm happens is an opportunity to transform relationships and communities, build trust and safety, and grow slowly toward the beautiful people we are meant to be, in the world we deserve."

• Black Lives Matter Grassroots, a coalition of over 20 grassroots BLM chapters 
• Fridays for Future groups, such as Friday's for Future Toronto 
• Encampment support groups, such as the Encampment Support Network Hamilton 
• Climate justice groups such as Climate Justice Montreal or the Manitoba Energy Justice coalition

If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.

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