Grassroot campaigns gain momentum, offering America another source of information.Grassroot campaigns gain momentum, offering America another source of information.

What have you done to help lately?

By Natalia Real

Who partakes in these orgs? That’s the fun part—you do.

Grassroots movements have been around for what seems like eons. Think Thomas Paine’s self-printed pamphlets and the early ‘90s riot grrrl zines that put do it in “DIY”—the “Y” being you or anyone you know).
Yet these movements differ from fanzines and corporations; grassroots signify people joining together to take action without politically motivated intervention from big business and the resulting influence that comes from it. Also known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), they continue to proliferate at a speed reminiscent of a snowball rolling down a slippery slope in Boulder.
Who partakes in these organizations? That’s the fun part—you do. Anybody who cares about changing the world and communicating unfiltered news can join—or found—a grassroots movement.
Notwithstanding, it’s no piece of New York Cheesecake (or whatever exceedingly sugarcoated, potentially artery-clogging edibles you fancy best).
Development and maintaining a grassroots movement requires excessive amounts of good-willed effort and perseverance. Compromise, commitment and open-mindedness remain the name of the game.
Still, what drives many is the satisfaction that comes from working hard for a cause you feel passionately about, and winning battles in a land of uniformity and censoring stooges.
These NGO’s are right in your backyard….here’s what you need to know about a few of them.

Subtitle: NGO’s
MoveOn (www.MoveOn.org): “Democracy in Action.”
This organization has two million online members in the U.S. and regularly receives their loyal support. In their attempt to call on Congress to censure President George W. Bush for “misleading us in his rush to war” in their Censure campaign in February, for instance, they got more than 450,000 signatures in about a week.
MoveOn is the project of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Joan Blades and Wes Boyd. In September of 1998, they sent out an e-mail petition to some friends and relatives in response to what they saw as an inadequate response from the government. They were calling for Congress to censure then-President Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky affair and to move on to more urgent issues. Within a few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Americans had signed the petition.
Blades and Boyd provided the initial funding for the campaign, which now receives donations from members to keep their activist ball rolling. The costs are minor because of their small staff.
MoveOn forms online advocacy groups. Using their Action Forum software, members discuss priorities and strategies. The MoveOn Political Action Committee then makes the more popular issues their campaign priorities.
“We will take our campaign to Congress and the White House and we won’t stop until justice is done for the American people,” field director for MoveOn.org Adam Ruben solemnly vowed earlier this year.
MoveOn also places ads in publications, e.g. for their Censure campaign, they ran an ad in the Washington Post that reads, “He knew. Congress must censure the president,” beneath a picture of a conspicuous-looking President Bush.
CBS banned their ad (Child’s Pay) from the Super Bowl’s halftime break back in January because CBS doesn’t run “advocacy” ads. One by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was banned too. But according to PETA, that couldn’t be the reason, because CBS has run Truth.com anti-smoking commercials—advocacy ads.
Consequently, CBS president Leslie Moonves was chastised in a letter from more than 20 members of Congress, interpreting his decision as an opposition to free speech.
The ad was run during halftime on CNN instead, and news of its existence is ubiquitous.
Child’s Pay shows kids doing blue-collar jobs and ends with the line, “Guess who’s going to pay off President Bush’s $1 trillion deficit?”
This commercial was the winner of the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest, picked from a bundle of about 1,500, all entered by private individuals. The judges were visitors to the site and a celebrity panel including Janeane Garofalo and Margaret Cho.
Its point, MoveOn says, was, “to tell the truth about the Bush Administration’s policy failures.”

Independent Media Center (www.IndyMedia.org): “Be the media.”
The IMC is “a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage,” as its main website reads. It is wholly interactive, and with branches all over the world (from Nigeria and Austria to Rochester and, recently, Miami) you can’t do much better than this. It provides an outlet for people’s reports in writing, audio and/or video. You can join the mailing list of the branch closest to you and keep informed about their meetings and activities. They also have an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel.
The IMC relies on its members and receives no money from any corporations.
The focal aim is to have articles translated into various languages so people worldwide can have access to the (ideally) unbiased, first-hand news.
IMC’s integration of streaming audiovisual material combined with its hard nose newshounding is what makes the media center truly tick. It is wholly interactive with worldwide branches (Rochester, and most recently opened, Miami are its satellite locations) that keep surrounding communities informed with open door meetings.
At presstime, Miami’s branch was addressing an issue of underrepresentation of a diverse community.
IMC Miami is a consensus group (which, for the record is good because their e-mail discussions tend to get heated) consisting of members whose ages range from the late teens through the 60s.
“We don’t want [minorities] to say, ‘I don’t feel like I belong here,’” dedicated editorial member Jennifer Van Bergen maintained.
Still, “we don’t want established quotas,” she noted.
“The only thing you can [affect] is your own attitude,” Carlos Bueno, another member, opined.
Also part of the group were Paul Lefrak, a founding member of the Broward Anti-War Coalition (BAWC) and part of its Steering Committee, and Ray Del Pappa, also on the BAWC committee.
IMC Miami meets on Sundays, 1pm at Churchill’s Pub, 5501 NE 2nd Ave., in Miami, 305/757.1807. E-mail imc-miami@lists.indymedia.org or go to lists.indymedia.org and scroll down to the IMC-Miami links.

Bitch Magazine
“It’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a magazine: Bitch.”
(www.bitchmagazine.com): “Bitch: feminist response to pop culture.”
They couldn’t be more precise.
In 1996, Bitch began as an active part of the part-grassroots, ‘zine movement.
Since then, it has been digging through the pop culture heaps of crap and pulling out what’s worth mentioning. They make incisive, sensible points with their witty, thorough arguments. For instance, intern Rachel Swan’s poignant article last summer, The Queen’s Gambit: The Underhanded Treatment of Race in Bringing Down the House, postulates: “By having Charlene (Queen Latifah’s character in the film) irreverently parody the archetypal mammy, Bringing Down the House presents itself as a spoof of racism and racist films.” Swan goes on to argue that, “[this] film’s racial awareness has nothing to do with its racial sensitivity” despite Latifah’s position as executive producer of the project.
Bitch’s staff, based in San Francisco, is small and consistent: “Lisa (Jervis, editor and publisher) and I are the only two full time of a staff of six or seven,” Bitch’s creative and editorial director Andi Zeisler said.
Faithful femmes follow Bitch, which boasts a meaty circulation of 45,000, including international subscribers and posts in Europe. In the U.S., Bitch is available at Borders, Barnes and Noble and Virgin Megastore among other outlets. But, explained Zeisler, due to the scarcity of independent bookstores, especially in the south and Midwestern U.S., their growth potential is somewhat hindered.
Even so, Zeisler humbly assured “[Our] ideals remain fairly grassroots.”
Bitch is a quarterly publication in black and white (with a color cover) with articles that analyze and focus on issues like the lack of female film directors, the disappearance of black women from sitcoms, how our society deals with sexual abuse and rape, Flashing out Christianity’s Contradictions and the new online alternaporn: the Suicide Girls.
They interview impressive figures like comedian Margaret Cho; filmmaker Allison Anders; femininity historian, zinestress and Pink Think author Lynn Peril; feminist philosopher Susan Bordo; TV producer Mara Brock Akil; Camille Paglia, “the grande dame of pretentious pseudofeminism” (in their own words) and Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha.
Bitch has a “Where to Bitch” section, with contact information of government officials, to help readers actively, well…bitch to politicians. They also contain analytical book and music reviews, though sometimes a bit outdated.
“We both quit corporate jobs to do this,” Zeisler said alluding to Jervis. “I used to design rugs for Pottery Barn; Lisa was a proofreader for Charles Schwab.”
“It’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a magazine: Bitch.”

Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org): “We’re one of the few national environmental organizations where you can get heavily involved,” Jonathan Ullman said cheerfully.
Ullman started as a volunteer at the Sierra Club, and has been its regional representative in South Florida for five years.
“You can get the magazine or participate at any level,” he continued.
The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir in 1892 and holds its roots in San Francisco. It’s the oldest grassroots organization in the U.S. and has 700,000 members across the nation.
Their campaigns include protecting the water, ending commercial logging and protecting environmental activists’ rights. One of their achievements has been the protection of Yosemite National Park.
In South Florida, outings are organized to visit the Everglades, Biscayne Bay, to go kayaking, biking, canoeing and more.
In addition, Inner City Outings are held, a community outreach program for minority and low-income families in which the children are taken out almost weekly into natural areas like the Everglades.
Outings are one of the original purposes of the Sierra Club: “You are more likely to help protect something you love and experience,” Ullman uttered gently.
The organization is private and endorses political candidates at all levels based on the individual (as opposed to their respective party). At the national level, the Sierra Club National Board democratically elects the candidates. Locally, group leaders of political committees interview the candidates. The club, however, does not accept government funding, Ullman clarified.
“It’s a really great way for people to get involved and it’s so important to protect the Everglades…it’s important for people, for wildlife, to protect our source of fresh water and because it’s a beautiful place,” Ullman concluded about joining the club. I could hear the smile in his voice.
On the side is the John Muir Sierrans (www.johnmuirlives.org).
“The JMS movement is just an alliance of Sierra Club leaders within the caucus, who’re trying to lobby, organize and advocate for the club…promoting a more progressive political agenda,” Daniel Orr, a co-founder, explained.
“We have no staff and we have no formal organization,” he said humbly.
Started in 1990 with a New York City activist named Margaret Hays Young it was called the ‘Association of Sierra Club Members for Environmental Ethics,’ or ASCMEE. The name was changed to John Muir Sierrans in 1993.
The JMS take stronger environmental positions and despite their undersized staff, they’ve accomplished considerable goals.
“We have advocated for ending logging on national forests. We had a big struggle with the Sierra Club in ‘96 and we won,” Orr alleged proudly as an example.

There you have it: things to do—why, how, where, when and with whom to do what, and even right in your own community. So, go off, now. Get your shovels, hemp bag, laptop and get with the grassroots.

More grassroots:

CODEPINK (www.codepink4peace.org): These pink-clad global peacemakers joined up in November ’02 (men joined later). They have over 80 active communities worldwide and their all-women peace delegation last went to Iraq in January.

Broward Anti-War Coalition (www.antiwarbroward.org): The BAWC organizes nonviolent international demonstrations in the name of peace and social justice.

Guerrilla Girls (www.guerrillagirls.com): “Fighting discrimination (sexism and racism in politics, art and everywhere in between) with facts, humor and fake fur since 1985.” Q. How often do you meet? A: Every 28 days.

Guerrilla News Network (www.guerrillanews.com): A self-proclaimed “underground news organization” based in New York City and Berkeley. Their Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9-11 video is a must-see.