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USCPR Grassroots Organizing Support Hub: 3 Tiers of Support

Paid organizing time

Mentorship from our staff

Peer coaching

Fellows workshops

1) Fellowship

One-on-One Support: 3 Ms of USCPR support offerings

Boycott Boeing & End the Deadly Exchange- Demilitarize

IHRA Strategy Group

Direct Service & Organizing Orgs coaching convos

End Study Abroad network

2) Focused Strategy Support Groups & Sessions

GAIN Listserv for Action Alerts, Updates, & Resources

Trainings 4x/year

Local Campaigns In-Person Retreat 1x/year

Fund for Research & Mobilization around key mobilization dates

3) Hub-wide trainings & convenings

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Fellowship Goals

1. Build up local organizing infrastructure. �

2. Build local organizing campaigns to shift power & change policy�

3. Equip organizers with organizing resources & mentorship relationships�

4. Develop the next generation of grassroots leaders

Poster credit: Roger Ourthiague Jr. (from Just Seeds DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE Dissenters Portfolio)

1. Build up local organizing infrastructure. Fellows graduate the program having strengthened, or created from scratch, shared leadership groups in their organizations, onboarded several members, and catalyzed more people power for Palestine in their city long-term.
2. Build local organizing campaigns to shift power and change policy. Fellows graduate the program having met ultimate or incremental campaign goals, advancing concrete political wins that shift the political landscape such that ending military funding to Israel becomes within reach.
3. Equip organizers with organizing resources & mentorship relationships. Fellows graduate the program with 2+ strong mentorship relationships, 3+ relevant peer mentorship relationships, a local core organizing group of about 4-20 people they’ve deepened their relationships to, and a comprehensive set of core organizing skills from at least 4 trainings.
4. Develop the next generation of grassroots leaders. The movement across the US benefits from the development of accountable, skilled, dedicated leaders who are prepared to build towards a just future for the decades to come.

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Fellowship Audience (app: uscpr.org/youthfellows)

Age 15-35 and based in the U.S.�

A leader in a local org that has a base interested in Palestine.�

Ready to build a campaign targeting a government, institutional, or corporate target.�

Committed to an abolitionist vision of the future!

Photo Credit: Laura Albast

Qualifications: USCPR recruits a cohort of ~6-9 fellows across different cities. You are a good fit if you are:

Age 15-35 and based in the U.S.
A leader in a local org, or hosted by a local Palestinian organization, that has a base that wants to organize around Palestine.
Ready to build, or already working to build, a campaign that advances justice for the Palestinian people, targeting a government, institutional, or corporate target.
Committed to an abolitionist vision of the future, in which Palestinian people, Black people, brown people, Indigenous people, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, women, non-binary folks, and all people are free. Fellows are expected to share our commitment to collective liberation including our principles in our common principles, anti-racism principles, and gender justice principles.

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Fellowship Structures

Check-ins with mentor - to stay on track and get support
Monthly fellows workshop call - restarting Feb/March - to learn about and set goals on specific organizing & campaign building skills
As desired, monthly coaching call - to work on specific goals or problem solve and brainstorm around specific areas
Intensive and public network trainings - quarterly - additional organizing skills-building

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Former fellows on the fellowship’s impact

LEADERSHIP:

→ “USCPR does a great job at facilitating leadership development. Through the 1-on-1 communication and support/flexibility for local projects, fellows are encouraged to really take ownership of local organizing which is really empowering.”

STRATEGY:

→ “This intentional network building for our grassroots movements incubates our organizing imaginations, and strengths, and addresses challenges that fruits a unified movement across the U.S. to free Palestine.”

→ “I have found myself as an organizer trying to more intentionally ground my campus organizing �in a long-term political strategy.”

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Our Organizing Theory: Exposing the Violence at the Root

“I have no faith in the Israeli judicial system… Nor… international governments. But I do have faith in those people around the world who protest and pressure their governments to end what is essentially unconditional support for Israeli policies.”

-Mohammed-El-Kurd at the UN, Nov. 2021

$3.8 bil

to military

US weapons sales

43+

UN Vetoes

white supremacy

settler colonialism

capitalism

Leah, concepts: What is the US’s “special” relationship w/ Israel & what people-power will it take to end it?:

Ending U.S. support for Israel: 1. $3.8 billion weapons & missile defense, 2. Weapons sales, 3. Additional funding i.e. $1 billion to replenish iron dome - unclear when this will move forward, 4. Diplomatic cover- more than 43 times US has used veto power against UN resolutions on Israel
Quick examples of concretely how tax dollars → US & Israeli weapons manufacturers → harm against Palestinians - concrete examples: Boeing-Gaza campaigning; Caterpillar-stop ethnic cleansing campaigning
What is this shared relationship based on?:

White supremacy, settler colonialism, and capitalism
This is why our divestment should take on the whole US empire: from: howmuch.net: The U.S. Spends $5.9 Billion on Foreign Military Financing. Guess What 2 countries received 75% of the Total: Israel & Egypt!: It’s even bigger than the $3.8 billion: US weapons to Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, the Palestinian Authority, and beyond
Share challenge from Nadya Tannous Al-Shabaka interview- how do we get US empire to hold itself accountable? Build with this paradox in mind: “How much can you ask of a settler colonial state itself to regulate the actions of another settler colonial state? How much can we really ask of a state that’s born out of occupation and imperialism to contain or manage any imperial interests abroad. It is indeed their nature to support it.”

Values aligned-strategies: When we oppose US and ISraeli settler colonialism from the root, we can’t be undermined by ‘liberal Zionists’ and other white supremacist ideologies trying stay relevant on the left and we build a stronger united front to unend these systems

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Our organizing practices are…

Built from below: Led by people with the greatest stake in ending oppression: People who are poor or working class, Black, brown, or indigenous, immigrants or non-citizens, queer and/or trans, women or non-binary understand oppression best and will create the most liberated future.	Committed to rise up, to revolution, not reform We demand transformative change, from the grassroots, up!
Centering transformation of unjust systems “Transform yourself to transform the world.” -Grace Lee Boggs	Deep with Democracy “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” -Ella Baker

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Fellows set goals to transform people, processes, & politics

POLITICAL GOALS

PEOPLE GOALS

PROCESS GOALS

Are made

more possible by….

TRANSFORMING OUR PEOPLE

For example:

-Moving a group of youth or elders to support abolition

-Growing as an organization to have 10 member leaders

-Learning how to create your own media and becoming a more outspoken member of your community in the process

-Applying lessons about addressing harm

2. TRANSFORMING OUR PROCESSES

For example:

-Creating a functional coalition

-Learning to run effective meetings

-Running a democratic process to determine community-based budget demands

-Building a relationships of mutual trust between two grassroots orgs based in different communities

3. TRANSFORMING OUR POLITICS

For example:

-Ending US military funding to Israel and divesting it to a reparations funds

-Divesting $20 mil from the police and investing it in housing

-Ending govt subsidies for fossil fuels and move the money to

-Forcing the govt to give land back to native nations

-Ending govt collaboration with the Joint Terrorism Task Force

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