NWA :: How We Define SJW

HOW WE DEFINE SOCIAL JUSTICE

HOW WE DEFINE PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZING

The progressive social justice movement is the movement to organize multi-causally across race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and other markers of difference to address various forms of oppression and injustice.

Progressive social justice organizing is organizing that recognizes the intersecting nature of oppression and challenges traditional mono-causal or single-issue organizing models. Progressive social justice organizing requires a shift in thinking about power relationships and the root causes of oppression.

Using an intersectional approach to organizing it becomes clear that race, class, gender, ethnic, and sexual oppression are inextricably linked and cannot be separated to advance single-issue agendas. Also, it is the understanding that the oppressive tools used to maintain race privilege are the same tools used to maintain gender, class, sexual and ethnic privilege.

Further, an intersectional approach to social justice organizing and mobilization recognizes common targets, strategies, and moral justification for action across difference.

EXAMPLE
Issue: Sexual Violence

MONO-CAUSAL / SINGLE ISSUE FRAMEWORK	MULTI-CAUSAL/MULTI-ISSUE FRAMEWORK
The root cause of sexual violence is sexism and patriarchy. This framework ignores the experiences of women of color, poor women, lesbians, and bisexual women. It sets up a binary (male/female) that hides the fact that women experience oppression differently based on their social location.	The root causes of sexual violence are sexism, homophobia, racism, and classism, and ethnocentrism. Each system of oppression is linked and intersects to inform individual and collective experiences. This framework highlights how marginalized groups or individuals with multiple markers are situated within overlapping systems of oppression and how issues are complex and layered.
Examples of movements/organizations that have used mono-causal organizing frameworks: Early Women's Liberation Movement and the Black Nationalist Movement	Examples of movements / organizations that have used multi-causal organizing frameworks: Audre Lorde Project in New York City, Incite, Asian Women's Shelter in Oakland, CA, and the Women of Color Resource Center.