GAR Welcomes New Members in 2022
In the first quarter of 2022, GAR’s membership doubled in size! We welcomed the following new members in our first ever membership orientation:
ACE Collaborative, A Program of New Virginia Majority, Richmond, VA
Adhikaar, New York City, NY
Asian Americans United, Philadelphia, PA
Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Oakland, CA
Arab Resource Organizing Center, Bay Area, CA
Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, Los Angeles, CA
Lavender Phoenix (formerly APIENC), Bay Area, CA
Pilipino Workers Center, Los Angeles, CA
Cathy and Roksana, National Directors of Grassroots Asians Rising, welcome our eight new GAR members!
Eight new member groups joined the seven original members (APEN, AYPAL, CAAAV, CPA, DRUM, PrYSM, SEAC) that also serve as GAR’s coordinating committee. The size of the new cohort demonstrates that there is a strong demand for what GAR offers: tailored support to member-led organizations working in diverse Asian communities to bolster community safety, defend longtime residents from gentrification, and rein in over-policing and surveillance.
In the coming months, GAR will be recruiting groups organizing working-class Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities and organizations in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest to ensure geographical balance of our membership. We envision a pan-Asian organizing ecosystem from the largest U.S. cities with established Asian communities to those with growing working-class Asian immigrant and refugee populations. We must support the local capacity development of base-building organizations to win material changes for our working-class pan-Asian communities, build solidarity alliances across working-class BIPOC communities, and create a shared strategy to withstand the growing right-wing influence in the U.S.