About
Who We Are
The Eastern Neighborhoods-based Grassroots Democratic Club (GDC) is a new progressive democratic organization being built from the ground up by a diverse mix of concerned residents, workers from nonprofit and community-based organizations, labor and LGBT groups, immigrants, artists, writers, and neighborhood activists.
We are dedicated to creating a new political home for consistently under-represented people in Eastern neighborhoods including the Mission (and outer Mission) District, Portola, Excelsior, and others — communities that have long lacked a voice in district and city politics. Together, we are working-class families, immigrants, low-income and people of color communities, youth, seniors, LGBT communities, and others, organizing to have a voice in how decisions are made, and who makes them.
Our Mission for the Mission, and Eastern San Francisco Neighborhoods
While performing traditional functions such as candidate and proposition endorsements for state and local elections, we are especially committed to engaging our communities in participatory democracy. The GDC is dedicated to accomplishing social, economic, and political justice. In practice, this means organizing and mobilizing both within and beyond the geographical boundaries of the mentioned neighborhoods to effect change on a citywide level. We are committed not simply to legislative victories, but to a deeper and more sustained democracy that engages people to have a strong voice in the future of their communities and the city—on issues including land-use, affordable housing, immigrants’ rights, justice and opportunity for youth and communities of color, strong labor and civil/human-rights enforcement, economically just and ecologically healthful development, and more.
Our plans
To fulfill this commitment, the GDC will engage in education and outreach campaigns, and cultivate a politics of listening through both internal democratic processes and community events that encourage people to both listen, speak out and participate. We will help develop new leaders from within communities that have historically been marginalized or ignored by policymakers. As the GDC evolves, we will remain committed to our core principles while welcoming new issues, goals, and voices. We invite you to engage us in dialogue and collaboration, to join us in our efforts, and to lend your voice and ideas to our vision for a socially and economically just and truly sustainable San Francisco.