Good to know about: The Alliance for Justice

If you don't know about the Alliance for Justice, well you should.

Alliance for Justice (AFJ) is a national American association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women's, children's and consumer advocacy organizations in the USA.
It started in 1979, when 20 different advocacy groups formed under one organization, now called the Alliance for Justice. Alliance for Justice focuses on four main areas of advocacy, representing Judicial, Foundation, Nonprofit, and Student interests. This year, AFJ celebrated their 30th anniversary.

And on January 19th, the day before the Inauguration (and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday), they put on a conference entitled, "Driving Change: The Role of Activists During the Obama Administration."

There were many interesting speakers but in particular I highly enjoyed hearing Vince Jones (author of The Green Collar Economy and president of Green for All) and Eli Pariser (Executive Director of MoveOn.org) speak.

The point they made quite clear was that just becasue Obama was able to become president, does not mean we can all sit back and relax. Actually, the only reason he became president is because we all worked tirelessly to make sure he got elected, and we will have to work hard to make sure change will come.

It has been proven throughout history that major changes happens in a short period of time when the economy and government is most vulnerable. It is only during that time that citizens and lawmakers cannot turn a blind eye to the issues that need to be addressed.

Vince Jones in particular was quite inspiriational, he was optimistic and realisitic, which in this day and age I find quite hard to do.

Watch Vince Jones talk about why he decided to speak for Alliance for Justice.



Also click here to watch the conference I was at. Don't worry so much about watching it as much as listening to what they have to say.