On June 15, Detroit Action, the organization formerly known as Good Jobs Now, held its first Detroit Neighborhoods Summit called “The Future of the Hood.” Detroit Action was joined by over 200 Detroit residents who came together for staff-led workshops on abolition and democracy, on the politics of the hood, and on power building led by youth leaders who make up Voices of Detroit Youth (VODY). The organization’s year-round canvass team pitched folks on why revenue generating membership is a key strategy for building independent politics and a pathway towards liberation.

GJN member and Detroit’s champion Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, discussed key bills in Congress to chip away at away at economic precarity in our communities.

The event’s keynote speaker, Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party, grounded participants in the present political, climate, and economic crisis the nation is  experiencing, and how people must face it with action—not neutrality—as the only appropriate form of response. To that end, Good Jobs Now is launching itself under a new name, investing both in greater clarity about what’s at stake in Michigan and what’s possible when community members invest in the leadership of those on the frontlines and share a compelling and realistic path forward. 

Allow us to reintroduce ourselves... we are Detroit Action, a community of low income, Black and Brown Detroiters who are activated in pursuit of our vision for an inclusive democracy that works for all, one in which we are agents of change and not pawns of misguided electoral strategy.

Now Detroit Action, looks forward to welcoming you to Detroit for CPD’s People’s Convention 2019 this July. They cannot can’t wait for you to meet their team, the brilliant staff of organizers and strategists, and our members whose commitment to building Detroit Action as their movement home deepens every day. And of course, they are so excited for you to get to know Detroit, which is ripe with contradictions and full of Black radical hope: “We’ll see you in the D in July!” 

From July 25-27, the People’s Convention will bring together over 1,700 grassroots leaders, organizers, elected officials, movement artists and leading national progressive voices for two days of transformative learning, action and collective power-building. Learn more and register here.