What are the Jémez Principles for Democratic Organization and which community groups adopt them?
Executive summary
The Jémez Principles for Democratic Organizing are a concise six-point code drafted at a 1996 meeting hosted by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice in Jémez, New Mexico to guide equitable, grassroots coalition-building [1] [2]. They have been explicitly adopted by a range of environmental-justice and climate organizations — from grassroots networks and alliances to larger mainstream groups like the Sierra Club — although uptake varies and questions about depth of implementation persist [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. Origins: a 1996 meeting and a one-page manifesto
Forty participants — a mix of people of color, community organizers and European-American representatives — met December 6–8, 1996 to hammer out shared practices for cross-cultural, cross-organizational work on globalization and environmental justice; the result is a short, one-page statement that has been widely referenced as the “Jémez Principles” [1] [2].
2. The six principles, in brief
The principles call movements to: be inclusive; emphasize bottom-up organizing; let people speak for themselves; practice solidarity and mutuality; build just relationships; and commit to self-transformation — a compact framework meant to center frontline communities and shift power in collaborations [7] [8].
3. How the principles are meant to operate in practice
At their core the principles insist that larger organizations “take a back seat” when working with directly impacted communities, prioritize long-term relationship-building over short-term campaign wins, and create accountability structures so that local leaders set agendas rather than being used as props — an approach framed as both ethical and strategic for credible, sustainable organizing [3] [9] [10].
4. Who explicitly endorses or uses them
Several climate-justice and environmental groups publicly endorse or integrate the Jémez Principles: the Sierra Club’s board adopted them in 2014 and has used them to reframe outreach and grassroots strategy [3] [11]; Rainforest Action Network lists explicit support for the principles on its site [4]; Mothers Out Front states it uses the principles in its work [5]; and movement networks and initiatives such as Building Equity and Alignment for Impact (BEA‑I) have chosen to base their practices on the Jémez Principles [6].
5. Influence beyond formal adoption: the broader ecosystem
The principles have been invoked across the environmental justice, labor and philanthropy ecosystems as a touchstone for “bottom-up” practice — cited in training materials, organizational essays and movement doctrine — and are linked to figures and networks (for example, the Just Transition Alliance and José Bravo) that helped shape contemporary climate-justice organizing [10] [12].
6. Adoption vs. implementation: tensions and critiques
Reporting and commentaries indicate a recurrent tension: mainstream organizations may formally adopt the Jémez Principles while continuing top-down behaviors, prompting critiques that adoption can be symbolic unless paired with institutional change in funding, staffing and decision-making [6] [12]. The SSIR and movement commentary call for philanthropy and large NGOs to shift power and resources, not merely language, if the principles are to mean more than public relations [6].
7. What’s known — and what remains unverified here
The available sources document origin, the six principles and named adopters like the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and Mothers Out Front, plus use by networks such as BEA‑I [1] [7] [3] [4] [5] [6]. This reporting does not provide a comprehensive roster of every group worldwide that practices the principles, nor an independent audit of how faithfully each organization implements them, so claims about universal adoption or uniform implementation cannot be made from these sources alone [2] [6].