History of the 1000 Grandmothers

In October 2016, moved by the courage and wisdom of the Grandmothers at Standing Rock, a half dozen elder women from Oakland and Berkeley, CA started meeting In October 2016.  Our first work together was supporting the Grandmothers at Standing Rock, - who, as water protectors, stood up against the fossil fuel industry’s Dakota Access Pipeline .  Subsequently, guided by our core group’s belief that grandmothers have a deep heart connection to future generations and could be a powerful voice in the Climate Movement, we began organizing elder women locally about the Climate crisis.
 
Acting on our belief that given a platform to step into the Climate Movement many would join in and co-create a piece of the Climate justice movement, we began to grow our Grandmothers’ network. A growing number of us began to ‘show up in the streets’ to do non-violent direct actions to support the leadership of indigenous and youth climate groups.  We had large contingents in two international days of climate action/strikes.  We participated in a sister-Grandmothers project with Lakota Grandmothers from South Dakota. We created a very active email and Face Book page. (Aware that many of our Grandmothers do not use Facebook, launching this website has been a goal for awhile).   

Many of us participated in calls to impact climate legislation, and block support of the fossil fuel industry and its disproportionate impacts on communities most affected, i.e. those who lack the economic and political power, to prevent the dirtiest impacts of the fossil fuel industry from being experienced by their communities.  We were particularly engaged in working against local fossil fuel industry efforts to expand their reach in our local communities.  Many of us were drawn to work on the bold vision of the Green New Deal.  

By the middle of 2019 the number of Grandmothers who had joined our list (as well as those who joined us in actions) was in the hundreds, and we called for our first ‘gathering’ of grandmothers to build our network in new ways.   We developed work groups (see web-site), and have been engaging in multiple ways of organizing about the climate crisis.  By Sept. 2019 our numbers reached over 1000.  In 2020, much of our work had to shift due to the pandemic, and our being a particularly vulnerable population.  But we continued to do some socially distant actions, including holding the streets for demonstrations, joining in street painting and other art projects, and, many of our members were deeply engaged in electoral work through letter, postcard writing, and phone calling .  2021 began with a bang,  with a wonderful benefit concert that raised $194,000 for the Warnock and Ossoff, campaigns as well as Stacey Abrams organization, Fair Fight.  You can still see most of that concert on our website.

​We also began a partnership with Grandmothers on the ground, fighting the Line 3 Pipeline, raising funds, and participating in other actions to support these Water Protectors.  Over the next few years, we continued to participate in struggles against the fossil fuel industry, joining in more infrastructure fights, local environmental justice campaigns, the Keep It In the Ground Campaign, and electoral campaigns to support climate justice advocates.  We increasingly saw militarism as a central dimension of the climate justice fight as well as racism as core to our work.

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With the election of Trump, our organization has broadened its focus.  Here is the statement we put out in 2025:

We are all living in a moment in history unlike any we’ve experienced in our life-times. Our country is in a profound and intensifying political crisis with multiple threats to our democracy perpetrated by the Trump administration.   As a climate justice organization, our focus is on preserving life on earth in the face of an increasing climate crisis.    At the same time we recognize that fascism -- is on the ascendency.  Our very ability to combat climate chaos and achieve climate justice is under threat.  Because of this, we view our participation in the many facets of the resistance movement to be necessary for climate justice work.  ​​

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