Help Justin Roig Attend DSA National Convention

Justin Roig is organizing this fundraiser.

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Intro

I am honored to have been elected as one of the National Delegates for Philly DSA to go to the 2025 National Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America. Along with other delegates, I will be proud to represent our respective chapters, as well as vote on policy for the direction of the organization during the coming year. I am making this GoFundMe to help me cover the costs of travel, lodging, and food.

Goals For Convention

I have several goals I'd like to advocate for at National. There is a strong need for the organization to support anti-imperialist organizing internationally, such as the struggles for Palestinian liberation and Puerto Rican independence. I also look forward to building relationships with delegates from neighboring states and across the country so we can strengthen regional ties and foster more interregional collaboration. Especially in the midst of the fight against ICE, we need a unified mass response. I will push the organization on a national level to commit more resources to anti-ICE and immigration justice organizing.

A Little Bit About Myself

Political Perspective:

My political perspective was shaped at a young age, as I watched my grandparents administer food, shelter, and other forms of mutual aid to unhoused people, indiscriminate of who they were or their afflictions. They were not rich people, but had the capacity to help those worse off than themselves, and they did. I heard stories of a neighborhood that no longer existed, from which they were displaced by urban renewal. I grew up with stories of displacement from Puerto Rico by Operation Bootstrap, which influenced my view of international politics and anti-imperialism at a young age. I saw the good mutual aid and harm reduction could do before I had the terms to describe them. My politics is informed by compassion and fraternity with the marginalized. The Young Lords and Rainbow coalition had a strong influence on me at a young age and helped inform this perspective. I have blue-collar working-class roots, and because of this prioritize the most marginalized in my organizing be they In North Philly, Ponce, or Ramallah.

Experience:

I have been a Political Organizer since I was fifteen, working on causes such as organized labor, international politics, and immigration justice. In high school, I worked with organizers from across New Jersey to end illegal contracts holding ICE detainees in county jails. I also spoke out against my school board during contract negotiations with the Teachers' Union. Since starting at Temple University three years ago, I have helped organize undergraduate students' solidarity with TUGSA during their strike in 2023, joining pickets, helping mobilize students, and organizing a 2,000-person solidarity rally on campus. I was a bilingual canvasser in the spring of 2023 for Andres Celin’s campaign against Quetcy Lozada, knocking doors in Norris Square, Fairhill, and K&A. This was an eye-opening experience because I found that most people I spoke with said that this was the first time someone wanted to speak with them in depth about their issues. In the Fall of 2023, I began organizing with Temple SJP and Philly Palestine Coalition and was encouraged to apply for the SJP E-board, which I served on from January 2023 to the Fall of 2023. In that time, we organized rallies, political education events, and disruptions on Campus and in the city as a whole, including the Penn Encampment. I also joined Philly Boricuas in the spring of 2023, of which I am a member of, and was able to build a coalition (of which Philly DSA was a member) to organize a Puerto Rican/Palestinian solidarity rally in Kensington, which garnered several hundred despite adverse weather and increased political engagement in an area that wasn’t being engaged for some time.