Information provided here at the Justice Party page has been put together by DC writers Michael Ossipoff and Adrian Tawfik. Outspoken political activist and former mayor of Salt Lake City Rocky Anderson and a group of allies formed The Justice Party USA (JP) in 2011 as an “American political party that stands for progressivism and removing corporate influence and other concentrated wealth from politics”. Their main website seems defunct as of April 18, 2023 but their Twitter account is active.
Justice Party USA Key Individuals:
Rocky Anderson – 2012 Presidential Candidate
Rocky Anderson served for two full terms as the 33rd mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 2000 to 08. Formerly a Democratic Party member, he left to become the 2102 Justice Party Presidential Candidate.
— Justice Movement (@JusticePartyUSA) August 31, 2022
Laura Bonham – Justice Party Co-Chairperson
Laura Bonham is a political and community organizer who has served as the Vice President of the Coalville Area Business Association and as the Chairperson of the Coalville City Planning Commission. She co-founded the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus and served as its chair for four years. In 2004, she co-founded Progressive Democrats of America where she served as the deputy director and communications coordinator until December 2011. Laura ran for Utah State representative three times, once as a Green and twice as a Democrat.
Jonathan Ruga – Justice Party Co-Chairperson
Jonathan M. Ruga, M.B.A., C.P.A., J.D., is the Chief Executive Officer of Sentry Financial Corporation, which he co-founded in 1986, and leads the Real Estate Division and the Private Equity Division, and co-leads the Equipment Financing Division. Upon graduating from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1982, Mr. Ruga worked with the law firm of Parr, Brown, Gee & Loveless from 1982 to 1985.
Mike Ballantine – Justice Party Fundraising Committee Chair, Membership Coordinator
Originally from Philadelphia, Mike Ballantine graduated from Dickinson College with a Bachelor in Arts degree majoring in Judaic Studies and Economics in 1984. Mike is currently working on his EdD in Higher Education Administration while continuing his efforts to support the Justice Party’s growth from his home in Texas.
Lenny Brody – Justice Party Platform Committee Chair, State Party Building Committee Liaison
Lenny Brody has been politically active since the early 1960s, fighting in the interests of poor and working class people. He worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the civil rights movement in South Carolina. As part of his activities in protest of the Vietnam War he refused induction into the Army. He is on the steering committee of the Chicago chapter of Progressive Democrats of America and has been working to build an independent political movement that will fight for and empower the victims of the current economic crisis.
Luis Rodriguez – Justice Party National Steering Committee member and 2012 Vice Presidential Candidate
Luis J. Rodriguez has spent forty years as a revolutionary activist, writer and thinker impacting the Chicano and Native Peoples movement as well as labor (he took part in the largest union representation election in U.S. history), in urban peace (participating in gang peace truces in Los Angeles, Chicago, other cities and in El Salvador), against U.S. wars (having been arrested in the largest protest against the Vietnam War by a community of color) and in the arts (co-founder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the Northeast San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles). In 2012, Luis became the vice-presidential candidate with Rocky Anderson for president of the Justice Party.
Carlos Camacho – National Technology Manager
Carlos Camacho is a former middle school teacher in the Japanese Ministry of Education’s JET Programme. He spent 10 years working in the electric utility industry in Japan, specializing in smart grids, energy conservation and ubiquitous computing. He is currently involved in the agriculture and greenhouse cultivation industry and is an advocate of eating locally grown food. In the field of technology, he is committed to net neutrality, open source software and government and improving broadband access.
What Does the Justice Party for America support?
From the Justice Party website in 2014:
Four alternative (non-Republocrat, and therefore media-forbidden) parties had debates, shown on the Internet, just before the 2012 presidential election and the JP took part. What clearly stood out about the JP in those debates was that its policies–as spoken by its candidate, Rocky Anderson. Rocky Anderson who was once mayor of Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City, is the founder of the JP.
The Justice Party’s emphasis, even in its name, is on justice for all of us. Justice for ordinary people. That’s something that will make sense to every person, without being obscured by an appearance of elitism counterculture, or single-issue environmentalism like the Green Party (See the DC Green Party page).
Favoring (by concrete proposals, and not just by lip-service) pro-human (as opposed to pro-rich, pro-corporate) policies, humane policies, strong enforceable ethical requirements, genuine democracy. Opposing corruption and unnecessary wars, occupations, invasions, etc. Which parties are progressive, by that definition? Green Party U.S. (GPUS) is.
So is the Justice Party (JP). The party calls itself a thoroughly American party with out any foreign origins. For those reasons, JP looks a lot more likely to overtake and replace the Republocrats, in comparison to other progressive parties like the Greens.
The Justice Party, in its very first election, immediately became one of the top four progressive parties. This shows that JP has a lot more popularity and winnability potential than many others. The party endorsed Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic nomination rather than picking its own candidate.
Justice Party of New York
The Justice Party of New York website is also now unusable as of April 18, 2023. The website used to claim a platform that advocates:
Social, economic and environmental justice. We seek to guarantee human rights, promote participatory democracy and the general welfare of the people of New York State. We believe in the rule of law, and that all processes of government must be accountable to the people under domestic and international law.
Don’t forget to take a look at the Democracy Chronicles Third Party Central, Green Party, and Libertarian Party pages. There is too much corruption built into the current system. That’s where the JP comes in. Connect with the Justice Party online on Twitter and Facebook!