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By Felicia Gustin When SURJ Bay Area launched in 2015, it operated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. This structure helped build a solid foundation for education, organizing, and fundraising. But as political conditions shifted and the stakes for racial justice work intensified, SURJ made a bold move: we are now a 501(c)4 organization taking over the work of our previous 501(c)3. What does this actually mean? And how will it change the way SURJ shows up in movements for justice? I sat down with Natalie from SURJ Bay Area’s Finance Crew to unpack the shift and its deeper purpose.  By Felicia Gustin “This May Day is more than just a march. It is the refusal to comply with a violent regime and its billionaire backers. It’s choosing our families and our neighbors over their fortunes. Our futures over fascism.“ -- Bay Resistance, a Bay Area network of community groups, faith organizations, unions, and neighbors standing together to defend our communities  May Day is just days away and across the country, thousands of organizations and millions of people are coming together with a common purpose: using non-cooperation to stand together against the billionaires waging war on working people. We’re calling for a day of No Work. No School. No Shopping.
By Felicia Gustin Millions of people and hundreds of unions and organizations across the U.S. are gearing up for a massive May 1st day of non-cooperation—No Work! No School! No Shopping! In our previous blog, we explored what non-cooperation means and laid out the goals of May Day, International Workers' Day 2026. As we look to the future, it’s worth revisiting the roots of this day and how it still inspires movements across the globe. Sparked by the state killing of U.S. labor leaders in the fight for the 8-hour workday, May Day continues to be celebrated nearly 150 years later, even without recognition as an official holiday in the U.S.  By Felicia Gustin After last month’s No Kings protests, many are asking, “So what?” But for those who see such outpourings as pointless or at best, merely symbolic, there are some important factors to consider. First and foremost: we need to grow our movement for racial and economic justice—we need more people! So a mobilization like No Kings is an entryway for people coming out for the first time, for people who are yet to be engaged. It’s a first step, and it’s our responsibility, as organizers, to move them to the next step.  By Erica Wang, SURJ San Francisco
White America has a history of using euphemisms as code for things that make us emotionally uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to take action. We call certain neighborhoods “sketchy” without talking about how our redlining practices segregated them and keep their residents in a cycle of poverty. White liberals often say they are “colorblind,” and while that sounds sincere, it actually erases the reality of racialized treatment and maintains the status quo by refusing to see inequity. Those with racial privilege living under this authoritarian regime can easily fall into naming the harm done by our American Gestapo as merely “immigration enforcement” when actually it is an attempt at racial cleansing. California law forbids ICE from making arrests at courthouses. Officers are showing up anyway.10/9/2025
by Nigel Duara, CalMatters. This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. In summary A California law bans immigration enforcement at courthouses. ICE under the Trump administration is detaining people there, anyway, arguing it’s a safe place to apprehend someone.  The Fresno County Courthouse on Sept. 17, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.  A line of federal immigration agents and protesters stand-off near the Glass House Farms facility outside Camarillo on July 10, 2025. Protesters gathered after federal agents conducted an immigration raid earlier in the day. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local By Michael Lozano , CalMatters.
They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm. The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations. Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case. “It was a beautiful showing of solidarity for the people of Gaza.” That’s how Abbey Springer, captain of Team SURJ Bay Area, described the 2025 Ride for Palestine held Sunday, July 20. “It was so incredible to see hundreds of people riding for Palestine and in doing so, raise over $450,000 for MECA!” The Ride for Palestine is the annual fundraiser for the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), to support its programs for children and their families in Palestine and the Middle East. Based in Berkeley, California, MECA has, since 1988, sent more than $42 million in aid to children in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon.  Some members of Team SURJ gather before the Ride for a photo taken by a Jewish Voice for Peace team member. Many things have changed since we last published a set of rapid response resources in 2018. We want our community to have up-to-date information on how to Show Up for Racial Justice with authoritarianism rising around us.
By Felicia Gustin It’s one of the largest county jails in the United States and larger than most California prisons. Santa Rita Jail, located in Dublin, California, also has one of the highest rates of in-custody deaths for county jails in the state. In 2017, one such victim, 23-year-old father Dujuan Armstrong, was only meant to serve a weekend at Santa Rita, but he never came home, killed by sheriff deputies while in custody. In Dujuan’s honor, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), a Black-led Oakland-based coalition, began providing material support to folks being released from the jail as “a small but meaningful way to address the harm caused by incarceration in our community.”  Tables with free food and drinks and bins with free clothing set up on a Friday night in front of the Santa Rita Jail sign. Photo by Mack Boyle. |
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