WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - January 7, 2019

THANK YOU for supporting the #12DaysToShowUp Fundraising Campaign!
We not only met our matching challenge of $10,800, but exceeded our $30,000 goal and raised over $42,000!! That means that about $10,500 will flow into the work of rural SURJ chapters to mobilize white people throughout the US. Additionally, about $31,500 will support the work of the 12 local Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led organizations that we profiled in our blog and social media. To further support our fundraising, contact fundraising@surjbayarea.org

Thursday, January 10 • 6:45 - 9:00 pm
Intro to SURJ Meeting
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority. You'll hear about SURJ's pathways for entering the work, including committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We'll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice. Please RSVP - space is limited.
Location: Citizens Engagement Lab, 1330 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Oakland

Sunday, January 13 • 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Supporting The Movement 4 Black Lives Policy Platform: Grassroots Legislative Strategy Workshop
This legislative strategy session and workshop will demystify the legislative process and build our legislative capacity. Eric Henderson, Policy Director for Initiate Justice, will be joining us to talk about IJ's 2019 legislative priorities. This workshop is for anyone who is passionate, curious, or wants to learn more about the ways that policy combined with grassroots organizing can be used as a tool in the movement for racial justice and collective liberation. Sliding scale $0 - $10. Register here.
Location: Seneca Family of Agencies, 6925 Chabot Road, Oakland

Sunday, January 13 • 1:30 - 5:30 pm
Alternatives to Calling Police: White Supremacy and the State
A growing coalition of organizations in the Bay Area is coming together to explore alternatives to calling the police into our communities. They will be offering a series of workshops to provide both practical skills and deepening analysis and grounding in alternative ways of thinking about safety. This first workshop, facilitated by Rev. Lynice Pinkard and Nichola Torbett, will provide a grounding in our values and agreements, which are rooted in transformative justice, as well as a deepening understanding of how white supremacy has shaped our social and political structures, including policing.
Location: Skyline Community Church United Church of Christ; 12540 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, California 94619

Thursday, January 17 • 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Resisting Imperialism: Voices from the Migrant Caravan
Join the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) for political education that will connect the struggles of the migrant caravan at the US/Mexico border to other anti-imperialist border struggles internationally. There will be 5 speakers presenting on struggles in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Yemen and Palestine. AROC will also be fundraising to help support the needs of the migrant caravan at our border. See below for where to send your donations today. Event is free, but you can make a donation here. More info here.
Location: The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia, San Francisco

Thursday, January 17 • 7:00 - 9:00 pm
LSPC Restore Our Rights! Panel Discussion & Strategy Session
Join Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) for a discussion and strategy session — building on recent victories in Florida and Louisiana — on felony disenfranchisement, jury service, running for political office, and other rights we need restored in California. Speakers include Desmond Meade, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Norris Henderson, Voice of the Experienced - New Orleans, Taina Vargas-Edmond, Initiate Justice, and Dauras Cyprian, All of Us or None.
Location: Booth Auditorium, U.C. Berkeley School of Law. 2745 Bancroft Ave, Berkeley

Friday, January 18 • 7:00 - 9:00 am
MLK Morning Wake Up Call - Human Billboard
SURJ Bay Area will be inviting commuters to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy with a morning rally and human billboard at Rockridge BART. We’ll be holding up signs and passing out flyers to morning commuters that highlight alternatives to calling police, including BART police, as well as looking at the role police play in upholding white supremacy. We’ll also be inviting people to come out for the 5th Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy on Monday, January 21st.
Location: Rockridge BART, Oakland

Sunday, January 20 • 12:00 - 6:00 pm
People Get Ready II Conference (Rescheduled)
How do we take up the often difficult task of balancing our revolutionary imagination with the brutal realities we face - war, right-wing terror, racist state policy, environmental devastation, etc. Sponsored by the Center for Political Education, this one day conference (rescheduled from November 17) on analysis, strategy and the fight for our future features visionary speakers and sessions to understand where we are, what we’re up against, how to fight back, build strength, and shift power — now and into the future. Free but please register here.
Location: Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley

Monday, January 21 • 9:00 - 11:00 am
Reclaim MLK - Teach-In & March for Young Activists
The teach-in will be led by youth and youth workers for young activist 2-12+ years old and their adult allies. This will be a wonderful opportunity for families to honor the histories of Black and Indigenous resistance.
Location: Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland

Monday, January 21 • 12:00 - 3:00 pm
5th Annual People's March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy
Save the date for the 5th Annual People's March to Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a mass mobilization called by the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP). On this federal holiday, we will highlight not the sanitized version of Dr. King, but the militant leader whose ideas and political organizing on issues of white supremacy, political power, capitalism, and U.S. imperialism increasingly called for a radical restructuring of the economic and social systems in the U.S. RSVP to join SURJ at the march. We will meet at Unify Credit Union on Oscar Grant Plaza at 11:30am. Interested in helping APTP spread the word about the march? Sign up for a canvassing shift here.
Location: Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland

Wednesday, January 23 • 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Renters Rising 2019 - Mobilization to Sacramento
In the aftermath of Prop 10, our housing crisis is only getting worse and the displacement of tenants and long-term residents across the state is escalating. Meanwhile, support for rent control remains incredibly high and city after city has already taken action to strengthen renter protections after the election. Join us as we build momentum for the renter power movement in California for universal rent control, tenant protections and to hold Wall Street landlords accountable! We'll be hosting trainings, rallying and lobbying our legislators. Join us!
Location: California State Capitol, Sacramento

Sunday, January 27 • 2:00 - 6:00 pm
Challenging White Male Supremacy Workshop
Hosted by STAND: White Men for Racial, Gender, and Economic Justice, this workshop will explore how white men can show up with integrity, imagination, and their whole selves and leverage their position as white men to help create a world that’s more equitable and less oppressive. Event is free, though participants will be asked for donations for the Sogorea Te' Land Trust.
Location: Sierra Club, 2101 Webster St. Suite 1300, Oakland

Sunday, February 3 • 1:00 - 3:00 pm
SURJ Bay Area Lobby Visit Workshop
Join the Policy Working Group for part two of our legislative workshop series. In this workshop, we will learn about lobby visits and how they fit into SURJ's larger framework, practice speaking about policy to a legislative staffer, hear about new opportunities to engage in the legislative process with SURJ, and hear from Essie Justice Group on their 2019 policy priorities. Sliding scale tickets $0 - $10. More info/tickets.
Location: Sierra Club, 2101 Webster St. Suite 1300, Oakland

Sunday, February 10 • 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Antidotes to White Fragility Workshop
Do you sometimes get "triggered" or shut down in stressful, racially-tense situations? This SURJ workshop, facilitated by the White Noise Collective, will explore how the brain and body respond to these perceived threats, help you manage guilt and shame that can arise in learning about race and racism, and build skills that enable greater resilience in moments of challenge. Tickets are sliding scale $15 - $65. Learn more and RSVP here.
Location: Sierra Club, 2101 Webster St. Suite 1300, Oakland

Are you an amateur or professional photographer in the Bay Area looking for a way to get involved with SURJ? We'd love to talk to you about our photography needs. Email info@surjbayarea.org for more information.

Support Immigrant Families Affected by Recent Fires and Rural NorCal SURJ
People who have suffered due to the most recent California fires still need our support, especially our most vulnerable neighbors - particularly immigrant community members, day laborers, and domestic workers. While others may be able to receive FEMA aid, undocumented status prevents many immigrants from getting the help they need when they're forced from their homes. Support immigrant families by making a donation to 805 UndocuFund Fire Relief. And the Rural Northern California SURJ Chapter in Butte County is fundraising to support fire survivors there who've lost everything and need money for lodging, food, gas, and basic living expenses. Please donate here.

Help Pass Key Legislation - Sign Up for Our Legislative Action List
One of the key ways that we support our People of Color-led partner organizations and the pieces of legislation they are working on is by getting SURJ members to flood their representatives with calls at key moments in the legislative cycle. Please sign up at this link to join our list to make phone calls during the most important weeks of the legislative year. By signing on to this list, you will get periodic action alerts asking you to make calls to your local legislators. We'll provide all the information--we just need your commitment and energy.

#FreeCyntoia - Call for Clemency
Cyntoia Brown is a 29 year old woman who, at 16 years old, was a victim of abusive sex trafficking and convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the self-defense murder of her assailant. Earlier this month, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Cyntoia must serve 51 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. This goes against a Supreme Court ruling that juveniles convicted of murder cannot be subject to a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. A growing group of individuals and organizations are demanding clemency, which Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam can grant before he leaves office in January. Call or write him to #FreeCyntoia. Learn more and get scripts from Black Lives Matter Nashville here.

New SURJ Podcast - BOLD: Conversations About Race
Check out the NEW podcast collaboration with SURJ National, White People 4 Black Lives, a SURJ affiliate in Los Angeles, and Small Beans, a podcast platform with an established audience of 10,000 - 12,000 people per episode. It’s available at any podcast app (iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, etc.) on the Small Beans audio feed by searching for Small Beans or BOLD. The first BOLD episode includes an interview with Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles. Learn more here.

SURJ Bay Area Chapter - Join us! Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. Learn more at www.surjbayarea.org. SURJ Bay Area is one of 150 chapters and affiliates nationwide. Learn about SURJ National and our mission, vision, and values HERE.
Want to support our work? You can make a donation for SURJ's organizing and educational efforts with over half of what we raise going to Black and people of color-led partner organizations. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer HERE. Contributions are tax-deductible.

Follow SURJ Bay Area on Social Media: Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area c/o PO Box 22748, Oakland CA 94609