Weekly Newsletter - June 10, 2019

Tuesday, June 18 • 7:00 – 9:00 pm
All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence
Join author Emily Thuma in conversation with Bay Area organizers and activists Diana Block of California Coalition for Women Prisoners and Rachel Herzing of Center for Political Education, for an event that puts Thuma’s new book, All Our Trials, Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence in dialogue with contemporary campaigns against imprisonment and policing. For details and accessibility information, please check out the event link. Sponsored by California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Center for Political Education and Critical Resistance Oakland.
Location: Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Sunday, June 23 • 10:00 am – 12:15 pm
Intro to SURJ, Family-Friendly Edition
SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority. Want to get involved? Come learn about our current work and activities. You'll hear about SURJ's pathways for entering the work, including committee work, workshops, and events. We are excited to offer family-friendly activities during this Intro Meeting! For children and youth who are interested in participating in the meeting, there will be child- and youth-friendly discussion topics and interactive activities. We will also provide free childcare for those who do not participate. As with every SURJ Bay Area Intro Meeting, all are welcome and encouraged to join (with children or without). Please RSVP - space is limited.
Location: Movement Strategy Center, 436 14th St. Oakland

Friday, June 28 • 7:00 pm – 2:00 am
Bustin' Out- TGIJP Fundraiser and Official San Francisco Trans March After Party
For 15 years, TGIJP has provided legal services for transgender and gender variant/non-conforming people in California prisons, jails and detention centers. As we continue to fight the abuses TGI people face inside and outside of prisons, we invite you to join us for a night of celebration and trans resilience as we try to raise $30,000 to support Black trans abolitionist organizing! We are so excited to join our hosts at El Rio and Virgil’s Sea Room for another year to raise money for growing currently and formerly incarcerated TGI people. Every year, Bustin Out brings together hundreds of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people and our allies to celebrate the incredible resistance of transgender people in San Francisco. Tickets $15-60. More info here.
Location: El Rio, 3158 Mission Street, San Francisco

Tuesday, July 9 • 5:00 pm
Angela Davis with SURJ
Save the date for this webinar featuring SURJ National in conversation with political activist Angela Davis. This is part of SURJ's ongoing series called Connecting the Dots: Border Militarism, US Domestic and Foreign Policy, and the Myriad Connections of Racial Capitalism. More information coming soon, and for now you can sign up and and share the invitation on Facebook with family, friends and comrades.
Location: Online.

Thursdays, July 18 – August 8 • 7:00 – 9:00 pm
UNRAVELING THE RIGHT: A Class for Organizers and Activists in the Trump Era
Does the rise of white nationalism keep you awake at night? Do you want to understand today’s right wing better and strengthen your organizing strategies to help drive it back? Join The Center for Political Education this summer for this four-session class covering the right’s ideas and goals, historical lessons from past experience fighting fascism and the right, and strategies for building a winning anti-right coalition and the particular responsibilities of activists in the Bay Area. This class will be led by CPE co-director Rachel Herzing and Revolution in the Air author Max Elbaum, and will feature guest speakers with expertise on some of the issues highlighted above. Space will be limited, so please fill out this application form by July 1. While everyone should feel free to apply for this class, preference will be given to members of people of color-led organizations and working class and people of color communities.
Location: Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Protect Black Dissent: Demand the FBI stop hiding white supremacy threats
The FBI is changing the way it categorizes domestic terrorist investigations, partially in response to pressure from Team #MediaJustice. But rather than being transparent about their use of the made-up "Black Identity Extremist" designation, the FBI has created a new blanket category for reporting called “Racially-Motivated Violent Extremism,” a move that is an effort to further conceal white supremacist terrorism and continue to discreetly criminalize Black activists online and off. Not only is the FBI falsely conflating Black dissent with white terrorism, but their reports will no longer specify what resources are or aren't being used to investigate white supremacist violence, even though we know that white supremacists represent the most significant violent threat in the United States today. Sign the petition here.

Are you a Graphic Designer Who Wants to Show Up for Racial Justice?
Are you an amateur or professional graphic designer in the Bay Area looking for a way to get involved with SURJ? Can't always attend meetings but want to help out? Do you enjoy creating graphics we could use on print and digital collateral to call in folks to the racial justice movement? We'd love to talk to you about our graphic design needs. Email info@surjbayarea.org for more information.

Check Out SURJ Bay Area Policy Priorities for 2019
SURJ Bay Area's Policy Working Group is working in service to, and in collaboration with our people of color-led partner organizations that work on legislative advocacy. As we enter the 2nd quarter of the 2019 California legislative cycle, we’d like to share the bills, propositions, and campaigns that are our focus for 2019. Learn more about the organizations we partner with and the legislation we're working on here, and join our legislative action list here.

Ask Governor Newsom to Remove Gregory Ahern from the Lottery Commission!
Please join SURJ's Mobilization Committee and the Prison Abolition Working Group in calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to remove Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern from the California Lottery Commission. The California Lottery is supposed to embrace the values of integrity and transparency, but in 12 years as Alameda County Sheriff, Ahern has overseen massive growth in his jail budget even as the jail population declined by 45 percent. His office has perpetrated a stunning array of human rights abuses, including overseeing 33 in-custody deaths, punishment of people in need of medical care, pressure on women to get abortions, and other egregious mistreatment and neglect. Governor Newsom has the authority to remove Ahern as Lottery Commission chair and reduce the reach of his power. Please take 20 seconds today and sign this petition to the governor to remove Ahern from this statewide office.

Donate to Pine Ridge Reservation Emergency Relief
The Oglala Lakota Nation has declared a state of emergency on the sprawling Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Severe flooding there has made many roads impassible and trapped some residents in their homes for over two weeks. In response to the devastating situation, local community members founded Pine Ridge Reservation Emergency Relief, working in tandem with Oglala Sioux Tribe Emergency Management. You can help by donating to relief efforts here.

Sunday July 7 & Monday, July 8 • 12:00 – 8:00 pm
Rise Against Racism: Counter CUFI
Come to Washington, D.C. and tell the world to #CounterCUFI! For too long, Palestinians have been calling for freedom, justice, and equality; meanwhile, CUFI has quietly become the largest organization in the United States driving support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. With over five million members, CUFI uses its political leverage to ensure ongoing U.S. support for Israel’s colonization and military occupation of Palestine, including imprisoning Palestinian children; bombing homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza; massacring peaceful protestors; and confiscating Palestinian land. By its own admission, CUFI “led the charge to have the U.S. recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” and it continues to push for unconstitutional anti-BDS legislation and illegal settlement expansion. You can help by joining the action in Washington, D.C, signing the collective statement here, or donating to help support the action
Location: Washington, D.C.

A SURJ Member’s Eyewitness Report from the Border
"Children separated from their parents, families traveling on foot for months to get to the U.S. border, people fleeing rape, gang violence, government brutality, torture, and murder..." Horrified by the stories she had been hearing about the situation at the southern border, SURJ Mobilization Committee member Lynn Levey traveled to the border with her daughter to volunteer and support asylum-seekers there. Read her moving eyewitness account of the experience and learn how you can support Al Otro Lado, the amazing organization they volunteered with in Tijuana.

Free Masonique Saunders in Columbus OH
Columbus OH police killed 16-year-old Julius Tate Jr. in December and a week later arrested his 16-year-old girlfriend, Masonique Saunders, charging her with the murder the police committed in fear that she would testify against them. SURJ Columbus is working with a community coalition, demanding that Masonique be released from jail and that all charges be dropped. Learn more about the case here, sign the petition here calling on the Franklin County Prosecutor to drop all charges (you do not have to be an Ohio resident), and donate here to help with Masoniques' legal fees.

Boycott 24-Hour Fitness
Join Black Lives Matter Los Angeles in pursuit of justice for Albert Ramon Dorsey and Dennis Todd Rogers, killed by police who were called by 24-Hour Fitness employees. On December 23, 2018, more than 500 community members voiced their outrage at 24-Hour Fitness' practice of calling police on Black members. Join the boycott of 24-Hour Fitness until they meet demands to work in partnership with BLMLA to: issue a statement affirming the value of Black lives; conduct cultural competency training for all managers, workers, and franchises; and develop new protocols and alternatives to calling the police. For full details, read the letter 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