Weekly Newsletter - June 24, 2019

Tuesday, June 25 • 6:30 – 9:30 pm
Deport ICE Richmond: No City Money For Deportation
After passing the nation's first sanctuary contracting ordinance to make sanctuary status real by ending contracts with ICE data brokers, the City of Richmond is trying to weasel out of the law and extend their contract with Vigilant Solutions until 2022. It's been postponed twice now, but June 25 will be the decision day. Vigilant Solutions is in contract with ICE to provide access to billions of license plate reader scans to help immigration enforcement hunt and track undocumented people and their families, friends and associates. ACLU has documented 9,000 ICE agents with access to Vigilant's LEARN database and 30,000 searches a month. Richmond City, while they have cut ICE off from their data, is still sending license plate scans with the real time location of city residents, workers and visitors to the Border Patrol and wants to give another $30,000 to a tech company making deportations happen. Please come down and help us stop it. Learn more.
Location: Richmond City Council, 440 Civic Center Plz, Richmond

​Wednesday, June 26 • 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Building Alternatives to Police Emergency Response
For years, the Anti Police-Terror Project and Critical Resistance have been some of the leading voices demanding that Oakland be the vanguard in creating a model for mental health responders to be the first responders for mental health issues. The idea seems to be resonating and Council Member Kaplan has called for a meeting to review a model that exists in Eugene, Oregon. The meeting features a presentation from CAHOOTS, a mobile crisis intervention team integrated into the public safety system in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon. Representatives will describe how the model has succeeded in reducing bad outcomes, saved money, and helped connect residents with services.
Location: St. Columba Catholic Church, 6401 San Pablo Ave, 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

Friday, June 28 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Exhibit: Detention, Deportation, Incarceration and the Border
Silicon Valley De-Bug's Class Conscious Photographers presents images that shine a light on the impact incarcerations has on our communities, whether in prisons or in immigrant detention centers, and the deportation of migrants and the border itself. Advocating for social change is part of a long tradition of social documentary photography in the United States and Mexico, and the work of the photographers in this show contributes to this tradition today.  Exhibit runs June 5-August 31. The featured photographers are: Brooke Anderson, David Bacon, Richard Bermack, Charisse Domingo, Najib Joe Hakim, Stacy Johnson, RJ Lozada, Jean Melesaine, Abraham Menor, Ronald Orlando and Leopoldo Peña.
Location: Asian Resource Gallery, 310 8th St. Ste 200, Oakland

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.

Saturday, July 13 • 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Transforming White Fragility and Embodying Resilience
Based on the bestselling book by Robin D’Angelo, White Fragility is a term that defines a reaction to difficult conversations and criticism. This workshop will teach us how to be able to define a white fragility situation, become aware of our own fragility responses, and learn to shift into a more resilient state. The goal is to build capacity to practice embodying a more open reaction in order to stay engaged. Register online. This workshop is co-hosted by SURJ Marin and the YWCA of Marin.
Location: YWCA San Francisco Marin, 4380 Redwood Highway, #Suite A-1, San Rafael

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

Know Your Local Immigration Hotline Number
Via Bay Resistance: In light of the recent news, we want to make sure that everyone is informed and prepared. Learn the phone number for your local emergency immigration hotline and call if you see any ICE activity. It's important to verify before publicizing any information; spreading misinformation about possible raids can bring unnecessary panic and stress to our communities. Find your county's hotline number, and please share widely.  #PowerNotPanic #AbolishICE

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.

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.

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.
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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.

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