WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - June 4, 2018

Saturday, June 9 • 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Immigrant Solidarity Rapid Response Training
Join SURJ, the Immigrant Liberation Movement, and Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership for a solidarity training for immigrant freedom and justice in the East Bay. Participants will train in monitoring ICE activity, accompanying impacted families and other ways to strengthen existing local immigrant defense. Tickets are sliding scale, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. RSVP for tickets & location here!
Location: Shared upon RSVP
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Monday, June 11 • 5:30 - 7:30
Sanctuary Neighborhood Workshop
Come build a sanctuary neighborhood with your neighbors! Learn how to defend your rights and community from ICE in your workplace, school, congregation or home. This training is organized by Bay Area Sanctuary Neighborhoods, a project initiated by Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Bay Resistance, Hand in Hand, Immigrant Liberation Movement, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, La Colectiva, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, PODER, and Xicana Moratorium Coalition.
Sanctuary Neighborhoods brings together neighbors, schools, small businesses, workers, people of faith and congregations who have pledged to defend our communities from ICE. We are each others sanctuary. RSVP here.
Location: Impact Hub San Francisco • 1885 Mission St.

Monday, June 11 • 7:30 pm
Trans Activist, TV Host, and Journalist Janet Mock at the Nourse Theater
Join writer, TV host and storyteller Janet Mock in conversation with activist Mia Birdsong at the Nourse Theater. Mock is known for tackling stigma through storytelling and has served as an editor at People.com, reporter for Marie Claire, Interview, and The Advocate and has penned essays for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Lenny. Called a “fearless new voice” and “trailblazing leader” who “changed my way of thinking” by Oprah Winfrey, Janet was a featured speaker at the historic Women’s March on Washington. She is the author of Surpassing Certainty and the New York Times bestseller Redefining Realness. This program is a benefit for the Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project. Find tickets here.
Location: Nourse Theater • 275 Hayes St, SF

Tuesday, June 12 • 6:30 - 9:30 pm
The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race
Writer and scholar Anthony Ocampo focuses on issues of immigration, race and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. His acclaimed book, The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race, looks at demographic shifts in the U.S. that are changing the way immigrants and their children understand race. Come out for a lively presentation that deepens our conversations about race, racism, and race relations. The event is free, but please register here.
Location: Impact Hub Oakland • 2323 Broadway, Oakland

Wednesday, June 13 • 7 pm - 9 pm
MAJOR! documentary film screening and fundraiser for TGI Justice Project
Documentary about the life and activism of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist. We will be joined by Janetta Johnson, Executive Director of the Transgender, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGI Justice Project). Entry is free and we will also be fundraising for TGI Justice Project. Please bring cash if you'd like to donate.
Location: Sierra Club • 2101 Webster St, Suite 1300 , Oakland

Friday, June 15 • 5 pm
Uniting Against Hate: A Conversation with Christian Picciolini
Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist. After leaving the hate movement that he helped create during his youth in the 1980s and 90s, he began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. Christian’s life since leaving the white-supremacist movement over two decades ago has been dedicated to helping others overcome hate. He now leads the Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement platform, helping people exit hate movements and other violent ideologies. He has spoken all over the world, including on the TEDx stage, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. Purchase tickets here.
Location: Berkeley City College • 2050 Center Street

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 • 6:45 - 9:00 pm
Introduction to SURJ
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 will hear about SURJ's pathways for entering the work, including Study and Action groups as well as committees, upcoming workshops, and events. We'll answer your questions and share how you can be part of the movement for racial justice. Share and RSVP here.
Location: Movement Strategy Center • 436 14th St. Suite 500, Oakland

Sign the pledge to build a world without police
SURJ is inviting white folks across the country to examine our relationship to policing, especially given the increasing numbers of incidents of white people calling the police to report Black people for doing all manner of things, including: sitting in a Starbucks, having a barbecue, sleeping in their own dorm room, renting an AirBnB, eating at Waffle House, golfing, walking through their own neighborhood, driving with leaves on their car, and much more. We invite white folks to take action -- whether that's educating yourself more deeply about the history of policing in the U.S., examining alternatives to policing, or pledging to not call the police.

Poor People's Campaign: Week Three of Nonviolent Direct Action
The war economy disproportionately impacts people of color and the poor. Instead of investing in social or economic programs that would invest in the future, our country has prioritized investing in weapons and war. In the third of six sustained weeks of Nonviolent Moral Fusion Direct Action, join the California Poor People's Campaign to advocate for the redirection of tax dollars to schools and basic infrastructure, and creating economic programs that give people life in their communities. Learn more and RSVP here.

Join the fight to expand rent control and repeal Costa-Hawkins!
The Affordable Housing Act, which would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act and allow cities and towns to pass stronger rent control laws, will officially be on the ballot this November! Landlord associations are preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to sink this ballot initiative. Join the grassroots campaign organized by our partners at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) to speak to voters about the ballot initiative and advocate for stronger rent control legislation.
To RSVP, please email SURJcanvassing@gmail.com.
Volunteer dates:
Monday June 4th - Any time from 9 am - 5 pm
Tuesday June 5th - Any time fro 9 am - 5 pm

End Predatory Prison Phone Rates
On Mother's Day, 2.7 million children relied on a phone call to celebrate with their incarcerated parent. Yet for many of these families, a short call is all they were able to afford, because greedy companies like Global Tel Link and Securus continue to charge families excessively high rates for the right to talk to their loved ones.
Last month, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois introduced the Inmate Calling Technical Corrections Act of 2018 (S.2520) which would address eliminating predatory prison phone rates. While the bill has broad bi-partisan support, we need to urge Sen. John Thune, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to hold a hearing for, and support the bill. Voice your support today.

Join the SURJ - Faith National Campaign
Invitation to Prophetic Imagination: Community Safety for All
SURJ - Faith is organizing a national campaign that asks faith/spiritual communities to examine their relationship to policing and police violence. This campaign is an act of accountability to people of color who are asking white people to join them in imagining and taking action toward a world without policing. It's also aligned with the Vision for Black Lives. Learn more about the campaign. There are also resources and information that people can share with their faith communities.