Weekly Newsletter - March 30, 2020

Monday, March 30 • All Day
Call Alameda County Board of Supervisors to Demand Healthcare, Not Handcuffs
Last week the Audit Ahern coalition discovered that the sheriff was trying to push through a request for $85 million dollars to hire more deputies. We must not let this happen. During this pandemic, we must support healthcare workers, keep folks housed and fed!  This is our money, we should have a say in where it is spent. Call your supervisor on Monday and tune into the livestream of the County Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to let them know we are holding them accountable.

Tuesday, March 31 • 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Webinar - Coronavirus and the Politics of Pandemic: What Does Race Have to Do With It?
In this SpeakOut Ed Talks webinar, anti-racism educator and author Tim Wise explores how race and racism have contributed to the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. While the pandemic provides an opportunity to appreciate the interconnectedness of humanity across lines of race and nation, as this vital webinar makes clear, such an outcome will depend on our willingness to take aim at the biases and inequities that continue to divide us. More info and register here.

Tuesday, March 31 • 7:00 pm
Livestream - Linda Sarsour: We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders
Berkeley Arts & Letters presents a livestream event with Women's March co-organizer Linda Sarsour for her memoir, We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, about how growing up Palestinian Muslim American, feminist, and empowered moved her to become a globally recognized activist on behalf of marginalized communities across the country. Sarsour is an award-winning civil rights activist, community organizer, and mother of three, born and raised in Brooklyn. She is a founding member of Justice League NYC, a leading force of activists, artists, youth, and formerly incarcerated individuals committed to criminal justice reform through direct action and policy advocacy. Purchase tickets here.

Wednesday, April 1 • 5:00 – 6:30 pm
SURJ Webinar - Sheriffs, White Supremacy & Organizing for Collective Liberation
Join this important conversation about the role of sheriffs in upholding white supremacy and the strategic need to run local campaigns that can hold them accountable, or kick them out of office in our work for collective liberation. The guest speakers are from Political Research Associates and Sheriffs for Trusting Communities. Register here.

Wednesday, April 1 • 6:30 – 8:30pm
Initiate Justice Online Monthly Member Meeting
Join Initiate Justice for their April Member Meeting online via Zoom, same time as usual - First Wednesday of the month from 6:30-8:30pm. Action items will include:
- Sending letters of support for our legislation to restore voting rights, expand credit-earning, and call for an end to extreme sentencing.
- Supporting the #letthemgo campaign to reduce the prison and jail population to slow the spread of Coronavirus. Click this link to join.
Thursday, April 2 • 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Webinar - Challenging White Supremacy Through Rest: Unpacking Work Culture in this Moment of Pause
In this global pause, we are presented with the opportunity to unpack white supremacist work culture, so that we can build new pathways for being. This SpeakOut Ed Talks webinar features SHIFT – Natalie Bui, Kausar Mohammed, and Veline Mojarro – three diversity and inclusion educators and activists whose goal is to SHIFT the culture of complacency. More info and register here.

Thursday, April 2 • 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Boosting People Power: Bay Area Organizers Respond to COVID-19
As shelter-in-place orders roll out across the United States, organizers are figuring out creative ways of practicing physical distancing while caring for our communities, building power, forging new alliances, and pushing for bold demands with the possibility to expand the boundaries of what’s politically possible. Join Center for Political Education for a moderated conversation with local organizers to learn more about how Bay Area movements are responding to the pandemic, how to organize creatively under the conditions of physical and social distancing, concrete ways of supporting campaigns pushing forward transformative demands, and how to be in meaningful solidarity with the working-class and communities of color across the world, especially those most impacted by U.S. imperialism. Featured speakers include: Vanessa Moses, executive director of Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Diana Block, member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Jessica Lehman, executive director of Senior Disability Action.  Click Here to Register for Zoom Link.

Stay Connected While Physical Distancing
COVID-19 is highlighting and exacerbating the vast inequities and injustices in our country and is hitting low-income, disabled, houseless, undocumented, incarcerated, and other vulnerable communities the hardest. How do we show up in the face of this? SURJ Bay Area, with the help of our community partners, has compiled a list of resources so we can stay healthy while continuing to show up for racial justice in the face of COVID-19. ACCE has a list of extensive resources for communities in Oakland, San Francisco, Contra Costa County, among others. California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance has a list of resources for undocumented Californians.

Show Up By Supporting These Calls for Action
Given the impact that COVID-19 has on California's most vulnerable communities, please consider supporting these efforts:

• This Tuesday and every Tuesday: Calling and social media campaign #FlattenICE & #FlattenTheCurve: Take Action to Free People from ICE During the COVID-19 Pandemic bit.ly/flattenICE

• Write to your representatives: support the 5 principles of a #PeoplesBailout. As Congress acts swiftly to develop relief and recovery packages to address the COVID-19 crisis, we must make sure that they prioritize the health and wellbeing of all people, with no exceptions. Use this tool to send a message directly to your Member of Congress, demanding they commit to the 5 principles for just COVID-19 relief and stimulus: 1. Health is the top priority, for all people, with no exceptions. 2. Economic relief must be provided directly to the people. 3. Rescue workers and communities, not corporate executives. 4. Make a downpayment on a regenerative economy while preventing future crises. 5. Protect our democratic process while protecting each other.
• Help disabled people in the East Bay meet their needs met during this crisis. Fill out this form from the Disability Justice Culture Club to donate resources (such as hand sanitizer, food, money, your time).

• Bay Resistance and Senior and Disability Action have also created a mutual support network for seniors, people with disabilities, and workers. Fill out this form to request support or to offer assistance, or both.

• The faith community and others are calling upon all public officials to work together and do everything possible to mitigate a potential outbreak in Santa Rita Jail and ensure adequate care for anyone who is infected with the virus. Read more and sign this petition here.

• Sign this petition by Media Justice to the FCC chairman to 1) Request predatory prison phone companies offer free phone and video calls with no fees to incarcerated and detained individuals immediately for the next 60 days. 2) Commit the prison phone industry to sign onto the Keep Americans Connected Pledge. 3) Deny Securus’ emergency request to stop paying into the Universal Service Fund.

• TGI Justice Project is raising funds specifically for black transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) community members coming out of California prisons and San Francisco jails. A donation from you today will help TGIJP to: Provide housing, food, money, and hygiene supplies to TGNC people being released from SF jails and prisons; Provide funds for TGNC people on the inside to put money on their books to buy hygiene supplies such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc; Provide unhoused Black TGNC community members with emergency hotel rooms and food during the shelter-in-place orders.

Donate here: bit.ly/Donate2TGIJP. If you can help with meal delivery or laundry pick-up and drop off to a laundromat wash & fold service, please contact queertrans@surjbayarea.org.

How can you use your stimulus check to show up?
For many of us with white privilege in the Bay Area, the stimulus check from the CARES Act will simply be a small boost to get us through, or let’s face it, free money. For others in our Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities, these checks will mean the ability to maintain critical needs like food and shelter, and many more will not even receive a check because of extreme poverty and lack of housing. As a member of the SURJ community, in the spirit of mutual dependence, take a moment and ask - will part or all of your stimulus check better serve a neighbor in need? Watch your inboxes for our Racial Justice Emergency Relief Fund, and consider donating to vital mutual aid happening throughout the Bay Area.

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.

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