SURJ Boston

Actions & Updates

April 14, 2019

DONATE: WESTERN MASS SURJ REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN

Western Mass SURJ has been working on a cross-class reparations campaign in close partnership with a multiracial coalition of grassroots organizers. They are collecting reparations payments on behalf of and in coalition with Stickii Quest and ShaeShae Quest, who are Black queer and trans organizers living in Springfield. These payments will go towards the purchase of a house in Springfield in late 2019. Read more about this exciting campaign and DONATE here.

SURJ BOSTON 2019 BUDGET FUNDRAISER

We are now fundraising to cover our 2019 internal expenses (meeting space, accessibility, childcare, etc.). Donations can be made through Network for Good and our parent organization CCI. Be sure to write “SURJ” in the “purpose of donation” box so that funds can be properly attributed to SURJ. Please donate to SURJB out of funds separate from what you would give to POC-led partner organizations and campaigns or CCI; we don't want to take any resources away from these groups!

Movement for Black Lives

BLM Boston Campaign 21

At the end of 2018 BLM Boston, SURJ Boston, and other local organizations raised $2,500 to support a Black woman and child fleeing domestic violence getting settled in a safe situation. Become a monthly donor to BLMB to help them create a pool of resources for urgent needs! PAYPAL for one-time donations is m4blmboston@gmail.com.

Prison Abolition

Support Sisters Unchained

Sisters Unchained is a program dedicated to the collective leadership, healing, and creative expression of women and non-gender conforming people of color who are impacted by incarceration. They currently have people on the waiting list for their programs, so give today so they can bring more women and GNC folks into their work!

SUPPORT PARTICIPATORY DEFENSE

SURJB is working to partially fund meals for Families for Justice as Healing's Participatory Defense weekly sessions. At these sessions, court-involved community members work together to defend themselves against the racist court system! Note your donation is for Participatory Defense in the "additional info" line. Ongoing need is $75 per week, and any amount helps! Donate here.

BLACK & PINK VOLUNTEER DROP IN

Times are drop in/drop out, so come for as long or little as you'd like. You will need a laptop. Come read LGBTQ/HIV+ prisoners' letters, learn about their struggles, and help out the Black and Pink family!

Saturdays in Lower Allston: from 12 -3pm at Swissbäkers. Contact Eli at eli@newgreyhair.com or Facebook page; wheelchair accessible. Note: this drop in's last day will be May 25.
Wednesdays in JP: 7-9pm at First Baptist Church, 633 Centre Street Jamaica Plain, MA. Contact Annie at annieatwater@gmail.com ; wheelchair accessible.
Sundays in Cambridge: 3-6pm at Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St in Cambridge; partially wheelchair accessible, no accessible bathroom.

Boston Ujima Project

Ujima, Solidarity Economics, & Reparations 101

Workshop - Saturday, May 11, 1-4pm
Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St, Floor 5 in the Blue Room

Ujima is an ecosystem-based approach to community economic development. Our model democratically centers control with Boston’s working class communities and communities of color - those most impacted by and least consulted with about economic development projects in our city. Ujima uses a democratic process to invest in and shift resources toward businesses that meet our collective community standards, as part of a reparations framework of wealth and power redistribution.

Public Ed

People's School Committee Meeting

In late March, BEJA and BPS community members led by famiies at St. Stephen's Youth Project led an amazing march from the South End to the Bolling Building where they held a People's School committee hearing. Read coverage of the march at this link.

Stay tuned for more opportunities to join us in advocating for a more fairly, fully funded public school system.

Organize for the Promise Act

Know anyone in Wellesley, Weston, or Wayland that is interested in equity in Public Education?

Please have them contact Tonya Tedesco (tonyatedesco@gmail.com). In conjunction with BEJA & MEJA, we are doing suburban outreach to win support for the Promise Act.

Housing Justice

Community Dinner: Building power and unity in our Fight to Stay

Thursday, April 18 at 6 PM – 8 PM, Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles St. Dorchester, 02122

HEY Dorchester Residents…do you know that new development is coming? LET’S FIGHT TOGETHER FOR TRULY AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND MAKE SURE WE HAVE A SAY IN THE FUTURE OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD! We are Dorchester residents worried about our community’s future. Join the fight to make sure we ALL can stay in OUR neighborhood! CHILDCARE and INTERPRETATION in Vietnamese and Cape Verdean Creole Provided. Email: DotNot4Sale@gmail.com or message our page.

Canvas with City Life/Vida Urbana

Saturday, April 20 at 10 AM - 2:30 PM, CLVU Office, 284 Amory St, Jamaica Plain

The SURJ Housing Justice Action Partnership is seeking canvassers to support City Life/Vida Urbana’s anti-displacement work. Canvassers help City Life learn about what housing issues are happening locally, and spread the word about City Life so people can connect with housing justice organizing work and legal support. There will be a training for new canvassers on Saturday, April 20, at CLVU ‘s offices at 284 Amory St in JP. The 4/20 canvass will be an opportunity for folks to try out canvassing, but ultimately we are looking for people that would be willing to commit to canvassing once a month for maybe 6-12 months.

Folks from the Housing Justice group will be helping train/mentor this group of canvassers alongside City Life staff/ volunteers. We think it will be a great way to get folks deeper involved in SURJ and in local housing justice work! If you are interested in attending the canvass or if you'd like to learn more, please reach out to Hannah at hannah.poor143@gmail.com.

Schedule for Saturday, April 20:

10:00 -- 11:15 -- Tenant Organizing Committee meeting (including training of new canvassers) -- breakfast items served!

11:15 -- 1:30 -- go out with a team to canvass (no one goes out alone; less experienced will be matched with more experienced)

1:30 -- 2:30 -- debrief back in the office -- lunch served

Immigration Justice

BRIGHT LIGHTS: THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED WITH FATEMA AHMAD

Thursday, April 18, 7-10pm, Emerson College, 559 Washington St., Boston

Investigating the government surveillance of the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where she grew up, director Assia Boundaoui uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11. The Feeling of Being Watched follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket surveillance and how she takes the FBI to court to compel them to make the records public. Discussion led by Fatema Ahmad of the Muslim Justice League.

MASS JOBS WITH JUSTICE ANNUAL DINNER: SOLIDARITY IS OUR SUPER POWER

Thursday, April 18, 2019
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Bolling Building, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury, MA 02119 (map)

Buy a ticket and join us for an evening of dinner, drinks, and dancing to celebrate another year of fighting on the side of justice! Since 1992, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice has been uniting workers, community members, students, and people of faith to defeat bad bosses and stop corporate greed, whether we’re taking on exploitation, deportations, underfunding of public schools, neighborhood displacement, or inaction in the statehouse.

For information, contact Gillian Mason at gillian@massjwj.net or 617-470-7409. This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please let us know if you require any other accommodations in order to attend.

SIM camp

Every year undocumented youth and their allies come together to strategize, learn new trainings, and build community through the Student Immigrant Movement . Volunteers are needed to help with this year’s base building camp on April 26-28. Sign up at http://bit.ly/simcamp2019volunteer

Golden Stairs Immigration Center

Support the GoFundMe campaign of activist attorneys who are building a nonprofit to centralize their pro bono legal services for vulnerable, low-income immigrants and asylum seekers. Their missions is to assist asylum seekers, stop deportations and family separation, and provide access to counsel for non-citizens who would never otherwise be able to afford these vital services.

CALL-IN TO SUPPORT ICE DETAINEES

While February's 70 person strong hunger strike has ended, we must continue the pressure for better conditions at the facility and for all detainees to be immediately released. Please read the full list of grievances sent from the detainees and call Sheriff Tompkins @ (617-704-6655), Suffolk County DA Rollins (617-619-4000), and Governor Baker (617-725-4005) to demand humane conditions and the shutdown of the ICE facility.

Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network

Join our network of members fighting the injustice of our racist immigration system of detention and deportation through rides, donations, letters, advocacy, home hospitality, and much more.

Join: bit.ly/joinBIJAN | Donate: beyondbondboston.org
Share: bit.ly/BIJANflyer | Host: bit.ly/BIJANhousing

Community Change Inc.

SURJ Boston is a project of Community Change Inc (CCI), a Boston-based organization shining a spotlight on the roots of racism in white culture with the intention of dealing with racism at its source.

Knapsack Anti-Racism Group: Systemic racism now and what can we do

Thursday, April 25, 6:30-8:30, downtown Boston

We are impacted by systemic racism on a daily basis, in many facets of our lives. Before we can work to address it, we need to recognize that it's there. We'll discuss the forms of systemic racism we experience or witness, and we'll share what we know about current efforts to address it. For more details and to RSVP go to http://meetu.ps/e/GBLx1/6nQYs/d. Or email knapsack.group@gmail.com