SURJ Boston

Take Action Together

⭐✊📣 SURJ BOSTON OPEN HOUSE: Taking action for justice this election season

Tuesday, Oct 27, 7:00-8:30pm
Register here

Feeling the jitters about election day approaching? Join us for a call on how you can take action this election season! From getting involved with election defense, to fighting evictions, to ending incarceration, there are so many ways to take action right now in this crucial moment!

This call is open to all whether you've been involved with SURJ Boston for years or have never come to an event before! All are welcome!

☎️ 📋 ✊ ACTION HOURS

Every Wednesday 12 to 1 PM
Want to host your own?

• Trainings the last Wed of the month 1-1:30pm! (just stay logged in)

Register here for action hours and invite friends to action hours on Facebook. Now with extended dates through December!

Overwhelmed by the number of actions you see each week? SURJB Active Members guide participants through calls, emails, petitions, fundraisers and more as we build the movement for racial justice! We provide more context on the calls to action and insight on how our actions help to advance the struggles we are working on.

Election Defense

⭐✊ JOIN the SURJB ELECTION DEFENSE TEAM

Are you feeling anxious and stressed about the election? Not sure what to do to be ready for November? One option is to sign up for our Election Defense Team which is preparing to take action to defend people's voting, the results, and against fascism: Sign up here to join our network!

Ready to organize yourselves and your neighbors to protect the vote on election day and after? Sign up here for more information on action trainings and to join us for a meeting on Sunday November 1st from 11am-1pm to strategize how we can be sure folks can vote safely and ensure their votes are counted!

⭐🍎 “DON’T GET TRICKED; GET READY!”

October 31st, 1:00-2:30pm

Need some info or space to process? Join us for “Don’t Get Tricked; Get Ready!” on Zoom. We’ll be trying to make the election less scary by talking through scenarios and spending some time in breakout groups mapping resources and thinking through plans. Join the zoom call here!

Immigration Justice

💵Quinceañera of Rebellion: SUPPORT SIM

On November 6, Student Immigrant Movement will be virtually celebrating their Quinceañera of Rebellion. Join them to honor the stories of resistance and persistence of undocumented youth. Every week leading up to the gala they will be highlighting a SIMmer! Get your tickets here.
In honor of their 15th anniversary, a donor has stepped forward to match all donations made in September, up to $4,000. Help them reach this donation goal by becoming a Dream Sustainer here.

⭐️💵TAKEOUT FUNDRAISER

Comfort Kitchen has launched a takeout pop-up & fundraiser to support 3 local organizations including Student Immigrant Movement. Order here on Monday October 27th and Tuesday October 28th from 5:30-8:30.

⭐️📋💵Asian American Resource Workshop demands

Join AARW in their demands that all charges be dropped against movement leaders who have organized in response to ICE Director Tony Pham and the violence he inflicts on immigrants, refugees, and poor Black and Brown people.

• Sign the national statement/petition
• Demand that the charges be dropped
• Donate and share the fundraiser to support organizers: Venmo @One-Family
• More information and a toolkit can be found here

⭐️💵 A Home for Thy Chea and His Family

AARW has launched a fundraising campaign to support Thy and his family secure long-term housing. Thy Chea was unjustly deported to Cambodia in August 2018. After being ripped apart from his family and community in Lowell, Massachusetts, this past February, we were able to welcome Thy home and celebrate his return! Donate to support Thy and his family, and share with your networks. DONATE: https://bit.ly/thyshome

⭐️💵 Support the Black Immigrants Bail Fund

Policing, incarceration, and deportation are rooted in white supremacy and anti-blackness. Black immigrants make up about 7% of the total non-citizen pop. in the U.S., but they represent over 20% of immigrants facing deportation because of the criminal punishment system. Donate to the Black Immigrants Bail Fund (a fund co-run by the Haitian Bridge Alliance and African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs) to join them in the call to #abolishICE.

Housing Justice

⭐️☎️TAKE ACTION: OVER 100,000 MA HOUSEHOLDS AT RISK OF EVICTION

Over 100,000 MA households are at risk of eviction following the expiration of the eviction and foreclosure moratorium earlier this month. Read this report for more context. Governor Baker refuses to support the Guaranteed Housing Stability Act, instead pouring millions into a band-aid eviction diversion program. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH.
Please keep calling your legislators in support of the bill! Demand long-term stability for renters, small landlords, and homeowners through the passage of the Guaranteed Housing Stability Act.

⭐️✊ ALL OUT: RALLY AT BOSTON HOUSING COURT THURS, OCT 29

Join Boston residents and City Life/Vida Urbana for a protest at Boston Housing Court (24 New Chardon Street) on Thursday, October 29 10am-12pm. Demand that MA residents can stay in their homes and that the Guaranteed Housing Stability bill be passed to prevent mass evictions! Details on the event here.

⭐️🍎 TEACH IN: HOMELESSNESS IN BOSTON AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AS A SOLUTION

Thursday, October 29 6:30-8pm ET
From City Life/Vida Urbana and the Boston Tenant Coaliton: "Join for a community conversation via zoom on what homelessness looks like in Boston, and why supportive housing is a solution. We will hear from those most impacted by homelessness, discuss supportive housing proposals like the Pine St Inn's proposal to build over 200 homes for people experiencing homelessness, and ways you can support." Details and registration link here.

📋 SIGN TO PROTECT ESSENTIAL AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT!

We are still collecting signatures. The lawsuit has not been dropped. Boston residents-- sign the petition and send an email to demand Monty Gold to drop the lawsuit against the Pine Street Inn's project - one of the largest affordable and supportive housing projects in Boston. Help us reach our goal of 1900 signatures by Monday!

✊ VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: CANVASS & FLYER TENANT ASSOCIATION BUILDINGS

We need all hands on deck now to build defense against a wave of evictions. Get trained with City life/Vida Urbana to get the word out about rights people have under the national eviction moratorium and about Residential Assistance for Families in Transition, or RAFT (rental assistance) while we continue to fight for the Guaranteed Housing Stability Bill to be passed. Please sign up using this form.

SIGN UP FOR HOUSING JUSTICE ACTION ALERT LIST

Learn about upcoming events and actions happening in real-time and how to get connected with SURJ B’s Housing Justice group and support the Boston area housing justice movement. Sign up here.

Indigenous Solidarity

💵SUPPORT LOCAL INDIGENOUS ORGANIZING: Donate to UAINE

We’re nearly halfway to our goal! As Indigenous organizing ramps up in October and November for Indigenous Peoples Day and the National Day of Mourning, and the continued push for the Indigenous legislative agenda, please join SURJ Boston in raising $1000 for the United American Indians of New England (UAINE). Donate at this link and email us at SURJBindigenousSolidarity@googlegroups.com to let us know how much you gave.

⭐🍎 21-DAY RACIAL EQUITY INDIGENOUS CHALLENGE

The Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness has created an extensive list of resources for learning: 21-Day Racial Equity Indigenous Challenge – Fighting White Supremacy Since 1492.

You can do your own self-guided study, and/or you can join the Boston Knapsack Anti-Racism Group from Nov. 4-Nov. 25. Knapsackers are doing a short Zoom check-in midway through the 21 days, and then having a longer Zoom discussion on Nov. 25 before the National Day of Mourning.

☎️ CONTACT YOUR REPS: CHANGE THE STATE FLAG AND SEAL and Ban Racist Mascots!

The House of Representatives has not yet voted for a review of the racist Massachusetts state flag and seal. Call and email your reps TODAY during this extended legislative session and urge them to vote to change the flag and seal, and to ban Native mascots! Follow the link for an easy way to send messages to your elected officials.

We appreciate and acknowledge that we live (and are guests) on Indigenous land. We want to be mindful and respectful of this, treating the land (and our environment in general) like any place we would be as a guest. To get informed about the land you live on: native-land.ca and usdac.us/nativeland

Confronting White Supremacists

✊ JOIN OUR ANNOUNCEMENT LIST

Join our Confronting White Supremacists Announcement List to hear from us about opportunities to learn more and take action against non-state white supremacists and fascists in New England.

🍎 Political Research Associates (PRA) Fall Webinar Series

PRA is a “social justice think tank” doing key research and political education work on the full spectrum of far-right activity and ideology in the US. Their fall webinar series is packed full of learning opportunities.

Read more about each topic and register for webinars here.

• Thurs, 10/29 at 4pm ET - Election Eve: State of Democracy Report

Mutual Aid and Supplies Collection

⭐️💵 Alert: Food and Critical Supplies Needed

Our mutual aid partners (Cape Verdean Association of Boston, 12th Baptist Church, and VietAID) continue to remind us that critical supplies like food and sanitary products continue to be in high demand. As this crisis continues and our society adapts to this “new normal” we cannot let our neighbors be forgotten, now is the time to give if you can. PLEASE DONATE EACH WEEK YOU ARE ABLE to help our neighbors stay afloat in a crisis that disproportionately affects those already most targetted by racism and white supremacy.

This week we’re asking folks to focus on the following items for 12th Baptist and CVAB:

• HIGHEST NEED: Nonperishable foods, particularly ethnically appropriate food (Vietnamese, Chinese, Caribbean, Cape Verdean)
• Diapers
• Toilet paper

For VietAID they are accepting the following donations:

• Oatmeal (boxes of individual packets)
• Mac n’ cheese
• Tuna

We have drop off sites in Allston, Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Jamacia Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury, Somerville, and West Roxbury.

Please email surjbmutualaid@gmail.com for more information.

Public Education

⭐️ SUCCESS: Exam System Suspended for One YEar!

Due to the advocacy of folks like you, the Boston Public School Committee voted to suspend the exam system used the “exam schools” for this year! This past Wednesday, the 21st, over 100 parents and former students testified and the vote was made at 2 AM due to all of the testimonies. Thank you to everyone who made calls, wrote emails, signed petitions, and testified! To read more about this story, click here.

💵 SUPPORT Unafraid Educators

Please consider donating to the Unafraid Educators COVID-19 Relief Fund for students and families in Boston Public Schools who need financial support during this time. Also, please share the form with those who might need it.

Prison Abolition

📋☎️✊ WEEK OF ACTION: BUILDING UP PEOPLE NOT PRISONS

• Building Up People Not Prisons continues to fight to end the incarceration of women and girls. BUPNP continues to push for the No Cost Calls bill, the most important priority of incarcerated people and their families.
• Read the powerful Editorial from Families for Justice as Healing member Shanita Jefferson about the No Cost Calls bill. Please check it out in the Globe and VOTE YES ON THE POLL at the BOTTOM!
• Make your calls this week, and especially pass on to your networks outside of Suffolk County, so we can show Sheriffs and Senate Leadership that the people support No Cost Calls!
  
• Families for Justice as Healing is also leading a statewide campaign to push for clemency for incarcerated women. Learn more from FJAH and find out how to call your Governor’s Council member to support this campaign!

📋☎️✊#DEEPERTHANWATER TO DOC: END RETALIATION AGAINST INCARCERATED ORGANIZERS!

Last week, officials from MCI Shirley took everything Wayland “X” Coleman owns in retaliation for his ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of his fellow prisoners. Wayland has been organizing for mutual aid during COVID19, on top of decades of work fighting for people behind the wall.

• Please use this tool to send a letter to MCI Shirley Superintendent Michael Rodrigues
• Follow up with a physical letter - the administration has to respond within 10 days: Superintendent Michael Rodrigues, MCI Shirley, P.O. Box 1218, Shirley, MA 01464
• If you can spare the fund, send Wayland a book - instructions on the #DeeperThanWater website

📋SIGN THESE PETITIONS TO PROTECT OUR PEOPLE FROM POLICE AND PRISONS!

Support the Families for Justice as Healing demands for the new Boston Police Department contract with the city by signing this petition!