SURJ Boston

Housing Justice

☎️ ALERT: 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 on October 17th. Read a report for more context.

Governor Baker has the power to listen to the people most impacted and pass a bill that would meet the scale of the problem and instead, he is funding bandaid projects through the eviction diversion program. We continue to join housing justice advocates to demand Governor Baker pass the Guaranteed Housing Bill. Check out footage from a rally at Boston Housing Court on October 29th.

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.

⭐️☎️ Eviction hotline

Did you or someone you know receive a notice to quit? Call or share Ci ty Life/ Vida Urbana's eviction hotline at 617-934-5006 for English and 617-397-3773 for Spanish

✊VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: FLYER & CANVASS 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 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. We are just 67 signatures away from our goal of 2000 - help us get there by Monday and check out a recorded teach-in to learn more about supportive housing.

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.

Prison Abolition

✊ Take Action: BUPNP Support Circle

Wednesday, November 11, 7-8:30 PM

Are you looking to support black-led organizing to defund systems of harm and punishment, and reimagine communities where everyone can live in health and safety? Join SURJ Boston and Families for Justice as Healing Director Mallory Hanora for a Support Circle for the Building Up People Not Prisons (BUPNP) Coalition! Learn how to strategically pressure your local elected officials and leverage your power as a constituent in formation with the statewide movement to end the incarceration of women and girls in MA. This session builds off the recent BUPNP Symposia on October 16th and November 8, but is open to all.

⭐️☎️ Week of Action: Building Up People Not Prisons

• COVID is spreading dangerously in MA prisons and jails, especially MCI Norfolk. Find out more in this report from Deeper Than Water. If you’re on twitter, you can post about it with this link.
• BUPNP is discussing how to best fight the construction of a new women’s prison, given the legislative turnover happening in early January. Keep an eye out for possible actions.
• Families for Justice as Healing is still navigating an unlawful bail forfeiture. This week, the week of action will include a call to action for all MA residents but particularly for Plymouth County residents. Please check back in and make those calls and emails!
• BUPNP continues to push the No Cost Calls bill! 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!

⭐️📋 Sign These Petitions to Protect Our People From Police and Prisons!

• Live in Middlesex County? Please sign this petition about No Cost Calls to send to Sheriff Koutoujian.
• Live in Cambridge? Sign this petition to push for the release on bail of our community member Dante Starks! He has been incarcerated for over two years waiting for his trial.
• Support the Families for Justice as Healing demands for the new Boston Police Department contract with the city by signing this petition!

Immigration Justice

⭐️💵Support Student Immigrant Movement

Donate and become a Dream Sustainer to support immigrant youth to protect their community!

💵 Support Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

Follow them on Facebook to learn more about their ongoing work and campaigns. You can donate or become a monthly sustainer here!

More information and a toolkit is here.

⭐️💵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 population 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

Indigenous Solidarity

✊2020 National Day of Mourning

Thursday, November 26, 2020, 12 PM - Cole’s Hill, Plymouth

Join in solidarity with the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) for the 50th annual National Day of Mourning, “a solemn, spiritual and highly political day.” March with UAINE through historic Plymouth, or join for the livestream if you are unable to take action in person. (Stay tuned for livestream details!) Let us know at SURJBindigenousSolidarity@googlegroups.com if you’re interested in joining a SURJB contingent!

⭐️🍎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.

💵 SUPPORT LOCAL INDIGENOUS ORGANIZING: Donate to UAINE

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far, we are almost at our goal of $1000 for UAINE’s annual fundraiser! Donate at this link and email us at SURJBindigenousSolidarity@googlegroups.com to let us know how much you gave.

☎️ 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, or for a ban on Native mascots. 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

⭐️🍎Unity circles community fundraiser

We’d like to invite our community to attend this series of learning opportunities hosted by Unity Circles on November 21st. Features include storytelling by Tlingit elders on the indigenous origins of Circle process and Restorative Justice as well as a youth-led panel sharing Transformative Justice skills and ideas delved into and practiced this past summer. Unity Circles, led by women of color, is a Boston based organization that SURJ members have been building a partnership with over the last two years. Tickets are available here.

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.

️✊SHARE: Confronting White Supremacy in New England Website

Local activists have released NewEnglandWhiteSupremacists.com to contribute to the goal of exposing, opposing, and defeating local white supremacist movements. This is a great resource to share from your personal or organization’s social media pages. Feel free to reshare this one from Solidarity Against Hate Boston!

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 are in high demand. PLEASE DONATE EACH WEEK YOU ARE ABLE to help our neighbors stay afloat in a crisis that disproportionately affects those already most targeted by racism and white supremacy.

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

• Nonperishable foods, particularly ethnically appropriate food (Vietnamese, Chinese, Caribbean, Cape Verdean) * HIGHEST NEED
  • In particular, rice, beans (red kidney, lima and black), as well as corn and tuna
• 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, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury, Somerville, and West Roxbury.

Please email surjbmutualaid@gmail.com for more information.

Public Education

⭐️🍎Boston Education Justice Alliance

With Education Commissioner Jeff Riley's new stance that all schools should be prioritizing full in-person learning or a hybrid model, we're likely to have some actions popping up! In the Boston Public Schools and other districts, there are many buildings that are not safe enough for students to attend in person. Read more about the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's new stance here.

If you are interested in learning about and discussing best practices for remote learning for students and families the Boston Public Schools Office of Advancement is offering a conference on Saturday 11/14 from 9:30-2 PM. You can learn more about and register for the conference here. Please share with folks you think would benefit from attending!

💵 Unafraid Educators COVID-19 Relief Fund

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.

Take Action Together

☎️ 📋✊ Action Hours

Every Wednesday 12 to 1 PM

Want to host your own? Trainings the last Wed of the month 1-1:30 PM! (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.

International Solidarity

📋 Act in solidarity with Nigeria's movement to end police brutality

A massive nonviolent movement mirroring the uprisings for Black lives in the U.S. has taken to the streets in Nigeria in recent weeks demanding an end to police brutality. It grew larger last week after the government unleashed the military to open fire on peaceful protesters. Organizers at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), based in Nigeria, are asking the international community to join in solidarity. Please sign their solidarity petition, and ask any organizations you're affiliated with to join their sign-on letter as well.