SURJ Boston

Prison Abolition

⭐️ ☎️ 📋 ✊ ABOLITION ACTION HOUR

Thursday, January 14, 12-1pm
The white supremacist insurrection at the Capitol last Wednesday highlighted the racist roots and present reality of our police and prison institutions, making the need for prison abolition all the more clear. Join us at noon on Thursday to come together and take action in response! Facilitators will guide you through the context, the connection to abolition, and how to make calls, write emails, and sign petitions that matter right now.

💵FRONT MONEY FOR MUTUAL AID BEHIND THE WALL

Due to restrictive prison rules, Black and Pink MA needs help depositing money into people’s canteens. Please fill out this form if you are willing to help send money directly inside. Black and Pink MA will send you instructions, names, and contact info. Once you deposit, you’ll send them the receipt and they will reimburse you in whatever way works best for you.

If you have heard of Black & Pink MA but aren’t sure what they do, check out this super informative post on instagram!

☎️ 🍎 DORCHESTER AND ROXBURY: SUPPORT KIMYA’s HOUSE!

• New Beginnings Re-Entry Services, a re-entry service run by and for Black formerly incarcerated women is working hard to open Kimya’s House, their first re-entry home. It will provide a dignified living situation for women leaving incarceration, so they can heal and rebuild their lives.
• Let's show that Roxbury/Dorchester residents and organizations support the new residential program at Kimya's House! If you have a 02119 and 02121 zip code (individuals or organizations), please contact City Council President Kim Janey to say you support Kimya’s house!
• For more support and guidance in composing your letter or organizational statement, contact Ruckus at enviropacifibinarchafeminist@gmail.com.

☎️ 🍎 Week of Action: Building Up People Not Prisons

The House and Senate both voted to overturn Governor Baker’s veto of the public health and oversight language in the DOC line item! Thank you all SO MUCH for calling, emailing, and pressuring the legislature to make this happen. This language will only matter if:

• The AG appoints directly affected people recommended by the community to run the independent oversight office
• DOC is actually held accountable for releasing people!
• Read more about the language here!
• Sadly, No Cost Calls is not happening this legislative session. FJAH is developing messaging that balances the deep harm of this policy failure and encourages the legislature to act next session.

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

⭐️ 💵 DONATE YOUR STIMULUS CHECK

If you are receiving a stimulus check, it isn’t needed relief for you, and you would prefer to donate directly to an organization than redistribute to an individual, please consider supporting Black & Pink, Whose Corner is it Anyway, or Boston Relief Network! Read more about all three here!

Public Education

⭐️✊ FREE MEALS FOR BPS FAMILIES

If you know ANY families in Boston that have children under the age of 18 that could benefit from free meals, please spread the word about the Boston Public Schools (BPS) School Meals and Super Sites available across the city. These families to do NOT have to be enrolled in Boston Public Schools to be eligible. Additionally, anyone can pick up these meals and drop them off for a BPS family, they just need to know how many children are in the family!

💵 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.

Housing Justice

⭐️ ✊ WED, 1/13: NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO STOP EVICTIONS

Tell Biden and the CDC to stop evictions to save lives! Join us on Wednesday, Jan 13 10-11:30am at Boston Housing Court, 24 New Chardon St, for a rally and car caravan. Every day families across the country give up basic necessities and risk their lives to pay the bills. We know that housing is the cure to this crisis! RSVP to the National Day of Action here.

⭐️ 📋 PETITION: TELL BIDEN & THE CDC: STOP EVICTIONS, SAVE LIVES!

In the middle of a global pandemic, more than 13.4 households are at risk of evictions. When ICUs are overwhelmed and sheltering in place is the only thing keeping the community safe, eviction can be a death sentence. Tell president elect Biden to take immediate action! We are calling on the new administration to a) end evictions and stop utility shut offs and b) cancel rent, mortgages, and debt. Make your voice heard - sign and share widely!

💵 Fundraiser to Support Our Community Members After a Fire

Thank you so much to all who have donated! Please continue to support our community members who lost their home to a house fire. Please share these powerful words from one of the residents and fellow organizers, Lori, and keep sharing and donating to the fundraiser if you can.

💵FUNDRAISER: DONATE TO HELP FAMILIES FIGHT EVICTIon

Donate now to support daily, on-the-ground work to help families facing evictions fight to stay in their homes during this pandemic winter. City Life/Vida Urbana is a community organization doing everything in their power to organize tenants, connect people to rights and resources, provide legal support, and build a movement for housing justice. Support their efforts here - any amount helps!

Take Action Together

☎️ 📋 ✊ ACTION HOURS

Every Wednesday 12 to 1 PM

Action hours are a weekly opportunity to take action together, digitally! Facilitators guide participants through calls, emails, petitions and more while offering context and support. We're going in strong to 2021!

Register here for action hours.

Want to host your own? Trainings the last Wed of the month 1-1:30 PM (just stay logged in)!

Indigenous Solidarity

⭐️ ☎️ Tell Gov. Baker to sign the bill to change the Mass. state flag & seal!

After 36 years of advocacy, the bill to consider replacement of the MA state flag and seal passed the state legislature this past week. This is great news - AND we need to help make sure Governor Baker signs this bill! Please JOIN US in taking the action offered by Mahtowin Munro of United American Indians of New England (UAINE):

Now we need EVERYONE to email MA Governor Charlie Baker demanding that he sign the resolve that will establish the special commission to design a new state flag and seal. (While you're at it, you might also ask him to publicly support the other legislation that will be presented this session by the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda. He has been silent for far too long.)

For more information, here's an article about the bill. Call and email Governor Baker today!

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

Confronting White Supremacists

⭐️🍎 MA White Supremacists Active in DC Insurrection

Known white supremacists affiliated with National Socialist Club (NSC-131) and Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) actively participated in the insurrection in DC this week.

• Patch.com coverage of Chris Hood’s (NSC-131)’s involvement
• SHFA’s Mark Sahady, Sue Ianni, and Brandon Navom’s participation documented on twitter

️⭐️✊ Spread aWareness about White Supremacy In New England

Local activists have released NewEnglandWhiteSupremacists.com to contribute to the goal of exposing, opposing, and defeating local white supremacist movements.

⭐️🍎 Reject The Terrorism Framework

Anti-terrorism tools, agencies, and rhetoric cannot and will not stop militant white supremacy. Terrorism as a framework has, is, and will continue to be deployed in order to suppress #BlackLivesMatter, immigration justice, and other BIPOC and working class led movements for liberation. Read this report to dive deeper into this topic.

☎️✊Drop Shimmy's Charges!

• Swampscott police arrested Shimmy after he was assaulted by a Trump supporter, read more here.
• Call - Assistant DA Danielle Doherty at 978-745-6610 ext 5078
• Write - a letter to Assistant DA Danielle Doherty, 10 Federal St, Salem, MA 01970
  • demand the charges on Ernst Jean Jacques be dropped
• Demonstrate: every Sunday, 12-2, outside Swampscott Police Dept (531 Humphrey St)

⭐️💵 Support A Black Activist targeted By Police

On 10/18, while demonstrating against Super Happy Fun America, a white supremacist organization, a Black activist was violently arrested by Boston Police Department. He subsequently lost his job, support him here. Only $3000 left to meet the goal of $10,000!

✊ 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.

Immigration Justice

💵 Support those affected by Hurricane Eta

Join BIJAN and Movimiento Cosecha in fundraising to provide emergency response & mutual aid to those impacted by Hurricane Eta.

☎️Abolish ICE and Free Them All

Read BIJAN’s response to the Attorney General's Office's report regarding attacks made on community members detained in Bristol County this spring. Find sample email scripts and a Call To Action 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).

Support the Staff of the BPL

📋 Please sign and share this email petition to support the library staff at Boston Public Library branches who want to be able to provide the materials desired by their patrons. This is a matter of racial equity and justice, since the communities most impacted by the limits of the BPL plan are communities of color.

Mutual Aid and Supplies Collection

⭐️ 💵 Pledge Your Stimulus Check

We have over 100 pledges to redistribute stimulus checks to individuals referred by our partner organizations! We will remain in communication with pledgers as our partner organizations solidify the details of matches. A member of our team will be there to support you at each step and we expect to complete most matches by the end of January. If you do not need your stimulus money, pledge to redistribute it today.

Additionally, we acknowledge that our stand alone email this week did not explicitly acknowledge that some folks on our list are not in a position to redistribute their check. We apologize for the harm caused and underline our celebration of the hundreds of ways to support movement building that do not rely on donations.

⭐️ ✊ ALERT: FOOD AND CRITICAL SUPPLIES NEEDED

It’s 2021, but we’re still in a crippling pandemic. Please help us continue to support our partners (Cape Verdean Association of Boston, 12th Baptist Church of Roxbury, and VietAID) by donating essential supplies (see below).

We asked, you delivered! On Saturday alone my Toyota Corolla was packed with goods! Let’s keep a good thing going!

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)
• In particular, rice, beans (red kidney, lima, and black beans preferably dry and not canned), as well as tuna * HIGHEST NEED
• Toilet paper, disinfectants, diapers, and masks (reusable and disposable) are also in demand

For VietAID: oatmeal (boxes of individual packets), mac n’ cheese, tuna

SURJ Boston has drop off sites in Allston, Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury, Somerville, and West Roxbury.

💵 Can’t donate goods?

Make a monetary donations to our partners instead so that they can continue their life saving work. The links to donate are hyperlinked below. Please shoot us an email at surjbmutualaid@gmail.com if you donate!

• Cape Verdean Association of Boston
• 12th Baptist Church of Roxbury
• VietAID