SURJ Boston

Public Education

☎️ ✉️ Join Families for COVID Safety to demand Boston Public Schools Protect Students and Staff from COVID-19!

Send emails using this template to the School Committee, Superintendent Casselius, BPS Officials, and the Mayor. Make phone calls to:

• Superintendent Casselius: 617-635-9050
• School Committee: 617-635-9014
• Mayor Wu: 617-635-4500

Need guidance on what to say? See the phone script.

Let the Families for COVID Safety campaign know that you took action by clicking here.

For more information, see this background piece about Families for COVID Safety.

Sign up for their listserv by clicking here.

Immigration Justice

⭐️ 💵 Support the Mass Undocufund

MassUndocuFund is a fund that works to provide direct financial support to undocumented immigrants during the COVID-19 crisis. As families continue to be impacted by the Omicron wave, support our community members who have limited access to relief during this crisis!

Prison Abolition

🍎 5 YEARS AND $50 MILLION: WHY A PRISON AND JAIL CONSTRUCTION MORATORIUM MAKES SENSE FOR MASSACHUSETTS

Thursday, January 20, 7:00PM
Moratorium bill Zoom forum! RSVP here.

🔥 Get involved – fight to pause prison construction!

Take action in support of the moratorium bill! Canvass, phone bank, or text bank! Dates and more info via google form!

🍎 Reflecting on Mental Health and the Carceral System

Wednesday, January 19, 7:00PM
DefundNPD in Newton Zoom event. DefundNPD, Brookline Budget Justice, and Project LETS will talk about the intersections of abolition and mental health.

🍎 WANT A CAMPAIGN UPDATE FOR THE PRISON AND JAIL MORATORIUM?

Register online: weekly town hall on Mondays at 6pm, learn about events and actions to stop the new women’s prison and other new jails or prisons.

Mutual Aid

🔥 💵 Help us redistribute resources to our neighbors!

While many of us have had our lives return to “normal,” this pandemic is still negatively impacting our neighbors, particularly those of color, more than ever. Please lend support where you can!

We have porches set up as donation drop-off sites please email us to get the address for a drop-off site of your choice: Belmont, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Medford, Somerville, and West Roxbury.

Donations have been extremely low as of late. Please help us pick it up if you can!

Urgent needs:

• The Cape Verdean Association of Boston (CVAB): Food & essential supplies are still GREATLY needed, please give what you can: See the full updated list of needs here. Food and supplies to stay safe from COVID-19 are in the greatest demand.
• Cambridge Mutual Aid/Community For Us, By Us: Request for N95s to be dropped off at The Democracy Center, or monetary donations for masks at paypal.me/communityfubu

If you would like to donate funds to our partners as well/instead: (We’d appreciate an email at surjbmutualaid@gmail.com to let us know you donated!)

• Cape Verdean Association of Boston
• Community For Us By Us
• VietAID

Confronting White Supremacists

🍎 SURJ NATIONAL: UNITED VISION PROJECT

Kickoff Call: Wednesday, January 26, 8:00PM
The United Vision project will organize SURJ members across the country to do text outreach to white people vulnerable to right-wing recruitment.

📣 🍎 BOSTON COPS ARE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE JANUARY 6TH 2021 ATTACK

Take some time this week to educate yourself and others and re-commit to combating organized white supremacists.

• ⭐️ Latest news: “Did a Boston cop participate in the Jan. 6 attack?”, Boston Globe
• Start here: "Takeaways for well-meaning white people", Community Change Inc.
• For reference: "Confronting White Supremacy New England"
• For a local focus: "Six Massachusetts alleged rioters in the Jan. 6 insurrection still await legal action", GBH
• For a look at demographics: "January 6 Arrestees Aren't More Likely to Be from Rural Areas", The Daily Yonder

Housing Justice

No fault evictions should never happen, especially during a pandemic. Mutual aid is standing with neighbors facing evictions — join us to stand in solidarity with neighbors across the city.

⭐️ 🎉 🍎 VICTORY FOR 6 HUMPHREY’S PLACE!

After 4 years of organizing, the residents of 6 Humphrey’s Place in Dorchester won a huge victory: their building was bought by the Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust, ensuring permanent affordability and community control. Read City Life/Vida Urbana’s year end recap to learn about other updates.

☎️ ✉️ CALL, EMAIL, AND RECORD TESTIMONY FOR THE COVID HOUSING EQUITY BILL

Over 24,000 eviction cases and counting have been filed in our state during the pandemic. Read a summary of the bill here, and let your legislators know how urgently we need protections from evictions and foreclosures in this continuing pandemic and economic crisis!

📋 🔥 ✉️ SUPPORT AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR SENIORS #DrainTurtleSwamp #DropItMonty

Take action here to defend affordable housing for working-class seniors and El Embajador Restaurant! → 1. Sign the petition 2. Sign up to flyer 3. Write a letter.

Indigenous Solidarity

⭐️ 🍎 🔥 WATCH: RECORDING OF MA INDIGENOUS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA (MILA) VIRTUAL ACTION HOUR AND TEACH-IN

Watch this powerful video of Indigenous testimony about the need to support Indigenous-centered bills in Massachusetts.

🔥 THEN TAKE ACTION STEPS FOR MILA:

• ✉️ Send an automated letter to the members of the legislative committees where the bills are currently sitting, asking that the bills be reported out of committee favorably. You can customize the letter if you want. 📣 Please share and get your friends and organizations to write, too!
• 🍎 Learn more about the bills and get updates at this link.
• 🔥 Sign up to work with SURJ Boston’s advocacy effort by completing our form.

✉️ EMAIL PRESIDENT BIDEN - RELEASE LEONARD PELTIER!

Leonard Peltier, an Indigenous activist, has been in prison for 44 years (America’s longest serving political prisoner!) on charges and a trial that have been widely disputed. Email the White House to urge President Biden to release Leonard Peltier! See this doc for suggested language.

Contact us with any questions for our group. See our document for more info and further ways to take action.