THIS WEEK
Monday, November 22 • 5:00 – 6:30 PM PT
Rethinking Thanksgiving: Solidarity with Indigenous Resistance
This webinar—sponsored by national SURJ, the Indigenous Solidarity Network, Catalyst Project, and Rising Tide North America, among others—will interrogate the legacy of the Thanksgiving holiday and recommit to supporting Indigenous sovereignty. From tar sands pipelines to Arctic oil and gas drilling, Indigenous campaigns of resistance continue to lead the way in protecting future generations against the destruction of sacred lands and waterways. We’ll hear from those on the frontlines including Khury Petersen-Smith, Krystal Two Bulls, Julia Tasul, and guests from the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Register here
As we approach the end of year holidays, many of us will have the opportunity to engage our families and loved ones in conversations about race. The Indigenous Solidarity Network has developed a toolkit geared towards white folks to help discuss Thanksgiving with family, friends, and broader community.
This toolkit offers incredible depth for understanding a wide variety of topics, including:
- The history of the Thanksgiving holiday
- The land we all occupy
- Natural resource extraction
- Family history and lineage
- Cultural appropriation
- Christianity’s impact on Indigenous peoples
- Taking action for land reparations and Indigenous sovereignty
Click here to view the toolkit
Tuesday • Nov 23 • 4-5:30-pm
Speakers include:
Harsha Walia (TBC), author of Border and Rule , community organizer, and campaigner in migrant justice, anti-capitalist, feminist, and anti-imperialist movements.
Daniel Tse, Asylum/Detention Task-Force Coordinator at the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
Taisha Saintil is the point of contact for all legislative and communications related work with Haitian Bridge Alliance. She heavily supports campaigns that affect hundreds of thousands of Black migrants, such as the redesignation of temporary protected status for Haiti and the ongoing campaign for designation of temporary protected status for Cameroon.
Camilo Perez-Bustillo, member, leadership team Witness at the Border; co-founder of International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples in Movement; co-author, Human Rights, Hegemony and Utopia in Latin America: Poverty and Forced Migration in Mexico and Colombia.
This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, Spectre Journal, DSA Immigrant Rights Working Group, Witness at the Border, and the Tempest Collective. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.
Register here
NEXT WEEK
SAVE THE DATE
SURJ National New Member Orientation
December 9 • 5 – 6PM PT
This email came from the SURJ National Director, Erin Heaney on 11-19-21:
I’m sure by now you’ve heard the news that Kyle Rittenhouse — who shot three people, killing two, last summer in Kenosha, WI at an event protesting the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake — has been found not guilty on all charges by a nearly all-white jury.
My fellow white people: I need you to recommit to organizing in your own communities today.
Kyle Rittenhouse — and the nearly-all white jury who acquitted him — come from our communities.
At Showing Up for Racial Justice, we are working to build a different way of being white. We must build a movement that brings white people towards a real vision of justice. As the Right doubles down on radicalizing our people, we’ve got to fight just as hard to organize them away from white supremacy and towards liberation.
We must be organizing in white communities targeted by white nationalist and other far-Right movements. We have to step into our responsibility to organize our own people towards something better. We need to build political homes where people can come as they are — and where we can transform them. Where we can help our people build multiracial solidarity, not organize ourselves around the solidarity of whiteness.
This moment is another example of how the criminal legal system does not build safety and it cannot save us from white supremacist violence.
Policing and the court system have once again failed Black people and enabled white supremacist violence. From the beginning in this case, the police refused to make initial arrests, allowing a murderer to walk free after actively pursuing unarmed victims. Police remain allegiant to white supremacist violence, allowing white men to act as vigilantes, shooting unarmed innocent people, while Black people are locked up for petty crimes. They defend a system that creates many people like Rittenhouse and the jury that acquitted him. These are not isolated incidents or a few bad apples, and the sooner we can accept that we have to change the whole system, the better.
Without organizing in majority white communities, we should expect this kind of behavior and violence to continue and increase in light of this verdict. Join me in the work ahead of building a better future for us all.
Here a few ways you can be recommitting to organizing in white communities:
- Attend SURJ’s new member orientation on December 9 at 5 PT / 8 ET to learn more about joining our organizing work in white communities
- Find a SURJ chapter near you
- Support our work of organizing white communities
- Share our statement on Medium
In solidarity,
Erin Heaney
SURJ National Director
MULTIPLE DATE OPTIONS
Amah Mutsun Pie Ranch Volunteer Day,
Every third Saturday! 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Visit Hollaback to check out their free Bystander Intervention and De-escalation trainings!
EVERY WEEK
SURJ Bay Area Action Hours
This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with others who are feeling rage and deep sadness about racism and white supremacy, but not sure what to do. Join SURJ for an hour of action! We’ll meet over Zoom to provide concrete steps you can take—calling elected officials, signing petitions, etc.—to combat racism against Black & Indigenous people and communities of color. (Closed captioning will be available in the main room of Action Hour calls.) https://www.surjbayarea.org/events