Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.

​You’ll will hear about SURJ’s pathways for entering the work, including committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We’ll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.

Featured Speaker: Sandra Johnson a Community Organizer for All of Us or None, a grassroots civil rights organization fighting for the rights of formerly- and currently-incarcerated people and their families, and a project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

The Green New Deal frightens both major parties and enjoys broad support among Americans, but what would a Green New Deal look like? Who supports it and who’s critical from the left? And most importantly, how do we achieve it and climate justice more broadly?

Join us on Tuesday, April 16 to discuss these questions and more.

Accessibility: Wheelchair-accessible entrance and restrooms

Required Readings

See the readings that we’ll be discussing after a brief introduction from our members.

Join us for this interactive event as we read the letters, commentary and poetry of people experiencing the current iteration of modern day slavery within our prisons, as codified by the exception clause to the 13th Amendment, Section 1. Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Meet the organizers behind the all-volunteer campaign to bring a People’s Budget to Oakland! Talk policy, plug into volunteer opportunities, or just enjoy some flatbread and conversation. Special thanks to Reem’s for hosting!

Kaiser National Union of Healthcare Worker (NUHW) members have been in bargaining with Kaiser management for almost nine months. They staged a five-day strike in December, including a picket in front of Richmond Kaiser, which drew electeds such as Councilmember Eduardo Martinez.

Despite tremendous support from various allies, with over 80 elected and community leaders signing strong letters of support, Kaiser has still refused to budge on key issues: ensuring patients have timely access to mental health services (some patients seeking mental health services have to wait two months!) and ensuring NUHW members receive the same wages and benefits other Kaiser union members already have.

NUHW, frustrated by Kaiser’s years of negligence and inaction, has decided to circulate a petition throughout its whole membership which will give them the authority to call for up to an open-ended strike. While the union and its members do not want to strike, they are prepared to fight for their patients and for a fair contract.

NUHW Kaiser members are holding a series of actions to raise awareness around mental health access and the specific issues that exist within the Kaiser system. The next one is this week!

Please support Kaiser health care workers in support of their fight for a fair contract that improves patient access to mental health services!

Introduction of joint resolution by District 2 Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor, District 1 Councilmember Dan Kalb, and City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan in support of State Assembly Bill 392, which just passed out of the State Public Safety Committee on April 9.

Confirmed speakers include Cat Brooks, Anti Police-Terror Project; Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson, Love Not Blood Campaign; Attorney John Burris; Attorney Dan Siegel, APTP; and Jose Pavon of CURYJ.

The Oakland City Council Rules Committee meets right after this press conference at 10:45. This proposed resolution will be brought before that committee.

APTP is also looking into introducing a similar control on OPD’s use of force as a city ordinance.

“AB 392 is known as the California Act to Save Lives because it seeks to strengthen the rules for police use of force, particularly deadly force. The current legal standard on police use of force was written in 1872 and allows police to shoot and kill an individual whenever it is considered “justified.” According to a fact sheet from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California, the current legal standard not only “fails to include best practices but authorizes deadly force that would violate the U.S. constitution.”

“Furthermore, according to the ACLU, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color with PolicyLink, Anti Police-Terror Project, Black Lives Matter – California, the California Faculty Association, and PICO of California, among others, police kill people at a rate 37% higher in California than the national average, and in 2017, California police officers killed 172 people, half of whom were unarmed. Presently, police kill more people in California than in any other state with three out of four of those people being people of color. Black people are three times more likely to be victims of police violence.”

“The controversy surrounding the recent shooting death of a sleeping homeless man in Oakland illustrates our urgent duty to follow through on amending the Oakland Police Department’s use of force policy and fully supporting our independent Police Commission in doing this necessary work.”

Time to Move Beyond Income – For the first time in history the US was included in the worldwide effort to redefine extreme poverty.

For the first time in history the United States was included in the worldwide effort to redefine extreme poverty. Speakers include: Jessica Bartholow, Western Center on Law and Poverty, Maryann Broxton, US Coordinator MAP Research, Boston, Guillaume Charvon, US Coordinator for the MAP research/NY Leadership Team and the St. Mary’s Center Senior Advocates for Hope and Justice.

Feature documentary film, directed by Michael M. Conti, produced with Heather Boyle (USA) 70 minutes. “The Unruly Mystic: John Muir” explores the remarkable life and influential works of a patron saint of environmental activism. The film discusses the connection nature and spirituality, using the life and wisdom of John Muir, ecological preservationist and founder of Yosemite National Park, as a catalyst for how being outside in nature affects the lives of everyday people right now. John Muir played many roles in his life: mystic, prophet, author, poet, conservationist, radical, all of which helped him succeed in his role as an advocate for Nature.  As America’s most famous naturalist and conservationist, Muir fought to protect the wild places he loved, places we can still visit today. Muir’s writings have profoundly shaped the ways in which we understand and envision our relationship with the natural world today, and his work has become a personal guide into the natural world for countless individuals. The film interviews noted psychiatrists, therapists, theologians, writers, and every day people and asks them to discuss their relationship with nature, and its transformative effect in their lives.

COURT SUPPORT! needed tmrw, Friday
Union Point camp has a case management hearing
10am
SF Fed Bldg
450 Golden Gate Ave
Room 6
Let's keep up the pressure

— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) April 18, 2019

Key community representatives will come together to discuss urgent immigration issues that are threatening our most vulnerable communities. Drawing on diverse backgrounds, the panelists will share their expertise and perspectives on a range of issue-areas affected by recent anti-immigration policies. Learn how each of us can effectively defend our communities and defy anti-immigration policies and attitudes. Confirmed panelists include Catherine Tactaquin, (Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), Martha Ockenfels-Martinez (Researcher, Human Impact Partners), and Lara Kiswani (Executive Director, Arab Resource & Organizing Center). Moderated by Eddie Yuen.

Co-presented by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and San Francisco Poster Syndicate.

RSVP Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/defend-defy-a-community-panel-discussion-tickets-59140288194

Berkeley Earth Day is an exciting day of inspiring, life changing fun!

Berkeley Earth Day brings the Bay Area environmental community together to celebrate our vision for a sustainable future. Get inspired and connect with eco-minded comrades and learn how you can further reduce your impact on the planet and have fun doing it! This event features dozens of vendors sharing their eco-friendly products and epic activism. Hear educational and inspirational talks from experts, activists, enjoy delicious sustainable food, films and more! Compassionate Living, a non-profit organization based in the Bay Area, is proud to be the sponsor of this event.

Join us for inspiring speakers, crafts, activism, veggie food, dozens of eco-vendors and much more!  

Berkeley Earth Day is excited to host the Wild & Scenic Film Fest. One of the nation’s premier environmental and adventure film festivals, The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a collection of films from The South Yuba River Citizens League’s annual film festival which is now in its 16th year. Wild & Scenic focuses on films which speak to the environmental concerns and celebrations of our planet. These Films showcase frontline activism and stunning cinematography. Tickets for the FilmFest are sold separately.

THIS EVENT IS PRESENTED BY

A 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

4/15 – Housing
4/22 – Economy
4/29 – Education
5/6 – Public Health
5/13 – Neighborhood Life
5/20 – Public Safety

The first week’s workshop on the Housing Indicators is the first of a 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

Join us for this deeper dive into the Equity Indicators Report for the City of Oakland. Released last year, it clearly shows the effects of white supremacy on our community. Oakland posted a failing score of 33.5 out of a possible 100 across all indicators. This was the lowest score of all cities that participated in this national study.

Carroll Fife, the founder of Black Women & Elected Leadership, the Executive Director of Oakland ACCE, and one of the founding members of Community READY Corps, will join us as a guest speaker to provide some deeper analysis of the report’s findings and point us to actual solutions that will advance racial justice and equity in our housing market.