news from surj! march 2020

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A Black queer feminist lens gets us all free

Join Charlene Carruthers, a strategist, writer and leading community organizer in today’s movement for Black liberation, for a conversation with SURJ. Charlene is the founding national director of BYP100, founder of the Chicago Center for Leadership and Transformation, and author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. The call will highlight the importance of applying a Black queer feminist lens to all of our movement work, including the work of SURJ. Join us for this conversation as we celebrate National Women’s History Month.

Register here: bit.ly/surjcharlene
Invite friends on Facebook here!

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Join this webinar for chapters to get involved in SURJs electoral strategy around the country! This will be a chance to hear how your chapter can get involved in moving your family, friends, and members to vote for racial justice.  
March 9th 8 ET / 7 CT / 6 MT / 5 PT
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Register here: bit.ly/electoralstrategychapters
Invite other SURJ Chapter members on Facebook here!

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SHERIFFS, WHITE SUPREMACY AND ORGANIZING
​strategies FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION

Join this conversation about the role of sheriffs in upholding white supremacy and the strategic need to run local campaigns that can hold them accountable, or kick them out of office in our work for collective liberation. Our guest speakers are from Political Research Associates and Sheriffs for Trusting Communities.

Register here: bit.ly/surjsheriffcampaign
Invite friends on Facebook here

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book review: Dub Brings Ancestral Voices
​to Offer Decolonial Pathways Forward

Dub: Finding Ceremony by alexis pauline gumbs 
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The book gives visceral feeling to what social justice activists talk about as mutual interest and collective liberation in ending colonization and white supremacy. That all are affected differently, but in the end, life across species and spirit are all harmed by these systems and histories. Learning from this work of intersectional Black feminism can lead us all to healing and freedom.  Read More! Except of review by Chapter Network Director Z! Haukeness Out now! Purchase here, any major outlets, or your local book store. 

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​#QueersAgainstPete statement on the suspension of the Pete Buttigieg campaign

SURJ is happy to have been a part of the Queers Against Pete coalition.  Here is a statement following Buttigieg's ending of his campaign: 

#QueersAgainstPete welcomes the news that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is suspending his campaign. We formed our collective to call attention to the ways that Mayor Pete’s platform would fall particularly hard on economically vulnerable LGBTQ2IA+ communities: from his opposition to Medicare for All, decriminalizing border crossing, or cancelling student debt, to his ongoing failure to meaningfully address criticisms from Black Lives Matter South Bend. #QueersAgainstPete feels that we must fight for policies that move every member of the LGBTQ2IA community towards liberation, not make small changes at the margins that only benefit those already in proximity to power. Read more!

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WET'SUWET'EN SOLIDARITY - KKR CAMPAIGN

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and community members in Canada are fighting to protect their land from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, despite having rights and title to their land since time immemorial. 

The Coastal GasLink pipeline poses grave risks to the land, air, water, and climate, and to the Indigenous women living near the fracked gas pipeline route.

Tell JP Morgan Chase and KKR to stop banking on Coastal GasLink today.

This June, TC Energy — the massive oil and gas company behind Coastal GasLink pipeline and the KXL pipeline — is planning to finalize their sale of 65% of the pipeline to KKR and AIMCo. TC Energy expects to make $600 million dollars off the deal. TC Energy is JP Morgan Chase’s largest fossil fuel client. Sign this petition to KKR and JP Morgan Chase, and demand they stop funding Coastal GasLink.

Wet’suwet’en law upholds their title to their own lands, which is also recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have explicitly denied consent for the Coastal GasLink project, and have ongoing lawsuits-- and yet construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline continues bulldozing their land. They call for continued international solidarity like we’ve seen with the shutdown of railroads.

Sign the petition now. Help organize offline events and actions. Find the KKR toolkit with sample emails, social copy, and graphics here. You can also support the Wet'suwet'en directly by using and/or sharing their toolkit and donating here and here.