The first month of 2018 saw Anti-Mass Incarceration and Intersectional Feminist events, including a Study-into-Action meeting that looked into the intersection of prison abolition and gender justice. SURJ NYC also continued to support ongoing efforts by Jewish Voice for Peace and Court Watch NYC. Below are a few highlights of events that SURJ NYC supported or hosted this past month. For information on current or future events, join us and sign up for our mailing list!
Centering Intersectional Feminism for the Win Webinar: This webinar was designed for feminists of all genders who experience white privilege. This interactive workshop covered: a brief overview of intersectional feminist analysis, applying intersectional feminism to your organizing, body-based tools for increasing resiliency and decreasing white fragility, the relationship between whiteness and gender, and embodied approaches to anti-racist leadership development.
AMI Feminist Study-into-Action: The Anti-Mass Incarceration Campaign has its second Feminist Study-into-Action. This is a monthly conversation exploring the intersections of prison abolition and gender justice and the ways we can show up to these intersections in our anti-mass incarceration work.
#CLOSErikers Action Night: The JustLeadershipUSA Team (our accountability partner with the #CLOSErikers and #FREEnewyork campaigns) ramped up efforts to register members nationwide inside correctional facilities. This event included processing letters, entering data and writing responses, all to support to support JLUSA’s work.
#2MillionVoices Volunteer Night: Another Just Leadership USA event focused on voter registration for incarcerated members nationwide—an enormous project. The campaign is called #2MillionVoices for the approximately 2 million people incarcerated in the US today.
ONGOING: Sign Petition to End Deadly Exchange: Our friends at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are working to end U.S.-Israel police exchange programs through the Deadly Exchange campaign, which SURJ NYC has endorsed. These programs promote the exchange of worst practices between the Israeli military and the US and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries. We invite you as our members to sign JVP's petition calling on the Anti-Defamation League to stop hosting seminars and programs that exacerbate the crisis of police violence in the U.S. and glorify militarization and oppression in Israel/Palestine. Collecting signatures on this petition is the primary strategy of the campaign at this time, and every single signatures helps.
ONGOING: Court Watch NYC: Court Watch NYC is a collaborative project with VOCAL-NY, Brooklyn Bail Fund, and 5 Borough Defenders. By joining Court Watch NYC, you will be the eyes and ears of accountability in Brooklyn and Manhattan courtrooms. Court Watch NYC volunteers will collect real-time data of what is actually happening in courtrooms, record the narratives that are not captured by the data in the courtrooms, and contribute to the accountability actions. Court Watchers will be required to go to a Court Watch Training 101 prior to their first watch shift and to choose court watch shift(s)—a wide range of court watch shifts will be offered and located in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Join the movement and become a Court Watcher by applying HERE!