Fall is an excellent reminder that change is a natural and necessary occurrence. Part of the lush green leaves we enjoy during the summer months can be attributed to the trees shedding their leaves each fall. Likewise, even in a seemingly impossible situation, we can trust that at some point there will be a shift.
This month’s newsletter offers opportunities to be part of a shift toward justice-focused change. Keep reading for ways to participate in the SURJ-Unidos Corporate Noncooperation Campaign, the St. Paul Reparations Commission, and SURJ-TC Welcome Gatherings (multiple dates across these opportunities happening this week and the following!).
SURJ-Unidos Corporate Noncooperation Campaign
Are you ready to stand up against authoritarianism and proactively advocate for immigrants in our community? SURJ-TC is collaborating with Unidos MN on an exciting campaign that is building power and you’re right on time to join us!
The campaign will focus on moving a local corporation that profits from the labor of undocumented immigrants to support immigrant pathways to citizenship and defect from the Trump regime.
Our demand: For a local corporation to work with us to pass a pathway to citizenship for immigrant essential workers and speak out against Trump’s harmful policies.
Our plan: Organize our base at SURJ-TC to move consumers in support of ‘our demand’ by creating a public-facing campaign. We will deliver ‘our demand’ to the corporation and launch our campaign in October, and lead a boycott and public actions the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Why focus on immigration? The ‘Big Ugly Bill’ is siphoning money away from our healthcare, education and food benefits and using it to attack immigrants. Our economy and all of us depend on our immigrant neighbors. Immigration is the issue the Trump regime is using to try to divide Americans– a common sense solution to immigration reform could narrow that divide.
Why a corporate campaign? This campaign is designed to resist authoritarianism by moving MN based corporations to defect from the Trump regime. This corporation is one of the largest employers in the state, depends highly on immigrant labor, and has been moved by social pressure in the past. We believe that they will be more easily moved now because of lost revenue ($12.4B so far) from the boycott.
We ALL have a stake in this work– even if we are already citizens. You have the opportunity to join one of three groups to help move our campaign forward:
- Research that needs to be done
- Planning creative public actions
- Carrying out communications
Our next meeting is on Monday, September 29th from 6:30-8:30pm at El Colegio, 4137 Bloomington Ave, Minneapolis, MN. We will get updates on the development of the campaign, define our official launch date and meet in our focus groups. Childcare will be provided and if you plan to bring a child please email showingupforracialjusticemn@
REGISTER HERE FOR 9/29 and bring a friend!
Save the date for the following campaign meeting on Sun 10/12, 3:00-5:00pm @ El Colegio.
Reparations to descendants of chattel enslavement in St. Paul!
The St. Paul Recovery Act and Community Reparations Commission plans to recommend an ordinance to the St. Paul City Council in December, which would (in part) set up a funding mechanism for a reparations fund, administered by the city. The Slavery Disclosure Ordinance, if passed, would require every company which does business with the City of St. Paul to thoroughly investigate its own past for connections to the chattel slave trade. Those who find such a connection – even if it goes back to a company which was bought up by the present corporation – would be required to pay into a reparations fund in order to sign a contract with the City of St. Paul.
This exciting and very just approach puts the burden of paying for reparations squarely where it belongs – on those who profited from chattel enslavement. It also sets up a funding source outside of property taxes. The Dred Scott Reparatory Justice Fund (already named!) can accept donations, too, and Unity Church Unitarian has started it off with a very generous gift.
If you live in St. Paul, here’s what you can do to support the Reparations Commission:
- Come to the public hearings the fourth Wednesday evening of every month, from 6 to 8 pm, at the Rondo Community Library, 461 North Dale Street. This month it is Wednesday 9/24!
- Attend a Listening Session on Thursday September 25th from 6 to 8 at the Hallie Q. Brown/MLK Center, 270 North Kent Street in St. Paul. (Be prepared to listen, not to talk!)
- Contact your city council member to see how closely they are following the work of the Reparations Commission. Councilmembers Bowie and Johnson are deeply involved; less is known about the others.
SURJ is presenting a workshop on St. Paul reparations approximately monthly; if you’re in St. Paul, watch for a special mailing with the next date and place!
Welcome Gatherings
Being in community is a powerful support and antidote to disruptions and changes all around us. This Welcome Gathering is an opportunity for you to learn more about us and see if we could be a potential community ~ a political home ~ for you.
We are offering a Welcome Gathering on Tuesday, October 14th from 7:00pm – 8:30pm over Zoom. We will share stories about anti-racism in our lives and then talk about how you can get more involved with SURJ-TC and how we can support you in deepening your commitment to racial justice work.
Please register here if you would like to attend. We will send the Zoom link, along with a reminder a few days before.
We offer Welcome Gatherings regularly, so if you are interested and can’t make this one, keep an eye on the newsletter for future dates.
SURJ-TC is a local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national organization organizing white people to build the political will to end white supremacy. White people have been told for years by Black, Indigenous, and people of color that we need to educate and organize our own people. So that’s what we try to do. Learn more at www.surjtc.org. SURJ-TC is one of 150 chapters and affiliates nationwide. Learn about SURJ National at surj.org.
Our work is local and so are our volunteers. Within this volunteer-driven culture, we strive always to make our work as transparent and non-hierarchical as we know how while holding ourselves accountable to our mission of ending white supremacy and implementing our theory of change (i.e., self-education, action, and calling in more white people).
We welcome volunteers in our working groups and teams and can offer a variety of ways to get involved. If you’d like to find out more or are interested in other ways to get involved, email showingupforracialjusticemn@