Author: Rachel Huang

https://www.runwithmaud.com/

Please go on the website to learn more about what happend to Ahmaud.

Please not only sign the petition but also make calls to demand for responsibility. They have a respectful script for you to follow so please give it a try.

**Trigger warning**** Gender based violence.

Dear community,

May 5th is the national awareness day for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW). There are other # such as MMIWG2S for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women, Girl, Two Spirit fam. Both fight for the same cause but there are tremendous work done with MMIW so this # is more widely used.

An event UCSB American Indian Student Association (@ucsbaisa) and UCSB Multicultrual Center (@ucsbmcc) co-hosted:

Resources AISA and MCC provided were:
https://oknaav.org/media
https://www.facebook.com/mmiwusa/

Here I share the infographic posts from Instagram @indigenousrising. Posts can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_z-2ZPjV3R/

Here is their message/caption:

https://www.braveheartsociety.org/
https://www.sovereign-bodies.org/
https://www.csvanw.org/mmiw/

Please consider learning more about this issue and how our different struggles are different but very much connected. Please support and help raise awareness of this crisis.

Thank you all.

A peak from the presentation:

Dear community members,

Our very own Professor Alves from UCSB Black Studies Department has reached out for help. Please see the message below!

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Greetings:

Solidarity is needed!

As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic is devastating black communities around the African Diaspora. Haiti has only 60 ventilators for its 11 million inhabitants; in the overcrowded favelas of Brazil, the Black population is disproportionately dying due to the lack of access to healthcare while seeing their living conditions deteriorating even further. In Colombia, the Black population is struggling with extreme poverty, unemployment and target assassinations as paramilitary groups take advantage of the quarantine to kill black and Indigenous social activists.

As our grieving communities mourn the loved ones and struggle to provide basic means of subsistence to those most in need, we join their effort in an international call to protect Black lives. This is an urgent call for your donation (any contribution) through this platform to assist black communities in Brazil and Colombia to purchase food, hygiene, and cleaning supplies.

Asociacion de Mujeres Negras “El Chontaduro:” You can make your contribution to this Black women’s black grassroots here

Uneafro: You can make your contribution to Black communities in Brazil here  

Now is the time to bridge what we have learned in the classroom with concrete action toward racial and social justice. We hope we can count on you. If you are unable to make a donation through the provided links and still want to contribute, you may contact our Brazilian ( +55 11 94759-2723 ) and Colombian (+57 310 7080254) grassroots through Whatsup. For further information about this campaign, you may also contact me through the email jaimealves@ucsb.edu

Let’s stand together to beat coronavirus and structural racism!

Stay home, stay healthy, stay In solidarity!

Jaime Alves

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/uc-csu-protect-workers-rights-livelihood-and-lives/

UC and CSU workers NEED your help in this crisis!!
Here is their petition message below:

The UC & CSU systems have made good progress in protecting jobs and pay during the first months of the coronavirus health and safety crisis. UC approved 128 hours of paid administrative leave for workers unable to work due to a health issue, being quarantined or school or daycare closures, and 256 hours were approved by CSU. More recently, UC pledged no layoffs through June 30, 2020.

These programs will need to be expanded given that this crisis and the economic repercussions are likely to last much longer. Together, UC and CSU employ more Californians than almost any other employer and provide vital education, research, and health care services. One of the best and fastest way to insure the long-term economic stability and health of our communities is to stand firm on the commitment to avoid layoffs. Furthermore, as long as shelter-in-place mandates remain in place in California, the UC and CSU need to extend paid administrative leave benefits to staff until they are lifted. We urge UC and CSU to provide every opportunity to employees to work — with all appropriate safety measures — through telework, flexible schedules, reassignments, re-deployments, etc. We are ALL essential workers!

For those who still cannot work safely because they are sick, quarantined, at high risk, caring for children due to school closures, or for any other COVID-19-related reason, the UC must ensure that workers will not suffer layoffs, curtailments, or other loss of pay and benefits as a result of this pandemic.

We, the undersigned workers, students and supporters, demand that the UC and CSU protect workers’ rights, livelihood and lives to avoid further damage and crisis to families and our communities caused by the COVID-19 health crisis. Extend paid administrative leave benefits to staff until stay-at-home orders are lifted. Expand the number of employees allowed to work from home UC and the CSU must prevent layoffs, protect safety, income and jobs for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath.

SIGN THE PETITION:
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/stand-with-the-mashpee?bucket=&source=facebook-share-button&time=1586446340&utm_campaign=&utm_source=facebook&share=5ea5410f-7463-4fe9-ae03-c7553deaaa38

Background info!
https://time.com/5812813/mashpee-wampanoag-revoking-reservation-status/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/trump-administration-revokes-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-reservation-status

Family and friends,

Last summer, I received the immense privilege and opportunity to study abroad in Ecuador for five weeks. I stayed with the indigenous community, Sarayaku, who live along the Bobonaza River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Sarayaku Community has taught me countless lessons on resistance, solidarity, and community, through their fight against oil extraction and the neoliberal government of Ecuador. This morning, I was saddened to hear about the extreme flooding that occurred in their territory, destroying their homes, crops, animals, and even the school that is crucial to their traditional ecological knowledge. Sarayaku is seeing the impacts of ALREADY occurring climate change during the middle of a pandemic. This is a clear example of how communities that contribute the least to climate change are being disproportionately affected by the adverse consequences of years of exploitation and extraction in the “Global South”.

Today, amongst this climate crisis and pandemic, I believe it is time to turn those powerful lessons I learned into actions. If you have the capacity to donate please follow the link to a gofundme page organized by Nina Gualinga, an indigenous climate activist from Sarayaku. If you are facing financial strains, there are other ways to show solidarity. You can help by spreading the word amongst friends, loved ones, and strangers. Please share this link widely!

We cannot let the Sarayaku community go unheard, especially when their entire being is about protecting Mother Earth for you, for me, for all of us. They are stewards of the Earth, their unwavering love for their environment is what guarantees this world a future. Now, it is time we return their kindness and guarantee a future for them and their loved ones during these unprecedented times.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/indigenous-communities-flooding-amazon?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

– March 18, 2020
– Written by Diana Garcia, Co-Chair of EJA 2019/20