We are making change!
- Look for “(6/17 – Update)” for newest additions. We’re putting up information on local protest actions by others we’re finding from informal sources. These listings are not endorsements nor guarantees as to time/place/type of protest or participant safety. Events can and have already been cancelled without notice.
- Be safe: Please be prepared and peaceful: know your rights and remember there’s still a pandemic. Download the ACLU app onto your phone, bring water, hats, MASKS, hand sanitizer, etc… (Check out graphics near the bottom and Action #1 for more information.)
- Advisory: As of June1, 5:00 pm, there is NO emergency curfew in effect in Ventura County at this time. (Update check here) Some East County residents received a Wireless Emergency Alert from Los Angeles County officials about the emergency curfew in Los Angeles County. We have NOT enacted an emergency curfew in Ventura County.”Please be safe and informed, and do not listen to unsubstantiated rumors or false information during this time.”
- Help us update information: Send event information we’ve missed to IndivisibleVentura@gmail.com with “EVENT” in the header.
- Don’t forget. Your calls, emails and letters to legislators at ALL levels are powerful tools for change. We’ve put contact information for elected officials at the bottom of this post.
Actions happening TODAY!
Note: Before we start listing the protests – we are not just talking to ourselves. These actions are causing change! See “Results!” near the bottom of this post.
#Juneteenth – No more Excuses – Time to make Juneteenth a nation holiday.
(Forbes) “June 19, 1865, commonly referred to as Juneteenth, is the date that the Union Army’s Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced the end of both the Civil War and slavery. The declaration came almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the Confederacy. The two and a half year delay was due, in part, to the fact that Texas was the western most slave-holding state and saw only limited battles and Union troops. This meant that few slaves in Texas were aware of President Lincoln’s declaration, as well as their freedom. Subsequently, legal freedom for all enslaved people in the United States came with the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” More articles here, here, here and here.
Juneteenth has been recognized by 46 states and the District of Columbia as a holiday or observance. Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam just declared Juneteenth a state holiday. Many companies, including Nike, Twitter and Square, are making it a paid holiday.
Every year, Congress passes resolutions “recognizing June 19 [fill in the year] as an observance of historical significance.” It’s long past time to add “Juneteenth – Emancipation Day” to the list of federal holidays and to be added U.S. Code 36 – a list of national observances. (which includes things like “National Safe Boating Week,” for goodness sakes).
Sign some petitions here
- Sign this Change.org petition for 93-yr-old Opal Lee of Fort Worth TX here.
- If you’re in the Fort Worth area, join Opal’s caravan here! DEADLINE TODAY (June 17)
- Sign NY Dem. candidate Jamal Bowman’s petition here.
Call Action – here
Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Senator [___] to know that it is long past time to make Juneteenth to be a nationally-recognized holiday and day of remembrance…
More script if you want it: …to honor those who have come before us to build this country, to remember our ancestors, and to honor the lived experiences of all Black Americans.
Contact
Rep. Julia Brownley: email, (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email.(CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com
KEEP CALLING! Judges change everything – Make your friends and family in RED states call their senators!
(6/15 – Update) Loving v. Virginia was the result of judges removing a barrier to equality, a barrier other judges had upheld. The biggest action you can do today for racial justice is to call your senators (and have your friends and family in red states to call theirs) to vote against racist judicial nominees Justin Walker and Cory Wilson getting more powerful, lifetime seats. Go here for more information and call script.
Phone Bank with Sunrise Movement
UPDATE!: While Charles Booker is on the streets getting tear gassed and his staff raises money for bail funds, Amy McGrath tweets vague niceties about peaceful protest. Pick your fighter.
While Andrew Romanoff affirms Black Lives Matter is about structural racism, John Hickenlooper deflects with “Black lives matter means that every life matters.” Pick your fighter.
While Jamaal Bowman joins protestors in Yonkers, sharing his personal story of being arrested for driving while Black and demanding poice be defunded, Congressman Eliot Engel admits “if he didn’t have a primary he wouldn’t care.” Pick your fighter.
Here’s our plan to win: these three candidates are underdogs, but everything is being turned upside down by this moment and it’s all up for grabs. Making phone calls is the most effective way to make sure voters know there’s a fighter they can vote for.
Can you sign up for a shift to make calls with us for these Green New Deal champions? We’ll provide everything you need: quick, easy training, a list of numbers to call, and support from experienced phone bankers to walk you through the process.
M4BL – Wednesday action
We Demand Immediate Relief for Our Communities: We demand the federal government provide direct cash payments, rent cancellation, mortgage cancellation, a moratorium on utility and water shutoffs and a cancellation of student, medical and other forms of debt. We demand long-term economic solutions like a Universal Basic Income, in order to address the immediate crisis and pave the way for a just recovery that doesn’t prioritize corporations and leave our communities behind. Support the families and the lives of those we have lost and those struggling to survive now.
See list here.
Protests
Fri 6/19: Juneteenth Actions
TBD – Juneteenth Actions with Movement for Black Lives. Movement for Black Lives is organizing nationwide action on this year’s Juneteenth weekend, June 19-21, and invites everyone to get involved. Click here to check out the SixNineteen site and learn more about plans for Juneteenth, the demands to elevate, and how to get involved wherever you are.
Fri 6/19: CANCELLED! Juneteenth – Celebration of Ventura County
The Juneteenth Executive Board has decided to cancel Juneteenth 2020. As you may have been aware locally, so many other events have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fri 6/19: Conejo Valley- Juneteenth – Solidarity March (5pm)
Fri 6/19: Simi Valley – Juneteenth – Peaceful March (4-7pm)
Sat 6/20: Ventura – Juneteenth Freedom Ride
JUNETEENTH FREEDOM RIDE
Let’s show the City of Ventura that skateboarders stand with the #blacklivesmatter maovement and stand against police brutality. Let’s be seen. Let’s be heard. Let’s push for peace and skate against hate!
We’re meeting up on 620 @ 5points @ 2pm and skating down Main Street to West Park. Pull up on your board, bike, scooter, leelys…whatever floats your boat. This event is inclusive to everybody and anybody who want to participate.
Celebrating the day after Juneteenth so people that work M_F don’t miss out.
Sat 6/20: Oxnard – A Day at the Park – New Gen-Juneteenth in Oxnard (1-5pm)
Lion’s Park, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard.
Fri 6/26: Oxnard, Oxnard Black Lives Pride March (1 pm)
Meet at Wilson Park and march to Plaza park where there will be speakers, poets and musicians. Local LGBTQ+ collectives/organizations are invited to speak as well.
Petitions
(6/9 – Update) TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Sign this petition for Victoria, one of our own! Call our senators!
(6/9 – Update): According to Victoria’s attorney, your messages of love and support you’ve added along with your names on the petition site mean the world to Victoria and her family. Thank you for your kindness, Ventura County!
America is happy to extract the labor of immigrants, but we won’t give the hardworking essential workers who make our lives more comfortable the basic dignity and security they need.
- Sign the petition for Victoria here. All actions to help her here.
- Make a call/email:
- Minimal script: Please grant Victoria Galindo’s June 1st stay of removal application. Allowing her to remain with her family. She is an essential worker who is valued by her community.
Contacts:
Senator Kamala Harris: (310) 231-4494
Senator Dianne Feinstein (310) 914-7300
LA Times article here. Victoria Galindo (previously called “Mariana Lopez” in the media for privacy reasons), the head of the household for four children and valued essential worker, secured a Stay of Removal in the US in 2011, and every year since then on the basis of her good conduct and essential support of her family. She works in housekeeping at one of the Ventura hotels housing unhoused veterans, elderly and other vulnerable people under California’s Project Roomkey. And in the midst of the Corona-virus pandemic, when her children and community need her more than ever, her application for a Stay has been denied. She received her “bag and baggage” notice directing her to appear at the Camarillo ICE office on June 11, carrying no more than 50 pounds of baggage, to be sent to Mexico. Read more here.
(6/14 – Update) – Justice for Malcolm Harsch
Petition here.
“Malcolm had very recent conversations with his children about seeing them soon. He didn’t seem to be depressed to anyone who truly knew him. EVERYONE who knew our brother was shocked to hear that he allegedly hung himself and don’t believe it to be true as well as the people who were there when his body was discovered. The explanation of suicide does not seem plausible. There are many ways to die but considering the current racial tension, a black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn’t sit well with us right now. We want justice not comfortable excuses.” The Harsch family told VVNG.
(6/14 – Update) – Justice for Robert Fuller
Petitions here, here and here.
Update: “Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Saturday formally requested the state’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra launch a probe into his death. The request came after the deceased’s family and local community members questioned what they believed to be a hurry by authorities to label his death a suicide, sparking concerns that foul play may have been involved.”
“This is a clear case of intimidation by White Supremacists to show their distain for Black Lives Matter movement, the protests to demand change for racial equality and police brutality reform. We demand a thorough and transparent investigation by Palmdale PD, providing ALL video surveillance from city hall & the surrounding buildings/area, the night Robert Fuller was lynched. This was not a case of suicide but murder; to find the persons responsible for his lynching and justice for Robert Fuller and his family. ”
Send an Email from United We Dream to demand the cessation of gassing immigrants
Join us and send an email to Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence. Demand ICE LET OUR PEOPLE GO!
