We mourn and honor the lives of Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Grant, Suncha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue who were killed in the shooting attacks in Atlanta last Tuesday evening. 

The white supremacist logic of the state asserts that violence against Asian/Asian American individuals, and the AAPI community at large, is an individual problem rather than the logical extension of both recent racist framing of the COVID-19 pandemic but also the long legacy of US Imperialism in Asian and Pacific Island countries. The state and its actors are already seeking carceral solutions like hate crime enhancement to solve the violence they perpetuate.

We know that the victims of last week’s shootings were targeted not only based on race but also their gender and their labor. Violence against cis- and transgender women and especially those who are or are assumed to be sex workers happens daily. This violence is acted out with state collusion even if the state isn’t directly involved. 

Mainstream media, as part of the state and apparatus and corporate America, further participates in this collusion - framing the mass murder as the result of a sex addiction. When women struggle with their relationship to sex or do not get the sex they want or the sexual attention they want, they have not enacted targeted, gender-based murder and violence. The denial of racism and misogyny prevents a public discussion towards a greater commitment to challenging the systemic roots causes of these acts of violence. 

Our solidarity is best expressed through our work. There is a lot of current and upcoming work that is directly related to shifting conditions of xenophobia, racism, gender-based violence and sex-workers targeted violence reflected in this incident. Below is a survey for sex-worker-allied lawyers to support with referrals from local sex worker organizations (including our partner BAWS) and developing Know Your Rights materials for sex workers. We are also relaunching our International Solidarity Committee to build up and support anti-imperialist, internationalist work in the Bay Area (please email intlsolidarity@nlgsf.org for more information). 

With solidarity and love we share Red Canary Song’s online vigil from last Friday for the lives lost. We at the Guild again seek to strengthen not only our commitment to our work but also to one another as we seek to support our Asian/Asian American community through grief and fear. Please join us at our March Membership meeting on 3/31 from 6-8pm as we follow up on our two Aorta trainings from February on interrupting harmful dynamics (see below for more details). 

—The NLG-SF Bay Area Team

Please join us for a release of NLG-SFBA's new publication, Know Your Rights: Employment & Labor During COVID-19.

Date: Thursday, March 25 (TOMORROW)
Time: 6:00-8:00PM 

Please join us for a release of NLG-SFBA's new publication Know Your Rights: Employment & Labor During COVID-19 which you can read here: bit.ly/KYRLaborC19

We will be joined by a panel combining both legal and organizing expertise to discuss common points of organizing and possibility during the health concerns of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Speakers include:

• Sonya Mehta, Employment Rights Lawyer
  
• Mariana Viturro, National Domestic Workers Alliance
  
• Kung Feng, Jobs with Justice
  
• Chela Delgado, Oakland Education Association
  
• Jane Sandoval, RN, California Nurses Association

Date: Wednesday, March 31
Time: 6:00-8:00PM

Our March Membership meeting will be a follow up to our two Aorta trainings from February, diving deeper into internal dynamics and interrupting dynamics in live time. Board members and staff will support small-group discussions.

As an organization, we ask ourselves: What gets in the way of us interrupting harmful dynamics, and what support do we need to do so? What can we do as an organization to make this a collective practice and expectation?

This event is open to our members in good standing with NLG-SFBA. If you are unsure about your current membership standing, please email our Membership Coordinator at membership@nlgsf.org.

Date: Wednesday, April 7
Time: 6:00-8:00PM

The NLG-SFBA is holding a new Basic Legal Observer Training which will be held on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. This training aims to expand our capacity to support demonstrations in the Bay Area, particularly those organized by communities on the front line of state repression during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Legal Observers play a critical role by monitoring and documenting law enforcement activity and serve as the first point of contact by which arrestees can access the legal support offered by the National Lawyers Guild. Legal Observers are also increasingly needed during the ongoing eviction crisis in the Bay Area.

This training has been updated to reflect what NLG-SFBA Legal Observers have learned since the uprisings this summer. We invite Legal Observers to renew their training, especially if you have not participated in a demonstration in several months.

Contact demonstrations@nlgsf.org with questions.

If you would like to be trained as a Legal Observer or renew your LO training, please register at the link below.

The National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco Bay Area is seeking law student interns and work study placements for the remainder of Spring 2021 and Summer 2021 semester. Internships range from 5-35 hours per week. Contact Program Coordinator E Conner, at econner@nlgsf.org, if you are interested.

In your internship you will have the opportunity to work closely with attorneys and other legal professionals; develop writing samples; be exposed to a diverse range of legal workers, organizations, and law firms; gain hands on experience in the legal field; have access to professional development and political education; and develop an orientation to progressive movement lawyering.

We can offer:

• Pro bono hours (as per State Bar requirements)
  
• Credit-earning internships and externships
  
• Federally funded work-study

We have recently included a new internship opportunity, the Immigration Court Watch Data Analysis Internship.

You can find more information about our internship program below.

The Environmental Justice (EJ) committee of the NLG-SFBA launched in February 2021. The EJ committee seeks to support the organizing of frontline communities in the Bay Area most impacted by poor environmental conditions and to fortify their efforts by providing legal defense and support including impact litigation, activist defense, legislative analysis, submission of public records acts and consultation based on needs of the EJ movement. The EJ committee also seeks to be a political home for EJ minded lawyers and legal workers. 

If you’re interested in getting involved in the EJ Committee, please contact Zsea at zsea@nlgsf.org. 

Please see below the support letter for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

We are asking everyone to send their names, titles and/or organizations and to SHARE with your networks so we can add-on to this ongoing list of supporters.

Please send your lists of individuals and/or organizations to vhaynes2236@gmail.com so we can add-on and finalize this support letter.

Our goal is to send the final letter with signatures by the end of the week. Please SHARE WIDELY and SEND YOUR LISTS as soon as possible.

Thank you ALL for your timely responses and ongoing support of our Black Panther Elders.

Free Mumia! Free Our Elders! Free 'Em All!!!

Peace,

National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party

Last year, we were so excited that Governor Newsom signed AB 2218 - The Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund, authored by Assemblymember Santiago, into law. AB 2218 established the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund within the Department of Public Health for the purposes of funding holistic health services for TGI people across California.

Despite this bill's historic passage, the appropriation of $15 million dollars was taken out of the bill, leaving the fund empty and unable to begin implementation to distribute resources to the TGI community in urgent need. We have returned this year and submit a budget request in collaboration with Assemblymember Santiago this year to place resources into the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund for the purposes of beginning the implementation of AB 2218.

We are currently collecting sign-ons from organizations that would like to endorse our budget request and are willing to stand in solidarity with us. Please fill out this SIGN ON FORM, also linked below, if your capacity allows.

Date: March 25
Time: 5-7PM PT

FYI - when event is at capacity, tune in via FB Live

Across the U.S. and the globe, unprecedented health, economic and social crisis is leading to escalating violence against BIPOC communities, often targeting women and TGNC people in particular. Over 10,000 people were arrested in the course of the 2020 uprisings after George Floyd's murder, but they have largely been disappeared from public view. Women who have been imprisoned for defending themselves and their communities have much to teach us about resisting state violence. 

Speaker line-up:

• Janine & Janet Africa of the MOVE 9 - learn more about MOVE here!
  
• Siwatu Salama Ra - Freedom Team Detroit/Grassroots Global Justice
  
• Laura Whitehorn - RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison)
  & a possible surprise speaker!
  

• Moderated by Aleta Toure' - Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative, Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ), People's Strike, and AfroSoc

Hosted by California Coalition for Women Prisoners & Parable of the Sower Intentional Community Cooperative

Date: March 25, 2021
Time: 12:30-1:30PM

The Bay Area Consortium on Externships (BACE) and Southern California Externships (SoCalEx) invite you to a free one-hour CLE program on March 25, at 12:30-1:30pm, for attorneys who supervise students in field placements. 

BACE and SoCalEx have identified diversity and inclusion as a critical issue and chose the Inclusion Design Group (IDG) for its expertise in training on these topics. Dr. Erin Conner, IDG’s co-founder, will deliver a keynote to deepen our awareness and understanding about power and privilege and social identity, and how to identify and remove obstacles that keep law students and lawyers from reaching their full potential. Attendees will receive written materials designed to help them identify issues and implement solutions at their organizations. 

We hope to see you there!