Hey Sunrise Movement Sacramento,

It's been a heavy month.

We've been focused on saying little, and doing a lot - but it's about time we catch up. You may have received communications and statements from Sunrise the national organization and wondered, what is Sunrise Movement Sacramento up to?

If you're finding yourself asking this question, you can find our latest updates and announcements on Instagram @sunrisemvmtsac where we are most active, with much more frequency than by email.

Here's what this email covers further below:

• • Welcome Picnic + Local Politics 101 event recaps

  • Endorsement process, deadline by 6:30pm today: sunrisesac.org/endorsements/2024-vote

  • Sunrise 101 introductory session for new members coming up

  • October 22 National day of action against police brutality recap

  • Protest safety reminders

Solidarity With Palestine

We are in a critical moment of global uprising in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against occupation, and against this current siege that historians and scholars around the world have identified as a genocide riddled with war crimes being committed - and aided and abetted, with our government's full political, military, and financial support.

Locally and nationally, we must and have been firm in solidarity with the affirmation to protect the sanctity of all life, joining the global call for a ceasefire now and a stop to ethnic cleansing and the genocide in Gaza and Palestine more broadly.

What Sunrise is doing about this

Nationally

• Daily action hours - We have been in coordination with Sunrise as a broader organization, which has been hosting national action hour sessions over Zoom every day to orient and guide folks through how to contact your Congressmember and take action. Sign up for the next Palestine Action Hour tomorrow, Monday Nov 6th from 11am - 12pm PT and every following day this week: mobilize.us/sunrisemovement/event/589190/  

• Showing Up For Palestine Action Toolkit: smvmt.org/gazatoolkit developed by Sunrise nationally

In Sacramento

• We developed an easily shareable guide and call script with district maps for how to contact your Congressmember in just 20 seconds, check it out on Instagram at instagram.com/p/Cy4OFPuP-hx/ or repost and share it yourself using our social media toolkit

• We put together a quick set of protest safety reminders, share them at instagram.com/p/CzO_HU0JBxB/ and keep our communities safe

• We have been supporting direct action organized by Palestinian voices, amplifying calls to action on social media, spreading the word about and cosponsoring local events, and providing material support like sound amplification where / when we can - acting in solidarity with the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights and partners like Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, and more.

What can you do?

Stay engaged and in the loop by following social media for the most recent updates. Be on the lookout for upcoming calls to action, events and potentially trainings - as we must meet this moment by developing a leaderful movement with the capacity to respond and channel our energy forwards.

This Tuesday, Nov 7th at 12pm there will be a press conference at the federal courthouse building where Congresswoman Doris Matsui's district office in Sacramento is located, followed by a vigil until sunset holding space for lives and particularly children lost. Learn more at: instagram.com/p/CzPDIQLvDfx/

Sunrise Movement Sacramento

Internal Updates

Since we last emailed, here's a loose summary to catch you up on what we've been up to:

We kicked off October 1st with our Welcome Picnic!

A group photo of some of us who made it out to hang out and get to know one another. We brought together familiar and new-to-Sunrise faces, even with partners from Sunrise Davis, and left the picnic kickstarting our new structure oriented around neighborhood/region-based groups. If you've been active with Sunrise Sacramento before you may be familiar with Slack - a tool we aren't currently using anymore. We're currently piloting out a WhatsApp community with sub-groupchats to coordinate and stay organized.

One week later, we hosted a Local Politics 101 training as part of Decarcerate Sacramento's abolition summer camp series!

We need to scale up our collective capacity for leadership, and in addition to volunteering into opportunities to practice, that starts with skills trainings! If you missed our training, be on the lookout for another one hopefully later this year as well as in early 2024. In the meanwhile, check out the overwhelming amount of information we've compiled for your convenience in our still developing Local Politics 101 Supplemental Guide: tinyurl.com/DecarcerateGuide

2024 Election endorsement process moving forwards! Provide your input by 6:30pm today, and get on our electoral email list

Sunrise as an organization has always been involved in building power - and part of our theory of change is building political power by partnering with champions for the Green New Deal who can bring our voice and vision for the future into the halls of power.

We hosted our first candidate interview for the 2024 election on Friday night, and are collectively deciding through an organization-wide vote whether to endorse or not.

Participate in our endorsement process through a quick vote before 6:30pm today: sunrisesac.org/endorsements/2024-vote

We categorically and legally can't tell you who to vote for through this email list, but you can tell us which campaigns you're excited about supporting!

For that reason, we have another separate email list that we can use for activities related to elections - please sign up to keep getting our emails there!

To be announced soon! Sunrise Movement 101 introductory session

We need to scale up our collective capacity for leadership. We need your help and participation in order to keep going - and know that many of you are ready and excited to get involved - here's a good place to start. We've been training up a new team of trainers to give you our Sunrise 101 presentation, an introduction of everything you need to get involved and how to get plugged in as an active member of our organization. With our new structure we've also been reworking and tailoring some of the slides, and hope to announce a date or few soon!

National Day of Action Against Police Brutality October 22

Like last year, this past October 22nd we joined Voices of Strength and other organizations and families impacted by police violence in taking part in an annual action to call for accountability from our municipal law enforcement agencies. We provided some logistic support and mutual aid supplies for the event, and livestreamed the press conference on our Instagram account. Learn more about their work at: instagram.com/voicesofstrength/

Protest Safety Reminders

We keep us safe. We can protect our community from surveillance, suppression, & disease. Don't talk to cops!

~ More nuance: if folks are trained in de-escalation and organized around coordinating an action, it may make sense to have designated folks that can talk to cops to keep the rest of us safe. Know your rights and act with love and intention for the people around you and the people you fight for. A better world is possible, and we need you in it, stay safe!