Justice

The Justice Working Group was officially chartered on 7/14/2018.The Justice Working Group charter was updated on 8/16/2020.

Charter

Preamble

WHEREAS over-policing, border enforcement, and mass incarceration;

  1. Create and reinforce white supremacy in all areas of public, private, and civic life.
  2. Began as slave patrols to keep Black people oppressed.
  3. Surveil, disrupt, and destroy organized labor movements, as well as political movements that disrupt the status quo.
  4. Criminalizes immigrants, children, victimless behaviors, and poverty.
  5. Are not equipped to deal with mental health issues, and endanger people who need support.
  6. Expose incarcerated people to Human Rights abuses such as sexual violence, physical abuse, solitary confinement, disease, and the death penalty.
  7. Subject former felons to surveillance, parole, and reduced employment and housing opportunities.
  8. Emphasize punishment and revenge over harm reduction.
  9. Support the military industrial complex which provides police with weapons of war that are turned against their own communities.

Charter

As members of Silicon Valley DSA, we propose the creation of a Justice Working Group which reports to the Silicon Valley DSA chapter.

In order to build a just and equal society, which prioritizes reducing violence and victims rights we support the following:

  • Black Lives Matter.
  • Work to dismantle white supremacy, colonization, and all systems of oppression.
  • Abolish police, abolish prisons, and remove all Student Resource Officers from Silicon Valley school districts.
  • Implement Restorative Justice in schools and the legal system.
  • End mass surveillance and big tech over-reach which infringes on our Constitutional rights.

To obtain justice for and support the well-being of individuals and communities harmed by the criminal legal system, mass incarceration, income inequality and colonialism, the Justice Working Group:

  • Advocate for the release of all incarcerated people, and for the immediate release of incarcerated individuals at high risk for COVID-19.
  • Advocate for the Human Rights of incarcerated people and former felons, including the right to vote and record clearing.
  • Advocate to end the state sanctioned enslavement that sends California felons to fight California wildfires.
  • Advocate for new prisons to stop being built in California and for the closure of existing California prisons.
  • Hold letter writing campaigns to show support for, and bear witness to, the people incarcerated in our community as well as incarcerated comrades such as Reality Winner, Josh Williams, Leonard Peltier and many others.
  • Reparations for Black Americans and Indigenous people.
  • Support the removal of symbols of injustice, such as the California Mission Bells, which symbolize oppression, genocide and enslavement to the Indigenous peoples of California.

In order to build a more just and equal society, where opportunity is available to everyone, we support Mobility Justice efforts such as:

  • DSA Brake Light Clinics.
  • Remove police from traffic enforcement, replacing them with an unarmed civilian force.
  • Oppose local campaigns such as San Jose’s “Vision Zero” which increases police budgets and encourages over policing.

Using these initial strategies:

  • Create campaigns around immediate, specific, and realizable issues.
  • Work closely with local and national affinity organizations to identify solutions.
  • Co-create campaigns with affinity orgs and local activists which are victim centered and based on community need. Support their campaigns.
  • Pair up with existing working groups on Justice related issues
  • Elect Democratic Socialists to public offices.
  • Dismantle police unions.

Using these initial tactics:

  • Powermap. ID the people and structures that make solutions possible.
  • Outward facing: Banner drops, zines, chalking, photo petitions, flyering.
  • Testimony at public hearings, bird dog city council members.
  • Enlist targets through negotiation, confrontation and pressure.
  • Education: Book Club, Red Talks, virtual movie nights with megathreads, webinars, discussion panels.
  • Civil disobedience, protests, public demonstrations, die-ins.
  • Letters to the editor, op eds, letters to elected officials.
  • Research Silicon Valley governments and elected officials, share widely.
  • Research successful Restorative Justice models from around the world.
  • Ring of fire lit drop: Target legislator or neighborhood. Drop lit with calls to action in specific areas.

To last until the objectives are met or new objectives are created.

We anticipate that we will need to spend $30 per month for the following kinds of expenses:

  • Outreach materials: signs, signup sheets, leave-behind flyers
  • Canvassing support: water and snacks for canvassers

Membership is open to all Silicon Valley DSA members.