Land and Freedom Now!
Junteenth Seminar

June 19th | 10:00AM PST | Our Executive Director Noni Session is moderating this Land and Freedom Now Juneteenth Seminar, jam-packed with panelists from the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, The Working World, Fund for Democratic Communities, PolicyLink, and Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network! 

Event Description: Count on Malcolm X to say it plain. Land is the basis of our freedom. The relationship between Black people and the land runs deep. From Quilombos, to the promise of 40 acres and a mule; to the Combahee River Colony; all the way to the Black Panthers’ Ten-Point Program, the demand for Black land is deeply rooted in the Black freedom struggle. Despite the strategic role of Black land ownership in our pursuit of freedom, since 1920 the number of Black farmers has fallen by 94 percent and millions of acres of Black land has been lost. 

This seminar will explore solutions to Black land loss centering what we must do now to get back our land through collective and cooperative economics. Panelists will first consider our relationship as Black people to the land, how the relationship has transformed across geography and time, and historic efforts to preserve Black land and advance cooperative economic development within the Black community. Panelists will then turn to solutions fit for our time and our needs as a community. Participants in this seminar will gain exposure to and engage with various models and strategies and will leave the seminar inspired and ready to meet Savi Horne’s call to take back the land and our freedom now. 

Scenario Planning Part 5

June 25th | 6:00PM PST | We're still scenario planning for land liberation, reparations, and permanent affordable housing in the time of covid, martial law, and civil unrest. Join us next week (even if you’ve never been before!) to help us plan our part in the uprising. RSVP here.

Got Lunch Plans Today?

TODAY! | June 16th | 12:00PM PST | Have you been meaning to catch one of our orientations to learn about our unique model? Today's the day! Join us at lunch time to meet our staff and get all of your questions answered. RSVP here.

Good Reads 

(and videos, spreadsheets, and more!)

EB PREC Blog Post: #AbolishPrisons #InvestinHousing - “We’ve talked a lot about real estate capitalism and the racial wealth gap. We’ve also talked about how the fight against police brutality is also a fight for affordable housing… But today, let’s talk about the role of the police in protecting capitalism, beyond individual instances of police brutality. By the end of this post, we hope to convince you that we need to #DefundThePolice and #InvestInHousing.”

Shareable Article: What one Nobel Prize-winning economist can tell us about defunding and abolishing the police - "Indigenous Peoples continue to practice safety without the police, such as a community in Whitehorse, Canada. Indigenous citizens of Chéran, Mexico “threw out” the police and took safety into their own hands. There is now little crime that was otherwise common in this part of Mexico... In Rojava, Syria, each neighborhood has its own civil protection volunteers, which have to be 40 percent women. This group is separate from civilian peacekeepers, who are tasked with guarding government buildings and checkpoints since Syria is still a war zone. Almost all inter-personal conflict (e.g. domestic abuse, fights between neighbors) is resolved through yet another separate system of community mediation."

Critical Resistance Video: Kamau Walton: What’s Wrong with Community Control of Police? -  In 2017, Kamau Walton broke down why we need to abolish the police. “Policing has never, has not ever, been meant to be used as a tool to serve Black people, poor people, undocumented folks, queer gender nonconforming trans people. It’s meant as a tool to maintain the status quo and to keep people in line.” 

Spreadsheet: Black-owned Restaurants in the Bay Area - there’s an angel somewhere that started this spreadsheet to uplift Black-owned restaurants in your neighborhood! Note: “Tip heavy and be kind.”

Presentation Slides: ICYMI our break-out room in our Community Control Planning Hour event with the Community Democracy Project, Repaired Nations, People’s Community Medics, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Alchemy Collective, Sustainable Economies Law Center, and Minnow, check out the notes from these slides (starting on Slide 16).

EB PREC Video: Our Mission and Who We Are - check out the video below. Noni Session provides a brief introduction to EB PREC and the work ahead of us.