June 19, 2022
To the autonomous movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest:
To the adherents of the Zapatista’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle:
To all peoples, collectives, organizations and formations that resist from below and to the left:
Not even a year after the nationwide uprising against police, and despite increasingly hot summers that disproportionately affect poor Black communities, the City of Atlanta announced plans to bulldoze 381 acres of forestland in the Weelaunee Forest, the largest remaining canopy in South Atlanta. The majority-Black communities that surround the forest currently use it for recreation and retreat from the warming urban landscape. The City wants to remove the trees and appropriate the land to build a massive police training compound featuring a mock city, known locally as Cop City. This is where the cops would be trained to beat us down and suppress our movements.
The lands on which this proposed project sits have historically been a site of violence. The Muskogee people were forcibly removed from those lands in the early 1800s. White settlers subsequently built slave plantations there, and later the City ran a Prison Farm, rebranding slavery through forced inmate labor and abominably inhumane conditions.
We, Sexta Grietas del Norte, denounce this proposed project as a continuation of colonial, capitalist land destruction and enclosure for the purpose of exploitation and repression. Cop City represents an escalation in the militarization of police.
We stand in accompaniment and solidarity with the large, autonomous movement of people who are occupying the forest and otherwise actively opposing this project as they imagine new ways of living and relating to the forest. The coalition to Defend the Atlanta Forest includes Black residents, educators and other people of color in Atlanta; Muskogee people and Indigenous people from other tribes on Turtle Island and beyond; queer and trans people, elders, children, and many others.
As Sexta Grietas del Norte, we have heard the call for solidarity, and we stand firmly in commitment with our compas against Cop City and the racist, colonial government of the City of Atlanta.
In accompaniment,
In solidarity,
From below and to the left,
Sexta Grietas del Norte
What you can do:
- Support the week of action July 23-30 to Stop Cop City and defend the Atlanta forest.
- Call Mayor Andre Dickens (404-330-6100) and APF Project Manager Alan Williams (770-354-3392) to denounce the plans, to demand a halt against violence against protestors, and to let them know the public is watching.
- Promote and distribute information about the movement.
- Organize actions and events in your own cities, especially protests targeting Cop City contractors and subcontractors, such as Reeves Young.
For updates and info on the current West Coast Tour:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defendatlantaforest
https://linktr.ee/DefendAtlantaForest
https://scenes.no blogs.org
Twitter: Defend the Atlanta Forest @defendATLforest, A World Without Police @no_cop_zone, #StopCopCity
Instagram: @defendatlantaforest, @aworldwithoutpolice, @stopcopcity, @thehighlanderschoolatl
Email: defendtheatlantaforest@protonmail.com
DEFEND THE FOREST WEST COAST TOUR!
Los Angeles @ Nonplus Ultra (6/20)
Oakland @Tamarack (6/24)
Berkeley @People’s Park (6/25)
Arcata @TBA (6/27)
Williams, OR @Sugarloaf (de)-Center (6/29)
Eugene? @TBA (7/30)
southern WA @QWAC (queer wilderness camp camp) (7/1)
Portland @Irving Park (7/2)
Quilcene @Gray Coast Guildhall (7/3)
Olympia @ Fever Dream (7/4)
Bellingham @TBA (7/6)
Seattle @pipsqueak (7/7)