We call on all people of good conscience to stand in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.
On January 18, in the course of their latest militarized raid on the forest, police in Atlanta shot and killed a person. This is only the most recent of a series of violent police retaliations against the movement. The official narrative is that Cop City is necessary to make Atlanta “safe,” but this brutal killing reveals what they mean when they use that word.
Forests are the lungs of planet Earth. The destruction of forests affects all of us. So do the gentrification and police violence that the bulldozing of Weelaunee Forest would facilitate. What is happening in Atlanta is not a local issue.
Politicians who support Cop City have attempted to discredit forest defenders as “outside agitators.” This smear has a disgraceful history in the South, where authorities have used it against abolitionists, labor organizers, and the Civil Rights Movement, among others. The goal of those who spread this narrative is to discourage solidarity and isolate communities from each other while offering a pretext to bring in state and federal forces, who are the actual “outside agitators.” The consequence of that strategy is on full display in the tragedy of January 18.
Replacing a forest with a police training center will only create a more violently policed society, in which taxpayer resources enrich police and weapons companies rather than addressing social needs. Mass incarceration and police militarization have failed to bring down crime or improve conditions for poor and working-class communities.
In Atlanta and across the US, investment in police budgets comes at the expense of access to food, education, childcare, and healthcare, of affordable and stable housing, of parks and public spaces, of transit and the free movement of people, of economic stability for the many. Concentrating resources in the hands of police serves to defend the extreme accumulation of wealth and power by corporations and the very rich.
What do cops do with their increased budgets and their carte blanche from politicians? They kill people, every single day. They incarcerate and traumatize schoolchildren, parents, loved ones who are simply struggling to survive. We must not settle for a society organized recklessly upon the values of violence, racism, greed, and careless indifference to life.
The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. As the catastrophic effects of climate change hammer our communities with hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires, the stakes of this contest are clearer than ever. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare. It is up to us to create a peaceful society that does not treat human life as expendable.
The forest defenders are trying to create a better world for all of us. We owe it to the people of Atlanta and to future generations everywhere to support them.
Here are some ways to support the defense of the forest in Atlanta:
To endorse this statement, please contact us at defendweelaunee@riseup.net. This list will be updated regularly.
– Adrienne Carey Hurley
– Andrew Hinz (Baltimore, MD)
– Andrew Zonneveld (Atlanta, GA)
– Anonymous comrades from Pellice, Infernotto, Susa valleys (Piedmont, Italy)
– [Antimidia](https://antimidia.noblogs.org/)
– Asheville Anti-Racism (Asheville, NC)
– Atlanta Antifascists (Atlanta, GA)
– Atlanta Community Press Collective
– Atlanta Justice Alliance (Atlanta, GA)
– Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology
– Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee (Bay Area, CA)
– Beth Foss
– Black Powder Press
– Brown Recluse Zine Distro (Oakland, CA)
– Chicago Against Cop City (Chicago, IL)
– Christopher Brannen (Atlanta, GA)
– Cindy Barukh Milstein
– Clouded Mind
– Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists (Colorado Springs, CO)
– Community Books (Stone Mountain, GA)
– [CrimethInc.](http://crimethinc.com/)
– Daniel Fischer
– Detritus Books
– Diablo Rising Tide
– Dirty South Right Watch
– East Tennessee Harm Reduction
– The Fellowship of the Hellbound
– [Firestorm Books](https://firestorm.coop/)
– Florida Prisoner Solidarity
– Friend of a Friend NYC (Manhattan, NY)
– Friends Print Collective (Minneapolis, MN)
– Hellbender (Asheville, NC)
– [Ill Will magazine](https://illwill.com/)
– Industrial Workers of the World Tallahassee
– [It’s Going Down](https://itsgoingdown.org/)
– Jarrod Shanahan
– Jax Veg Fest (Jacksonville, FL)
– Jersey Counter-Info Collective (NJ)
– Joshua Potash
– Jules Bentley (Athens, Greece)
– La Mer Monte, cycle d’écologie anticapitaliste, Marseille (France)
– Lauren Sobchak (Kansas City, MO)
– Leah Ayer, *Elements of Mutual Aid*
– [Les Peuples Veulent/The Peoples Want](https://linktr.ee/lespeuplesveulent)
– Lisa Jouet (Atlanta, GA)
– Lundi Matin (France)
– Merrie M Kelly, Oregon Insurance Lady (OR)
– Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund
– Minneapolis Against Cop City (Minneapolis, MN)
– Nix Makoff (Chicago, IL)
– No Bonzo
– North California Environment Protection Group (CA)
– North East Anarchist Group (UK)
– Olympia Jail Support (Olympia, WA)
– On Our Own Authority! Publishing (Atlanta, GA)
– Payton McDonald, *Elements of Mutual Aid*
– People 4 The People (Atlanta, GA)
– [PM Press](https://pmpress.org/)
– Ralph Macdonald (Decatur, GA)
– Ray Gorlin
– Rising Tide North America
– Robert Lee (Tallahassee, FL)
– Ryan Deitsch (Parkland, Florida)
– Savannah Against Cop City! (GA)
– Savannah Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) (GA)
– Save the Meadows (Philadelphia, PA)
– Seitanic Jax (Jacksonville, FL)
– Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ)
– ShutDownDC (Washington, D.C.)
– Soup For My Family (Atlanta, GA)
– Spirit of May 28
– Timothy Cominghay
– Timothy Jouet (Atlanta, GA)
– Vallejo for Racial Justice
– Williams College Young Democratic Socialists of America (Williamstown, MA)
– Yanawana Herbolarios (San Antonio, TX)
– Yes We Cannibal art collective (Baton Rouge, LA)
– Tess Moschetta
– E.R. Anderson (Decatur, GA)
– Rose City Antifa (Portland, OR)
– NJ Hate Watch
– Frankie Baker
– National Lawyers Guild Bay Area Chapter (San Francisco, CA)
– Irregular Rhythm Asylum (Tokyo, Japan)
– Alisha Bicknell
– The People’s Media NYC
– Siskiyou Rising Tide (OR)
– Andi Smith
– The Healing Underground
– Charis Books and More (Decatur, GA)
– Charis Circle (GA)
– National Lawyers Guild Detroit & Michigan Chapter
– Resurgens John Brown Gun Club (Atlanta, GA)
– Green Cove Defense Committee (Olympia, WA)
– Arm in Arm 4 Climate (Washington, DC)
– Greenback Guerilla Distro (Miami, FL)
Defend the Atlanta Forest
Länk: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/2023/01/19/solidarity/
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