Calling lovers and dreamers to Atlanta's Weelaunee Forest. Stand in solidarity with forest defenders from March 4 - 11, 2023. Love the forest. Dream of stopping Cop City.
Because of the bravery of the forest defenders, despite the police murder of their comrade Toruguita, construction has stalled on Cop City for nearly a year.
If you join the call to come to the forest from March 4th to March 11th, we could completely stop this atrocity and win the war for the health of the People of Atlanta.
How to STOP COP CITY and DEFEND THE FOREST
by the Weelaunee Defense Society - Outreach Committee
On January 18th, Manuel Teran - "Tortuguita" - was killed by Georgia State Police in a raid on the Weelaunee Forest. In the weeks since their death, word of the struggle has spread around the globe, and thousands of people have made their support of the movement clear through vigils and solidarity actions, spreading the message that Cop City will never be built and that the Weelaunee Forest will be protected.
We are committed to defeating the Cop City project. In what follows, we will outline ways that every one of you can take immediate action toward the success of this movement, whether you are part of a large organization, a small group of friends, or are currently alone at your computer. We will lay out the schedule and key upcoming dates for the movement. For upcoming webinars and other ways to plug in, check out:
https://www.stopcopcitysolidarity.org/mobilize
THIS STRUGGLE BELONGS TO ALL OF US
This is not just a local struggle. This is the climate struggle.
Climate change and ecocide are happening to all of us. The destruction of the habitable earth happens through the destruction of individual places. The preservation of a habitable earth requires we all fight for individual places.
*There are no "outside agitators" on planet earth.*
Each of us everywhere has a stake in the prevention of the destruction of a forest anywhere.
It is more than just moral outrage at police murders that moves us to act in this moment: the concrete impact of Cop City would extend beyond Atlanta, threatening the movements that offer us any hope. With Cop City, The Atlanta Police Foundation is trying to build a training facility to update policing to repress the struggles of the coming decades—struggles for ecological, economic, and racial justice.
Cop City is "community policing" on steroids — it is the next wave of militarized police expansion, and we must prevent it from gaining a foothold.
This is a struggle for a living forest and against the expansion of police power. But this is also a struggle for the dead who are still with us: for Tortuguita; for those displaced from the Weelaunee forest by settler-colonialism; for those enslaved on the Prison Farm; for those ancestors whose spirits inhabit the forest, and who deserve more than another century of police violence on this land. We can't breathe in this police state, but living and dead alike can breathe in the forest.
In order to win, we need your help. In order to win, the distance between "we" and "you" needs to melt away, and this struggle must become yours as much as it is ours.
We have four action steps that we are asking you all to take and promote among your friends and networks:
IMMEDIATE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE
* Step 1. Form a "Weelaunee Defense Society"
We suggest immediately beginning to organize under this banner. We would like "Weelaunee Defense Societies" to spread like a meme. Add it to your group's social media handles, spread the word, etc.
This doesn't require making a whole new group. If you already have a group that has signed on to the letter of solidarity, this group is also a "Weelaunee Defense Society." Don't let Step 1 get in the way of the other steps!
* Step 2. Hold a local protest for the Week of Solidarity, February 19-26.
The movement is calling for a week of solidarity actions from February 19 - 26. During this week, please organize locally for a public protest that puts pressure on a contractor or funder of the Cop City Project. No action is too small -- or too ambitious.
Wherever you live, there will likely be an office of some entity connected to this project. Find them at:
* Step 3. Come to the Week of Action in the Weelaunee Forest — A Mass Convergence in Atlanta from March 4th-11th.
The movement in Atlanta has called for a 5th Week of Action, asking all those opposed to Cop City to come prepared to camp in the forest and participate in a variety of events and actions in and out of the forest. Please make preparations to come or support people in your community to do so. This Week of Action will be a key moment for re-establishing and scaling up the camps defending the forest. If you can stay longer than a week, or can organize locally to support others for longer, please do so.
Come ready to camp.
Please note: activists are still inside the forest, and groups still come and go every day. The police have not succeeded in clearing us out — and they will not, especially if more and more people come. The movement has only grown despite the repression and we urge you to organize for the mass convergence in affinity clusters: climate action, abolition, students, and beyond.
More information and actions will be posted soon.
* Step 4. Raise funds for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF).
It is essential that those who have been arrested for their work in defense of the forest are supported. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund is currently supporting 19 people charged with "domestic terrorism" for their defense of the forest — as well as over 900 people arrested during the George Floyd Rebellion. If you individually are unable to organize or participate in the above forms of action, please do your best to raise money for the ASF. Here is the link for information and donations:
With your help, Cop City will never be built.
With your efforts, we will build an uncompromising mass movement for a free and habitable Earth,
Weelaunee Defense Society - Outreach Committee
What is now will not be forever. The Weelaunee & greater Atlanta forest will bud, grow & bloom. If we act to defend restoration & growth will follow. New life springs forth from the forest floors, from devastation.
— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) February 6, 2023
"We are not in the least afraid of ruins."
Spring is coming. https://t.co/agnC2FzlrK