On January 18, 2023 a multi-agency task force moved to clear out an ongoing tree-sit protest in Atlanta, Georgia. In the opening minutes of this operation, Georgia State Troopers shot and killed a tree sitter.
The tree sitter, Manuel Paez Teran, also known as Tortuguita or Tort, was a participant in an ongoing occupation of the Atlanta (Weelanuee) Forest. The objective of the forest occupation is to prevent the construction of ‘Cop City’, a state-of-the-art, 381-acre police urban warfare training facility. The as yet unbuilt facility has so far drawn $90 million dollars in funding from a combination of tax dollars and corporate sponsorship.
Since the project was announced, residents of Atlanta have demonstrated and registered their anger over its secretive development, its likely impacts on local wildlands, its misuse of public resources, and the certainty that it will increase the presence of heavily armed police in the area.
Already, a number of tree sitters have been arrested and charged with felony crimes accompanied by domestic terrorism enhancements. This represents a grave escalation in the use of legal force and demonstrates just how far the state is willing to go to criminalize even non-violent dissent.
In the wake of the massive George Floyd Uprising, along with the many anti-police uprisings that preceded it, the state has a determined interest in militarizing its security apparatus. There’s no doubt that increasing the use of militaristic training and equipment will result in intensified violence aimed at everyday people, particularly those who are Black and Brown. And such facilities and new funding will only further strengthen and shield a profession filled with perpetrators of misogynist and white supremacist violence.
Additionally, as we barrel headlong into climate catastrophe, we can not overlook the destruction of nearly 400 acres of forested land belonging to the Muscogee people. This is but one example of the rapacious drive for development that is hastening climate breakdown, rooted in the very foundations of the settler-colonial United States.
As members of Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra, our hearts break over the police killing of Tort and the toll that the defense of the forest has so far taken. We extend our solidarity to the Stop Cop City and Defend Atlanta Forest movements. Finally, we wish strength for Tort’s friends and family and a renewed vigor for the broader movement.
An attack on one movement is an attack on all. Time after time, popular resistance has shown the police’s plans can be defeated. We can do it again.
(From the Black Rose Anarchist Federation)
We endorse the following statement of solidarity with the movement to defend the Weelaunee Forest.
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:
- Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to support legal costs for arrested protestors and ongoing legal action.
- Call on investors in the project to divest from Cop City (list of APF investors). Call on builders of the project to drop their construction contracts.
- Organize political solidarity bail funds, forest defense funds, and forest defense committees where you live.
- Organize or participate in local solidarity actions.
- Endorse and circulate this statement of solidarity.
Endorsements
To endorse this statement, please contact 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
- 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.
- Daniel Fischer
- Detritus Books
- Diablo Rising Tide
- Dirty South Right Watch
- East Tennessee Harm Reduction
- The Fellowship of the Hellbound
- Firestorm Books
- Florida Prisoner Solidarity
- Friend of a Friend NYC (Manhattan, NY)
- Friends Print Collective (Minneapolis, MN)
- Hellbender (Asheville, NC)
- Ill Will magazine
- Industrial Workers of the World Tallahassee
- It’s Going Down
- 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
- 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
- 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, DC)
- 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)
- Extinction Rebellion Bloomington (IN)
- Popular Organization Francisco Villa de Izquierda Independiente (Los Panchos) (Mexico)
- Parque Comunitario Panul (La Florida, Chile)
- Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera (Santiago, Chile)
- Salvemos el santuario de Hualpén (Bio Bio, Chile)
- Coordinadora Territorial Wallpen (Bio Bio, Chile)
- Mergoat Magazine (Knoxville, TN)
- Margot Land Design (Knoxville, TN)
- Michigan General Defense Committee
- Dirty Hands Collective
- Joshua Robinson (Edwardsville, IL)
- 350PDX (Portland, OR)
- Distribuidora Anarquista Polaris (Galicia, Spain)
- Manchester GMB (UK)
- John Johnson (Knoxville, TN)
- Charli Ash
- Communities United Against Police Brutality (Minneapolis, MN)
- Coffee with Comrades
- Chris de Ocejo (Holyoke, MA)
- Tucson Bail Fund (AZ)
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (Tucson, AZ)
- Pride was a Riot (Sacramento, CA)
- The Lavender Angels
- Geoff Doner, Bureau of Power and LIght Art Collective (Toronto, CA)
- Caleb Wexler
- Survival Resistance (Atlanta, GA)
- Jeff Clark (Ypsilanti, MI)
- Megan Rosner (Roswell, GA)
- Shane Burley
- Josh Fox, director of Awake, A Dream from Standing Rock
- Feed the People Farms (GA)
- Oil and Gas Action Network (Oakland, CA)
- Lane Phillips (Omaha, NE)
- Judith’s Dagger
- Washington Square Park Mutual Aid (NYC)
- subMedia
- Guerrilla Grafters
- Coven Intelligence Program
- Margaretha Haughwout
- Oliver Kellhammer
- Keyanna Jones
- Jerrod Moore
- Antidote Zine (antidotezine.com)
- Fridays for Future Flensburg (Germany)
- Black Mosquito (Germany)
- Montreal Anarchist Bookfair Collective
- Community Not Cages (Winona, MN)
- Detroit Will Breathe (Detroit, MI)
- National Lawyers Guild
- Agency Collective
- Sunrise Movement (Bowling Green, KY)
- Charlotte John Brown Gun Club
- Survival Resistance
- L.A. Kearns (Decatur, GA)
- NorCal Resist (Sacramento, CA)
- Queers Bash Back (Columbia, SC)
- Rev. Alan Dicken (Cincinnati, OH)
- Medusa & Waffles (Atlanta, GA)
- Solano Unity Network
- Ricky Maddix
- Seaside Sounds Club of Connecticut
- Save the Hammarby Forest (Stockholm, Sweden)
- Bokkafé Angbett (Sweden)
- Anarkism.info (Sweden)
- Cascadia Forest Defenders
- Extinction Rebellion Boston
- Kelly Hayes, Lifted Voices (Chicago, IL)
- Savannah Federation of Democratic Women (Savannah, GA)
- Illegibles (Poland)
- Street Medics Corpus Christi (TX)
- Nicholas Isom (Atlanta, GA)
- 350 New Hampshire Action
- No Coal No Gas (NH)
- Portland Rising Tide (OR)
- Anna Harrison (Mableton, GA)
- John Leslie, Mid-Atlantic Workers’ Voice (Philadelphia, PA)
- SAFE Boulder (Boulder, CO)
- Spill Paint Art Action Collective (Twin Cities, MN)
- Siskiyou Abolition Project (OR)
- Glenn Carroll (Decatur, GA)
- Colombia Freedom Collective
- The Antifada Podcast