Drop the Charges! Activism is not a Crime! ILPS US Stands in Solidarity with Stop Cop City
ILPS US resolutely stands in solidarity with the people of Atlanta as they fight to prevent the construction of the so called Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (aka Cop City)–an ecocidal racist, and anti-people project spearheaded by corporate interests under the aegis of the Atlanta Police Foundation–meant to develop the counterinsurgency capabilities of police departments in Atlanta and beyond as they crackdown on popular movements worldwide. Our unwavering support lies with the black working class community of south Atlanta that will disproportionately be affected by the flooding, deforestation and pollution construction will cause. Moreover we specifically condemn the numerous acts of violence and terror the Atlanta Police Department has enacted against activists, community members, and land defenders, from the execution of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, to the arrest of 40 protesters and concert goers on Sunday March 5th (23 of whom are facing domestic terrorism charges). The APD and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s actions are an affront to the dignity of all who wish to live free of police terror in homes fit for human habitation and in communities of love and care.
As of today, 22 of these arrestees (excluding the SPLC legal observer, Thomas Jurgens) are being held without bond and all 23, if convicted, will face prison sentences as long as 35 years. These charges are one part of a vast campaign of political repression taking place on the state and federal level that justifies itself through the specter of “terrorism”. Thanks to the Biden administration’s Countering Domestic Terrorism (CDT) initiative, domestic terrorism prosecutions are 500% higher than they were five years ago, while convictions have risen 300%. This initiative, developed in the aftermath of the white supremacist and pro-fascist January 6th riots to falsely appear progressive and anti-racist on the surface, specifically targets “anarchist violent extremists, who violently oppose all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and governing institutions.” In the wake of indigenous land struggles such as No Dakota Access Pipeline, the 2020 George Floyd Uprisings, militant anti-fascist organizing, and the reawakening of the labor movement, the US government has recognized the need to maintain a tradition of surveillance, harassment, false arrests, and assassination that dates back to the COINTELPRO program of 70s and perhaps farther.
Stop Cop City is a crucial moment in a broader struggle against the militarization of police, the surveillance state, racialized violence, and environmental degradation–and because of this, the APD, Atlanta’s ruling coalition, and corporate interests in Georgia and beyond will stop at nothing to destroy the movement. The Black community of South Atlanta’s heroic defense of their life, land, and dignity is not a local struggle. The architects of the project have made clear their intention to have Cop City serve as a place where security forces throughout the world may come and perfect anti-riot tactics and urban warfare for the purpose of political repression. Moreover, many of the project’s corporate donors are multinational corporations with offices, plants, and warehouses in all of our communities. This much is clear: we are all human rights and forest defenders and it is imperative that we not only fight to have the trumped up domestic terrorism charges against the 23 dropped, but uplift the work of the movement in our own cities in whatever way we can and identify targets in every city we can. CDT and every initiative and entity targeting activists under the pretense of anti-terrorism and public safety must be called out, opposed and defeated. It is our responsibility to assert and defend the rights of all oppressed people who struggle for liberation.
No to Cop City!
Drop the Charges!
Justice for Tortuguita!
Defend People's Struggle!