From March 4-11th, thousands of people will be converging in Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest, as part of the abolitionist and environmentalist struggle to stop “Cop City,” a police training facility set to be built over a vast urban forest. Reflecting this unprecedented mobilization, we are focusing on the history and current stakes of the struggle.
For context, we start off with a message from Mekko Chebon Kernell, a Muskogee elder, who recorded this message last summer. Afterwards, we hear more insights from Sarah Alvarez of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. Then, the CLDC’s Lauren Regan walks us through some things to be mindful of- whether in the streets or in the woods.
Following that, we hear Kali Akuno at a teach-in about Cop City, where he explains why this is not a project that is only local in scope- it’s one of national and international consequence. We end this episode with a brief history of The Old Atlanta Prison Farm.
You can find out more about the fight against the replacement of the largest urban tree canopy in the country by the largest police training compound in the country here: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/
The Civil Liberties Defense Center has many resources for people who might participate in direct action struggles or who are facing legal repression: https://cldc.org/resources/