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Atlanta

‘Cop City’ Leads US Buildup In Police-Training Bases

December 23, 2024 Elizabeth Vos, Consortium News. , , , , ,
After years of intense opposition that left one protester riddled by police bullets, Atlanta’s so-called Cop City is set to begin operations in the next few weeks. The city’s police chief hosted a tour of the campus last week and training programs are expected to start during the first quarter of 2025. The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, as it is officially known, is an 85-acre campus with a price tag of at least $110 million and another $1.7 million recently approved by Atlanta’s City Council for its security. Most infamously, it includes a mock city, for which the site gained its Cop City nickname, for “real-world” training that includes a convenience store, two-story house, apartment and commercial-style building.

Threat Of Amazon Workers’ Strike Spreads During Peak Holiday Season

December 17, 2024 Michael Sainato, Portside. , , , , , , , ,
Thousands of workers at Amazon are threatening to strike at the company after giving the company a deadline of 15 December to agree to begin negotiating a first contract with the union representing employees. The strike threats, which started in New York, have now spread to Chicago and Atlanta. They come during Amazon’s peak holiday season and after the company experienced record sales during its 2024 Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. The workers at the company’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island became the first Amazon warehouse in the US to win a union election in March 2022.

The Black South’s Revolutionary Anti-Fascist Tradition

December 13, 2024 Julian Rose, Scalawag Magazine. , , , ,
The Black South has a rich history of antifascist organizing and militant strategy through direct struggle and conflict with fascistic forces. If we are going to study and promote an organizing lineage, it is this one that we should look to. What would it look like for our movement's rallying cry to evolve from "My ancestors died for the right to vote" to "My ancestors died fighting fascism"? This move does not intend to erase nor obscure historic political struggles of The South that center voting; such a reduction is counter-insurgency.

The High-Tech War On Working Class Black Atlantans

November 21, 2024 Tunde Osazua, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Modern technologies like facial recognition, predictive policing, and expansive surveillance networks are not mere tools of public safety; they are instruments of militarization, deeply embedded in the war against Black communities in Atlanta, the most surveilled city in the U.S. These technologies target Black poor and working class neighborhoods disproportionately, enforcing capitalist exploitation and reinforcing racial hierarchies. Surveillance in Atlanta operates as a militarized extension of policing, transforming Black neighborhoods into domestic battlefields.

Clark Atlanta University Launches New Black Southern Labor Institute

October 31, 2024 Mirtha Donastorg, Portside. , , ,
Clark Atlanta University has launched a new institute focused on labor issues and training a new generation of leaders to help Black Southern organizing and collective bargaining efforts. Jobs With Justice, a nonprofit network of labor unions, community groups and activists, is partnering with Clark Atlanta on the new Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists, which was announced in late September. Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs With Justice, said policies against organized labor disproportionately impact Black workers because more than half of Black Americans live in the South.

The State Is Wielding Grand Jury Subpoenas Against Cop City Activists

October 20, 2024 Cody Bloomfield, Truthout. , , , ,
With each passing day, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (dubbed “Cop City” by opponents) inches toward completion. It’s been just under a year since the last Stop Cop City mass mobilization march attempted to breach the site, but the struggle against the militarized police training facility continues. Activists are organizing ping pong ball drops at city council meetings, pursuing legal remedies to recover what remains of the Weelaunee Forest, and continuing to hold teach-ins and small-scale protests. Organizers wait with bated breath for the resolution of the 61 pending RICO cases against activists.

Georgia’s Repressive Tactics Unravel In ‘Stop Cop City’ Case

September 29, 2024 Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Atlanta, GA – In a surprising but significant turn of events, on September 24, Georgia prosecutors have dropped all 15 counts of money laundering against three prominent activists involved in the “Stop Cop City” movement. These activists – Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson – are leaders of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF), a bail fund that has supported protesters opposing the construction of a controversial police training facility in Atlanta. While the trio still faces racketeering charges, the dismissal of the money laundering allegations nevertheless marks a victory against state repression and exposes the cracks in the state's legal strategy.

Georgia Drops Money Laundering Charges In Cop City RICO Prosecution

September 20, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — Money laundering charges against three Atlanta Solidarity Fund defendants, who are among the 61 people indicted in a sprawling conspiracy lawsuit against Cop City protesters, have been dropped as of Tuesday. Last year Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were indicted as part of Georgia’s wide-reaching Racketeering Influenced Criminal Organization, or RICO, case that the state filed against opponents of the multi-million dollar police training compound known as Cop City. The three organizers were arrested and charged during a raid on their home by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department in May last year.

Atlanta Activists Protest Trump/Vance Campaign Event

August 6, 2024 Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA – On August 3, a coalition of local activists and community members gathered at Georgia State Convocation Center to protest a high-profile rally for former President Donald Trump and Republican Senator JD Vance. The demonstration, organized by the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America, was called in response to the extreme right-wing agenda promoted by Trump, Vance and the Republican Party as a whole. The protesters gathered directly outside the venue, facing off the thousands of MAGA supporters from around the Southeast, as evidenced by the number of people with wearing LSU and Alabama caps, who were unable to secure a spot inside.

The Transformative Power Of Urban Recipe’s Food Co-Op Model

July 18, 2024 BobJones, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
It is 10 a.m. on a Monday morning, and the warehouse at 970 Jefferson Street in Atlanta is humming with activity. A forklift loads a pallet of cereal boxes. Two men are setting up a line of folding tables. Several people casually sort a box of bananas into grocery bags. Fog escapes from a walk-in freezer as someone rolls a dolly filled with boxes toward the line of tables. Five or six people walk in from the bus stop with rolling grocery carts. In the center of the bustling warehouse, JoAnn Crowder stands behind a desk with her clipboard, quietly orchestrating the hustle. For the last 24 years, JoAnn has spent almost every other Monday morning here.

The Goal Is To Attack A Movement

June 30, 2024 Micah Herskind, Welcome to Hell World. , , , ,
The Georgia Attorney General’s office appears to have made a major blunder in the ongoing prosecution of 61 Stop Cop City activists—one that could potentially cost the state its case altogether. According to a motion filed by attorneys for three defendants who run the nonprofit Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF), Georgia Deputy Attorney General John Fowler’s prosecutorial team has extensively and brazenly violated multiple defendants’ right to attorney-client privilege. This motion is just the most recent episode in the RICO case that has been denounced by activists and legal experts as a political prosecution intended to punish and intimidate those in the Stop Cop City movement.

Morehouse Students Show Solidarity With Gaza During Biden Speech

May 20, 2024 Julia Conley, Scheer Post. , , , , , , ,
Advisers for U.S. President Biden reportedly saw Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college in Atlanta where he gave the commencement address Sunday, as a school where the president was unlikely to face protests over his continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has been the subject of mass demonstrations led by students at universities across the country over the past month. But students and faculty made clear at the ceremony that many of them, like others in higher education, are intent on sending Biden a strong message of disapproval over his Israel policy. A number of faculty members and students wore keffiyehs, the traditional scarves worn in parts of the Middle East including Palestine, and by some supporters of Palestinian rights to show solidarity with civilians in Gaza.

Morehouse Will Stop Commencement If Students Protest Biden Speech

May 18, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , , ,
When President Joe Biden gives the commencement speech at Morehouse College this weekend, it might be a short one. Administrators at the historically black college have warned the event will be stopped if there are protests over Gaza. When President Joe Biden gives the commencement speech at Morehouse College this weekend, it might be a short one. Administrators at the historically black college have warned students that the event will be stopped if any “disruptive” behavior occurs. Recent events suggest that there’s a good chance we’ll see some, as community members have consistently protested the administration’s support for Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.

Emory Faculty Prepares ‘No Confidence’ Vote For University President

May 5, 2024 Lila Leblanc and Ian Rein, Mainline Zine. , , , , , , ,
Atlanta - Last Thursday, April 25, Emory students and faculty, AUCC students, and other community members from Atlanta arrived on Emory’s quad to establish a Gaza Solidarity and Stop Cop City encampment. Protesters are demanding that Emory University immediately divest from Israeli and “Cop City,” the $109 million police militarization facility being built in Weelaunee Forest in unincorporated DeKalb County. Almost immediately, Emory University President Gregory Fenves called the police to repress the protests. The Emory police, Atlanta Police Department, and Georgia State Patrol were all present.

‘I Was Arrested For Trespassing On My Own Campus’

May 4, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
In recent days, we’ve seen police sweep multiple Gaza solidarity encampments. One of the most violent crackdowns occurred at Emory University in Atlanta, where state and local police swooped in hours after the tents had been erected, arresting almost 30 people while using tear gas and rubber bullets. Students have been protesting Israel’s war on Gaza, the school’s connection to the carnage, and Atlanta’s planned police training center Cop City. “This local resistance is a vivid tableau of a global struggle for liberation. At its core, the fight against Cop City is interconnected with global movements against oppressive state practices, most notably the Palestinian struggle for liberation from illegal occupation, apartheid, and systemic violence,” said student organizers in a statement shortly before the crackdown.
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