#96: The Forest In The City: Two Years Of Forest Defense In Atlanta, Georgia

This episode continues the Ex-Worker Podcast’s coverage of the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia. In this episode, we present an audio version of The Forest In The City: Two Years Of Forest Defense In Atlanta, Georgia, originally published February 22, 2023, which continues the chronology of the movement whose origins we reported in episodes 85 and 86. In this eloquent and nuanced narrative, you’ll hear a detailed account of the movement’s second year, from the frenzy of activity in spring 2022 through the third and fourth weeks of action, waves of backlash and repression, and the tragic murder of forest defender Tortuguita, up to the eve of the March 2023 week of action. In addition to a chronology of developments and actions, the article shares insights learned by participants in the movement about relations with the media, the significance of music and the arts in social struggles, the importance of optimism and confidence, the risks of specialization, and many more aspects of revolutionary strategy. We encourage all of our listeners to learn what you can from this account, and to take action to support forest defenders and fight back against Cop City and its world. To learn more, be sure to check out the show notes and links, and stay tuned for forthcoming audio versions of more of CrimethInc.’s coverage of the struggle. {May 25, 2023}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • The Forest in the City: Two Years of Forest Defense in Atlanta, Georgia {3:13}
  • The Stakes of the Fight {3:37}
  • Taking the Initiative {9:05}
  • The Spring Was Ours {11:29}
  • Third Week of Action (May 2022) {13:47}
  • Hell is Empty, All the Devils Are Here {16:52}
  • They Don’t Understand Who We Are {20:31}
  • They Tried to Break Us: Post-Week Raid {25:05}
  • Full Court Press {28:30}
  • Speaking for Ourselves {30:00}
  • Momentum Breeds Resistance {39:23}
  • The Tree People {41:18}
  • New Openings {43:40}
  • Luring Them In {46:42}
  • The Fourth Week of Action {49:12}
  • The Sound of Music {49:46}
  • Weelaunee People’s Park {51:59}
  • The Kids Will Have Their Say {57:14}
  • Fall {1:02:48}
  • Gridlock and Innovation {1:05:49}
  • Preparing for a Clampdown {1:11:45}
  • The Repression {1:13:36}
  • We Are All Forest Defenders {1:16:06}
  • Destruction in Weelaunee People’s Park {1:19:02}
  • Regaining Confidence {1:21:24}
  • Injunction Overruled {1:24:40}
  • January 18, 2023 {1:26:38}
  • The Shooting {1:29:21}
  • Tortuguita Vive, la Lucha Sigue {1:32:02}
  • Indomitable Resistance {1:35:30}
  • Is Everything Coming to a Head? {1:42:55}
  • Blood in the Water {1:45:23}

• This episode offers an audio version of the article The Forest In The City: Two Years Of Forest Defense In Atlanta, Georgia, originally published February 22, 2023. Please note that this audio version does not include the article’s Appendix, which offers a day-by-day chronology of events with links to media coverage; we thought that including this in the audio version would feel redundant for listeners, and the episode is already nearly two hours long! If you’re interested, you can consult the original article to read this and check out the links it includes.

• For further coverage and analysis of the last year of struggle in the forest in Atlanta, check out the articles Balance Sheet: Two Years against Cop City–Evaluating Strategies, Refining Tactics {February 28, 2023}, which evaluates the strategic hypotheses that the movement has produced and tested over the past two years and reflects on the risks and possibilities of the next phase of the struggle; Defending Abundance Everywhere: A Call to Every Community From the Weelaunee Forest {March 2, 2023}, a collection of short essays that draws on the struggle to defend the forest to reflect on the abundance that exists in our communities and in the more-than-human world; and Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder: The Evidence and the Motive {April 20, 2023}, which exposes the truth about the police’s killing of Tortuguita in the forest.

• For more Ex-Worker Podcast audio coverage of the movement, check out Episode 85, “Stop Cop City / Defend Weelaunee Forest, Part I: History and Analysis”, which presents an audio version of our April 2022 article The City in the Forest: Reinventing Resistance for an Age of Climate Crisis and Police Militarization, and Episode 86, “Stop Cop City / Defend Weelaunee Forest, Part II: Accounts and Solidarity”, which narrates the August 2022 article Beneath the Concrete, The Forest: Accounts From the Defense of the Atlanta Forest.

• Stay up to date on the latest developments, calls to action, and more by following Stop Cop City Soliidarity – which includes a very helpful target map to help plan actions against the project’s supporters and funders – the Atlanta Community Press Collective, StopCop.City, Defend the Atlanta Forest linktree, and the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.

• The Ex-Worker is a proud member of the Channel Zero Network, an English-language anarchist radio and podcast network run by radical media makers. You can find episodes from other anarchist podcasts covering the struggle to defend the forest in Atlanta and Stop Cop City, including The Final Straw Radio, This is America, from It’s Going Down, and more.