#105: Don't Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City

This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published on December 12th. It traces the activities of the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest from June through December 2023, including accounts of the campaign for an Atlanta voter’s referendum on Cop City, the Sixth Week of Action, the relationship between clandestine direct action and public organizing, local Black organizing against the project, the Block Cop City march in November, and potential strategic pathways forward. Tune in for an in-depth evaluation of the latest phase in one of the most critical social struggles of our time. {February 4, 2023}

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• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:37}
  • The Hour Is Drawing Late {2:37}
  • They Don’t Care About You {6:38}
  • The Referendum {8:24}
  • What Mass Organizing Makes Possible {11:19}
  • The Sixth Week of Action {17:58}
  • The New Balance of Forces {22:03}
  • Escalating Tactics {25:20}
  • Atlas Technical Consultants Drops Out {27:45}
  • Scooping the Mid-Range: Repressing Public Resistance {30:16}
  • The Storm Before the Storm {33:26}
  • Escalating Repression: RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy {36:26}
  • RICO in Georgia {39:54}
  • You Can’t Break Us {41:12}
  • The Scope of Repression Broadens {43:30}
  • This is Not a Local Repression Strategy {45:37}
  • Attrition and Conflict {47:51}
  • From Atlanta to Gaza, No Cop City Anywhere {52:22}
  • Black Self-Organization {54:51}
  • Block Cop City {58:05}
  • Building a Common Understanding {1:01:10}
  • Anatomy of a March {1:03:26}
  • Forward, Arm in Arm {1:06:52}
  • Re-Grouping {1:14:16}
  • A Supporter of the Police? {1:15:45}
  • Gauging Success and Failure {1:17:40}
  • Victory and Defeat: A Chimera {1:27:13}
  • Fighting without Assurances {1:29:38}
  • Continuing Forward {1:31:14}
  • Winning by Attrition {1:35:03}
  • Outro/PSA {1:38:54}

• This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published by CrimethInc. on December 12th. It includes excerpts from “Don’t Panic, Stay Tight: Frontline Reflections on Block Cop City,” an account of the November 13th march in Atlanta.

• For background on the first two and a half years of the movement, see the following articles and podcast episodes:
  • “The City in the Forest,” (audio version) – chronicles the first year of the movement.
  • “The Forest in the City” (audio version) – chronicles the second year of the movement.
  • “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest” (audio version) – collects first-person accounts from the occupation of Weelaunee forest through the first half of 2022.
  • “Balance Sheet” – explores and evaluates the strategies that different currents in the movement have employed.
  • “Defending Abundance Everywhere” – essays on the webs of relationship linking all creatures and underlying the struggle to defend the forest.
  • “The Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder” – analysis of the assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán.
  • “Living in an Earthquake” (audio version) – chronicles February through June of 2023, including the fifth week of action, the repression that followed, and the City Hall mobilizations.
  • “Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta” (audio version) – analysis of the new wave of legal repression launched in September 2023.

• Stay up to date on developments with news from the Atlanta Community Press Collective

• The Uncover Cop City campaign is targeting the insurers whose coverage makes Cop City possible, including Nationwide Insurance and Accident Fund - follow the links to find office locations and contact information to show your opposition to the project.