Speaker 1: Helloo the SISS it could happen here daily. I'm Garrison,
Speaker 1: and today we have a special emergency release episode. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of news has happened in the past week,
Speaker 1: and we will be covering that later on in this week,
Speaker 1: but this episode is going to relate to some current
Speaker 1: events happening today as of the release date of this episode,
Speaker 1: and stuff that could be affected in the future. So
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity last Thursday to interview some people
Speaker 1: working with the Defend the Atlanta Forest Coalition. It's a
Speaker 1: coalition of activists who are working to prevent the deforestation
Speaker 1: project going on in Southeast Atlanta. Now, in the interview,
Speaker 1: they mentioned some actions on Friday that have already happened.
Speaker 1: As of recording, they did not happen, so they mentioned
Speaker 1: those as actions coming up. But there's also actions coming
Speaker 1: up on Tuesday, September seven, because that's also the day
Speaker 1: that the city Council is going to vote whether to
Speaker 1: can tinue with the deforestation project or not. So this Tuesday,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be actions that if you're in Atlanta, you
Speaker 1: can be a part of that gets talked about in
Speaker 1: the episode. So just just a heads up for timelines
Speaker 1: in case that gets a little confusing. Anyways, Uh, that's
Speaker 1: enough of me talking. So here is the interview with
Speaker 1: people from the Defend the Atlanta Forest Coalition. Hello, and welcome.
Speaker 1: Today we are going to be interviewing some people who
Speaker 1: are working with and help with the Atlanta Forest Defense
Speaker 1: project that is ongoing. UM. If you're unfamiliar with this,
Speaker 1: we'll learn about it here in the interview. UM. But
Speaker 1: first off, I have Chris here to help to help
Speaker 1: me today, and I'd like to introduce the people we're
Speaker 1: talking with. Jamalti one of the start Yeah. So actually
Speaker 1: my name is jamal um Working. I'm an organizer with
Speaker 1: Community Movement Builders. We do our main goal of building
Speaker 1: self sustainable black communities. UM. We have a base or
Speaker 1: a place based organization, at least for the Atlanta chapter
Speaker 1: in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Atlanta. We do have different
Speaker 1: chapters across the country, all doing place based work in
Speaker 1: their respective areas. UM. We are we we've gotten onto
Speaker 1: this coalition UM with Atlanta Forest Defense. But particularly because
Speaker 1: with this particular area, you know, it's uh, while they're
Speaker 1: just showing three eight acres of land, what the the
Speaker 1: purpose of doing it is to UM build a mock
Speaker 1: cops city, right, It's a mock city of of Atlanta,
Speaker 1: in order to essentially practice militarized warfare on the Atlanta's
Speaker 1: residents and so. UM. While you know, all of us
Speaker 1: are extremely concerned about the deforestation that's happening, the other
Speaker 1: layer of of what we're what we're dealing with is
Speaker 1: also an immediate threat to particularly the black communities UM
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. The point working class black communities here in Atlanta. Yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. I'm Chassa. I I'm one
Speaker 1: of the help coordinators of the Atlanta chapter of the
Speaker 1: Sunrise Movement, which is a movement of young people working
Speaker 1: to stop climate change and create good jobs in the process. UM.
Speaker 1: I think that you draw said it really well and
Speaker 1: that UM this issue with forced defense, with stopping UM
Speaker 1: this facility from being built, it really is. UM. It
Speaker 1: really does have two prongs. It's an issue very uniquely
Speaker 1: at the intersection of racial and environmental justice because on
Speaker 1: one hand, it's an expansion of policing in a city
Speaker 1: that does not need more police, and on the other hand,
Speaker 1: it is systematic of unfettered capitalism and greed and exploitation
Speaker 1: that causes all this environmental devastation. So I'm really excited.
Speaker 1: I think we have two really good prongs of a
Speaker 1: um of the of the conversation and the argument against
Speaker 1: this ordinance. Yeah, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize how like what I like, Usually when I
Speaker 1: think of Atlanta, I don't think of as as a
Speaker 1: very like forest dense city. Um, but it absolutely is.
Speaker 1: Um that's just not something that really gets highlighted a
Speaker 1: lot nationally, is how how green Atlanta really really is.
Speaker 1: And um, you guys want to talk about I've I've
Speaker 1: never been to Atlanta. Do I want to talk about
Speaker 1: kind of how like the city is like laid out
Speaker 1: and all of like you know, how how the forest
Speaker 1: intersects with with the city. Yeah. Absolutely so, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: Atlanta is essentially a city that was built in the
Speaker 1: middle of a forest. Like I live. I live in
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh neighborhood in Atlanta, and um, literally it's you know, trees,
Speaker 1: green greenery all over the place. Um. I went, I
Speaker 1: come home, I'll see on my screen door there's a
Speaker 1: frog that's just chilling there. Um. So it's like it's
Speaker 1: not your typical like urban city in a in a
Speaker 1: sense of what a lot of people think of, like
Speaker 1: particularly think of like cities in the northeast. UM. But
Speaker 1: it really is just a city in the middle of
Speaker 1: a forest. UM. And I think it also ties in
Speaker 1: like again I'm talking about environmental racism, UM, intersecting with
Speaker 1: you know, well talking about environmental racism period, right and deforestation. UM.
Speaker 1: What we see is that because it's in the middle
Speaker 1: of a forest, and what does the forest do. It
Speaker 1: protects us from flooding. It protects and protects us from
Speaker 1: all all these different natural disasters that we're seeing across
Speaker 1: the world, across our country right now, for example, but
Speaker 1: even locally which at Lanta didn't get hit very hard
Speaker 1: by the you know, the hurricanes, but anytime it rains,
Speaker 1: my uh, like my block floods, right because this because um,
Speaker 1: you know, the forest has been removed to be able
Speaker 1: to to make way for you know, different types of
Speaker 1: infrastructure being built. From my perspective, it's been like a
Speaker 1: lot of changes to Atlanta's kind of whole economy in
Speaker 1: a in a lot of ways to pass like ten
Speaker 1: fifteen years UM. Specifically with the film industry moving into
Speaker 1: into Georgia and Atlanta specifically in the past like twin
Speaker 1: any and this this does intersect with with what's going on,
Speaker 1: does any does anyone want to speak on that? I
Speaker 1: would say that, Um, you know, it's really good to
Speaker 1: note that Atlanta has the most amount of tree coverage
Speaker 1: out of any major metropolitan area in the United States.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I didn't I didn't know that either. And
Speaker 1: when we say city in a forest, we mean city
Speaker 1: in a forest. Yeah, that's definitely true. And we we
Speaker 1: have green space we want to preserve it. But um,
Speaker 1: the the forest Defense has also been highlighting like the
Speaker 1: ties between policing and corporate elites and corporate CEOs and
Speaker 1: people who want to move in and push development projects,
Speaker 1: and something similar is happening, um black Claw studios. Like
Speaker 1: you said, the expansion of like the media industry and
Speaker 1: all of that into Atlanta, it leads to gentrification of communities.
Speaker 1: Really really recently, Atlanta just became um just very I think,
Speaker 1: like in the last like a few weeks, we just
Speaker 1: got the data that said that Atlanta isn't the majority
Speaker 1: black city anymore. And that's because black lawmakers and lawmakers
Speaker 1: in the city have been making these decisions in conjunction
Speaker 1: with corporations and developers that pushed people out of their homes,
Speaker 1: under the streets and out of the city. So it's
Speaker 1: a really big problem that our demographics have changed a
Speaker 1: lot in the last TenTen seeing here is because of
Speaker 1: that in Cops City, like that that this development project
Speaker 1: is very reminiscent of all of this, And just to
Speaker 1: piggyback off of that, I think it's extremely important for
Speaker 1: us to recognize the connections between all these things. Right this,
Speaker 1: like Cops City is a perfect blend of UM environmental
Speaker 1: justice issues, uh, just flat out racism, police brutality, and
Speaker 1: also gentrification. Right, it's not a it's not a mistake
Speaker 1: that they're building this Cops City right at this moment
Speaker 1: when UM Atlanta is also becoming for the first time
Speaker 1: and I don't know how many decades, UH non no
Speaker 1: longer majority black city because neighborhoods like Pittsburgh were located
Speaker 1: out of and all across Southwest and West Atlanta have
Speaker 1: becoming more like the black people have been being displaced
Speaker 1: from the from our communities, right. UM. So a perfect
Speaker 1: example is that with my organization, Community Movement Builders, we
Speaker 1: UH purchased. We've we've been doing work in the Pittsburg
Speaker 1: neighborhood for a while, but we purchased a community house
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood about six years ago. Right at that point,
Speaker 1: we purchased the house for fifty tho dollars. Right, UM,
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh has been historically UH poor and working class community.
Speaker 1: It was uh it was founded as a black community,
Speaker 1: which is different from a lot of other other neighbors
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Was founded as a black community from UH
Speaker 1: freed Africans UM who we're trying to escape some of
Speaker 1: the more rural areas of the South and found work
Speaker 1: in Haven in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Atlanta. And it's
Speaker 1: been a poor and working class black community ever since.
Speaker 1: But now UM, because of the gentrification has been going on.
Speaker 1: How how has just sold maybe about a month and
Speaker 1: a half ago, for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: So the person's house at fifty thou dollars six years ago,
Speaker 1: the house just sold UM just a few blocks away
Speaker 1: from that house for seven fifty thousand dollars. Now it's
Speaker 1: not every house is selling for that amount, but that
Speaker 1: just shows you the rate of gentrification that's happening. And
Speaker 1: then and we know that cops are on this necessary
Speaker 1: part of being able to defer to displace people from
Speaker 1: gentrifying communities. They play an integral role within gentrification. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, does any of you have anything like
Speaker 1: even like anecdotal experience with like basically Marvel and Men,
Speaker 1: tons of other industries like invading Atlanta. How is that
Speaker 1: like affected specifically, Like you already talked about how how
Speaker 1: you know, increased the increase in the film industry and
Speaker 1: other things. Has you know, has made more gentrification? But like,
Speaker 1: how has that even affected just like like other types
Speaker 1: of stuff, including like policing, Like has has this type
Speaker 1: of like growth um affected people or people you know
Speaker 1: in in other ways? Yeah? Absolutely so. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of this kind of got I won't say it
Speaker 1: got started, but a lot of it went even uh
Speaker 1: you know, escalated when Tyler Perry Studio opened up in
Speaker 1: East Point Um and a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: we're praising it's like, oh look at this, uh you know,
Speaker 1: it's a black man. I was able to move down
Speaker 1: and be able to start this thing within Hollywood. But no,
Speaker 1: it's all that is one of the things that also
Speaker 1: spurred the gentrification in East Point, which is you might
Speaker 1: not be familiar with Atlanta, but East Point is like
Speaker 1: literally right next to Atlanta, So it's a lot of
Speaker 1: it's it's it's really close proximity. And so that also
Speaker 1: spurs over to the gentrification here in the city as well. Um.
Speaker 1: Property values have gone up since that point, even more. UM.
Speaker 1: Even my tax bill has gone up a thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year per a year UM for the past like
Speaker 1: three years, right, UM. So it's yeah, it's it's definitely
Speaker 1: we definitely see the effects and you know, and just
Speaker 1: talking to you know, we do, we do do a
Speaker 1: lot of work around gentrification. UM. And I think this
Speaker 1: is intend them with you know, because we have COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen out here now, with the Vision moratorium which has
Speaker 1: now been you know denied um by the Supreme Court. Um.
Speaker 1: But even when there wasn't a Vision moratorium, there were
Speaker 1: still people that were getting evicted from their homes. And
Speaker 1: I think all of this in tandem when Atlanta specifically
Speaker 1: has already been going through a gentrification crisis, and um
Speaker 1: with COVID nineteen, where people have been losing jobs, left
Speaker 1: and right or not been able to go to their
Speaker 1: jobs that they've had um and look and having us
Speaker 1: salaries cut. People have been hurting. And the response from
Speaker 1: the city has not too been that has not been
Speaker 1: to provide more resources to people. It's been too fund
Speaker 1: cops city to be able to get more peace out.
Speaker 1: Who are the ones that execute the actual evictions themselves?
Speaker 1: And I think it all, it all, it all is
Speaker 1: connected in that in that type of way. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: like I think if people don't know, like the reason
Speaker 1: why so many filming projects have moved to Georgia in
Speaker 1: the past decade and a half, it's because basically, UM,
Speaker 1: Georgia instituted a pretty substantial tax cut for production companies
Speaker 1: to film in Georgia, so they would they would like
Speaker 1: not even just get a tax cut, but also at
Speaker 1: tax credit you would actually get like you would actually
Speaker 1: get money for filming in Georgia. UM. And theoretically, this, this,
Speaker 1: this can be good things, right, this, this could strengthen
Speaker 1: local film film industry and hire people who already in Georgia.
Speaker 1: But in a lot of cases they are hiring a
Speaker 1: lot of out of state workers to come in and
Speaker 1: do these big productions. Um, including you know, Marvel and
Speaker 1: and various other film studios. I think, uh, just looking
Speaker 1: looking at something like it was in about in twenty
Speaker 1: six there was they were supposed to have around like
Speaker 1: um jobs created, um, but only of those went to
Speaker 1: people actually living in Georgia. So there is job creation,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of people moving in from from
Speaker 1: from people getting flowed in from like New York from
Speaker 1: California two then, but both are taking the jobs in
Speaker 1: in the city, but also they have to live there,
Speaker 1: so they're also eating up housing. UM. And this housing
Speaker 1: is getting paid for by big corporations, which is making
Speaker 1: prices go up and up. And it's this kind of
Speaker 1: cascading problem which is now you know, even even led
Speaker 1: to this deforestation project. UM. You you've mentioned what the
Speaker 1: deforestage project is and you've called it like a cops city, UM.
Speaker 1: And I think this is this is an extremely fascinating,
Speaker 1: um and horrifying like dystopia like idea of don't explain
Speaker 1: like what they're actually trying to do with this, with
Speaker 1: this section of force and what they're trying to build.
Speaker 1: I do want to take a second and just kind
Speaker 1: of make a point really quickly that I think is important. UM.
Speaker 1: The Atlantic Police Foundation, which is basically the ther machine
Speaker 1: that works with the Atlanta Police Department. UM, if you
Speaker 1: look at their website, if you look at their goals,
Speaker 1: if you look at their objectives, they always say and
Speaker 1: purport UM that like, Hey, we're looking to protect the city.
Speaker 1: We're looking to do all of these things. And I
Speaker 1: think it's really interesting because they're also looking to expand
Speaker 1: their police force as this cop City then would allow,
Speaker 1: which would take about five years to develop, but is
Speaker 1: still going to be a massive expansion of policing if
Speaker 1: it were to be passed. Um, do you have these people,
Speaker 1: you have these police for saying that we are looking
Speaker 1: to expand the work that we do. We're looking to
Speaker 1: hire more officers, We're looking to put more people on
Speaker 1: the streets streets. And at the same time, you have
Speaker 1: an eviction moratorium that is putting people on the street streets.
Speaker 1: And it's just really interesting that their jobs and their
Speaker 1: livelihood rely on the existence of poverty, in the existence
Speaker 1: of crime in order to have in order to have
Speaker 1: a need for more police, you need more people on
Speaker 1: the streets. In order to have a need for more police,
Speaker 1: you need more people whose doors need to be knocked
Speaker 1: on to be told, hey, you're getting evicted, You're getting
Speaker 1: pushed out of your home. So I think that is
Speaker 1: very reminiscent of the fact that police do not protect
Speaker 1: us because they're the existence of their jobs rely on
Speaker 1: our poverty. Yeah, they're not. They're not actually trying to
Speaker 1: help regular people who are living in Atlanta and trying
Speaker 1: to make other people happy, who have a lot more
Speaker 1: money and who have other other things that stay. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and that definitely intersects with a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: Another point to make is that who as sits on
Speaker 1: the board of the Atlanta Police Foundation, right, It is
Speaker 1: all of the CEOs of the big businesses that are
Speaker 1: in the city of Atlanta. The CEO of Coca Cola,
Speaker 1: the CEO of Chick fil A, the CEO of Home Depot,
Speaker 1: all of these, the major corporations, the Fortune five, Fortune
Speaker 1: one d for most of them, corporations that are that
Speaker 1: run the city of Atlanta. The corporate elite are the
Speaker 1: ones that are sitting that are on the board of
Speaker 1: this of the Atlanta Police Foundation. Who are the ones
Speaker 1: that are building this and are are funding this project
Speaker 1: so that they can protect their property UM, and so
Speaker 1: that they can expand the police force that and what
Speaker 1: we know is that police doesn't don't protect people and
Speaker 1: protect property UM, and they protect the corporate elite. So
Speaker 1: I think all of those things are it comes full
Speaker 1: circle as a great Michael Cosum of racial capitalism that
Speaker 1: UM is exploiting uh, poor and working class black folks
Speaker 1: in particular. Yeah, and if if people are unfamiliar, does
Speaker 1: anyone want to explain what the what what the project
Speaker 1: that the police are trying to build is And they're
Speaker 1: I know they're teaming up with like different like prison
Speaker 1: firms and stuff as well, like like what is what
Speaker 1: is the actual project? Sure, so I can kind of
Speaker 1: give a broader overview and wall if I miss anything,
Speaker 1: if you want to add it in, that would be great. UM.
Speaker 1: So basically they want to take UM ownership of three
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty one acres of forested land in unincorporated
Speaker 1: to Cobb County. UM. This land was once the old
Speaker 1: Atlanta put Prison Farm. Before that it was Key Plantation,
Speaker 1: and before that it belonged to the um Miss Scogee
Speaker 1: Nation and it was stolen from them and then folks
Speaker 1: were enslaved on it and then forced into unpaid labor
Speaker 1: for prison work on it as well. So it's a
Speaker 1: land with the very scarred history. What the APF wants
Speaker 1: to do essentially is UM bulldoze a great deal of
Speaker 1: it and then build this training facility and mocks city.
Speaker 1: UM it's going to The plans currently include plans for
Speaker 1: explosives testing and weapons testing and like all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and then UM, I think this is a good point
Speaker 1: to make is that there have been a lot of
Speaker 1: attempts to kind of placate the public on the facility.
Speaker 1: So they say, oh, we're not going to destroy all
Speaker 1: of the land. We're gonna do a hundred fifty acres,
Speaker 1: or we're gonna get it where, We're gonna cut it
Speaker 1: town to a hundred and twenty acres, or we'll leave
Speaker 1: this part or um we'll create some green space as well,
Speaker 1: and we'll have like a food farm as well. But
Speaker 1: there was this really great environmental impact report that was
Speaker 1: done that kind of showed that UM a lot of
Speaker 1: the impacts that this would actually in terms of UM,
Speaker 1: the runoff from all of those explosives testing and things
Speaker 1: like that would um end up polluting the South River
Speaker 1: and would pollute the very urban farm that they proposed
Speaker 1: to exist on the land itself, so that food, that
Speaker 1: those fish, all of that would become destroyed. And it's
Speaker 1: really really, I think helpful to just point this out
Speaker 1: as a really specific instance of environmental racism because the
Speaker 1: people who are going to be affected by that are
Speaker 1: people who lived there. And of course this is being
Speaker 1: lived there, this is being built near marginalized communities, so
Speaker 1: that's kind of what's happening. They want to, UM, I
Speaker 1: live on Georgia type campus, just to give an example,
Speaker 1: And this facility would be larger than that, or about
Speaker 1: the size of that. This facility would be about the
Speaker 1: size of UM Disneyland in California. UM it is huge.
Speaker 1: It's a huge. Yeah, And I'm guessing they're they're They're
Speaker 1: not going to be building there explosives and military testing
Speaker 1: facility next to where all the rich people live. They're
Speaker 1: not going to be like testing out bombs where all
Speaker 1: of you know, the upper class people are. Of course not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people get saying Buckhead wants the facility, but they don't
Speaker 1: want it in Buckhead. They wouldn't do it there. Of course.
Speaker 1: It's not a mistake that UM all of like and
Speaker 1: even with UH so, you know, with city council, people
Speaker 1: who have gotten a little bit scared and nervous about
Speaker 1: our past and our current um efforts again to be
Speaker 1: able to raise awareness about this because the other part
Speaker 1: of this is what isn't that it should be highlighted,
Speaker 1: is that, you know, city council talks about how they're
Speaker 1: trying to make this a more uh you know, they're
Speaker 1: getting the input of people. All this was done before
Speaker 1: organizers exposed it without anybody knowing, right there was no advertisement,
Speaker 1: There's no like, no calls made or no in public
Speaker 1: input about any of this happening until organizers started, you know,
Speaker 1: blowing it up, and that's what's gotten them scared at
Speaker 1: this point. But even and then now that people do
Speaker 1: are aware of it, some a few certain in UH
Speaker 1: city Countis members are saying, Okay, we're gonna backtrack a
Speaker 1: little bit. Maybe you don't want it to be here
Speaker 1: because of this forest we want. We might want to
Speaker 1: put it in a different location, but it's important that
Speaker 1: all those proposed locations. One, I think it's pretty much bullshit.
Speaker 1: They're gonna build it there at that location. They've already
Speaker 1: had the plans for it. But even if they were
Speaker 1: to move, all those other proposed locations are all south
Speaker 1: of anywhere. Anybody that lives or is from Atlanta, um
Speaker 1: knows that south of I twenty is where all of
Speaker 1: the black people live basically, and so and all of
Speaker 1: the poor and working class people of Atlanta, uh in
Speaker 1: the city live. So this is so it's it's a
Speaker 1: so yes, they like just just like she was saying, right,
Speaker 1: um Buckhead wants this, Midtown wants this. Um, the richest
Speaker 1: areas of the city want this, but they don't want
Speaker 1: it for them. They wanted to uh police, uh, poor
Speaker 1: and working class people. Yeah, I mean like be even
Speaker 1: beyond the disastrous en mental effects and building this giant
Speaker 1: but tearing down forest and building this giant concrete structure
Speaker 1: would have like it's just this is gonna and and
Speaker 1: even beyond like the increased problems with gentrification. Just like
Speaker 1: the further militarization of the police is like, this isn't
Speaker 1: like a niche problem you gets talked about anymore. Like
Speaker 1: this is like a widely and this is generally think
Speaker 1: that's something that's talking that got talked about a lot.
Speaker 1: Is how militarization of police is bad um. You know,
Speaker 1: even for like more like softer liberals is something that
Speaker 1: even they can like you know, say that they agree with.
Speaker 1: Yet they're building this giant compound to make their police
Speaker 1: like some like super like swat team, military tactical training unit. UM.
Speaker 1: And Yeah, I think another point is that even if
Speaker 1: wherever it's built anywhere like it, it shouldn't be built like,
Speaker 1: we don't you don't need this in the first place
Speaker 1: at all. You don't, you know, beyond the forest being
Speaker 1: being you know, torn down, which is horrible, you don't
Speaker 1: need this built anywhere, right, Like That's so like in
Speaker 1: organizing against this, is is it kind of split up
Speaker 1: in between protecting the forests and organizing against the facility
Speaker 1: or or are these things kind of just so combined
Speaker 1: that these struggles are still linked that there's really no no, no,
Speaker 1: no difference between between the two. Yes. So I think
Speaker 1: the initial coalition came pretty naturally because everybody that was
Speaker 1: in the coalition UM, in one way or another, was
Speaker 1: against this project. Right. We had folks that were more
Speaker 1: so on the environmental side of things. We have folks
Speaker 1: that were more so on the police brutality side, and
Speaker 1: UM and the police abolition side of things. Um, however,
Speaker 1: I think all of us have in some way or another,
Speaker 1: you know, we have interests in all the all these
Speaker 1: issues are all overlaying right. So the coalition formed because
Speaker 1: even while we might have our specialized interests in different areas,
Speaker 1: this particular project is one that was a microcosm of
Speaker 1: so many different things that we could unite behind all
Speaker 1: of these things to be able to find a coalition
Speaker 1: to fight against it. Right. Um, And I think, uh,
Speaker 1: to uh your point, Christopher, I think one thing that's
Speaker 1: also really significant is that so my city council person
Speaker 1: for his district twelve, Joyce Shepherd, Um, District twelve is
Speaker 1: where Pittsburgh is, where Summerhill is, where several of poor
Speaker 1: and black working class neighborhoods of Atlanta are located. There
Speaker 1: are also the areas where they're the most gentrifying areas
Speaker 1: of the city as well. And it's in in in
Speaker 1: city Council District twelve. Joyce Shepherd. She is the person
Speaker 1: who brought this proposal forward, right. She is over the
Speaker 1: quote unquote public safety. Um, you know they ain't keeping
Speaker 1: ship safe public safety? Um, you know commission And Um,
Speaker 1: she brought this forward. And she has been since she's
Speaker 1: been in office, she has been a even uh, she's
Speaker 1: been a champion of gentrification, right, she's been a champion
Speaker 1: of over policing as well. Um. And I think it's
Speaker 1: it's a tie between even our city council or even
Speaker 1: representation has in their interests of being able of of
Speaker 1: gentrifying the city because that gives them more tax stars,
Speaker 1: it gives them a way to be able to say
Speaker 1: that they are decreasing their crime rates except and all
Speaker 1: those all these different types of things when it's really
Speaker 1: just dep deplacing poor folks. Um. And so I think
Speaker 1: that's an important about talking about how this kind of
Speaker 1: was established. That's an important topic to be able to address,
Speaker 1: is that even and she's a black woman, right so
Speaker 1: even um, you know, even how like when people when
Speaker 1: when people might you think they might be representing your interests, Um,
Speaker 1: when they get to be in these positions, we have
Speaker 1: to recognize that they are not necessarily for the people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we had this in Chicago too with lightfoot, just
Speaker 1: like for selected and that immediately, like do you start
Speaker 1: putting stops in the subways and swat teams are shooting
Speaker 1: people and disaster. Yeah, And I would just add to that,
Speaker 1: like this is like in terms of like the question
Speaker 1: about the coalition and how these organizers and how these
Speaker 1: organizations came together, It's it's been a little it's it's
Speaker 1: been really interesting because there's, like, like Jamal said, there's
Speaker 1: been so many groups that have come from all of
Speaker 1: these different interests, whether it's environmental or abolitionists or UM
Speaker 1: talking about um, you know, reimagining public safety and divesting
Speaker 1: resources from policing. You have all these people from all
Speaker 1: these different groups, and UM there was like there there
Speaker 1: have been like different coalitions and different groups of people
Speaker 1: working together and like co sponsoring each other on events.
Speaker 1: And I have just seen that number grow so rapidly
Speaker 1: and just and I think that comes from a fundamental
Speaker 1: understanding that we're not fighting different fights. All of this
Speaker 1: is intertwined. This is environmental justice is intersectional to racial justice,
Speaker 1: which is inter sectional to economic justice, which is just
Speaker 1: all indicative of, you know, the fight against unfettered greed
Speaker 1: and exploitation and all of these things. So I think
Speaker 1: that and I would say that to an extent, there
Speaker 1: are more like quote unquote like moderate groups that I've seen,
Speaker 1: like do things, or there have been groups who's kind
Speaker 1: of whose hands have been tied a little bit and
Speaker 1: kind of have been approaching the issue through an environmental
Speaker 1: angle only to kind of avoid talking about polarizing topics
Speaker 1: like policing. But um, I think that hopefully by having
Speaker 1: coalitions like this one and by having conversations like this one,
Speaker 1: we are getting people closer and closer to the understanding
Speaker 1: that these are intersectional issues. These are issues that we
Speaker 1: should all tackle together and in the future when stuff
Speaker 1: like this happens. We're so much stronger when we work together.
Speaker 1: Like I can list like fifteen or twenty different organizations
Speaker 1: off the top of my head who are involved in
Speaker 1: this fight in some way, and that wouldn't be possible
Speaker 1: it was just the abolitionists or just being our mentalist.
Speaker 1: Because it's it all ties together and as we do this,
Speaker 1: as we're in this process, we learn from each other
Speaker 1: and learned that these things are true. I wasn't and
Speaker 1: I wasn't the like most well burst on gentrification and
Speaker 1: how it works in the city of Atlanta because I
Speaker 1: just moved here pretty recently, and like being able to
Speaker 1: have these conversations and going out and canvassing and talking
Speaker 1: to people and seeing what the streets look like and
Speaker 1: seeing what different districts look like has like vactually expanded
Speaker 1: my own knowledge of how all of this works, and
Speaker 1: it's made me like it's it's made me a better
Speaker 1: organizer and a more caring community member. So it's been
Speaker 1: really cool to see all these people from all these
Speaker 1: different backgrounds come together. And I think that, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just been really great. Yeah, because the effort to the
Speaker 1: effort to save the forest um and prevent the construction
Speaker 1: of the facility, because it is such a coalition effort.
Speaker 1: It's it's multiple groups working together. How How is how
Speaker 1: is the process of taking multiple organizations and having them
Speaker 1: all work together on the same project, Because I know
Speaker 1: that can in my experience watching this happen in other
Speaker 1: cities that can be very difficult as getting different organizations
Speaker 1: to work together. Um how how How? How have how
Speaker 1: have people managed to to take all these different different
Speaker 1: organizations with different backgrounds and get them to team up
Speaker 1: for this shared cause? Um? I think it has been
Speaker 1: difficult and there have been a lot of lessons and
Speaker 1: experiences here because I mean, um community movement builders for example,
Speaker 1: And while you can speak to this much better than
Speaker 1: I can. Is a Black lead Black Front group that
Speaker 1: operates in Atlanta, and there are other groups and other
Speaker 1: people who are working on this who maybe aren't as
Speaker 1: well versed as we need to be, And honestly, an
Speaker 1: element of that is learning from each other and learning
Speaker 1: to respect like who should be speaking on these issues
Speaker 1: and when they should be speaking on these issues, and
Speaker 1: what role each of us has to play. Um. I
Speaker 1: think one thing that I would have liked to see
Speaker 1: more is including, you know, the lower my scope Creep
Speaker 1: tribe in indigenous groups in this effort a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And I know, like we've been moving on like what
Speaker 1: a hell of a timeline, and it's been development after development.
Speaker 1: But I think that just like when we work in
Speaker 1: coalition and we work on groups who have different theories
Speaker 1: of change, when we work on groups have different ideologies
Speaker 1: in different ways that they approach things, it's a really
Speaker 1: good chance for those groups to kind of come together
Speaker 1: and do what they do best, play to their strengths,
Speaker 1: but also challenge their own ideologies and their own perceptions
Speaker 1: of the world. And I've seen a lot of that
Speaker 1: in this space. And I feel like Jamal can speak
Speaker 1: to this really well too, probably better than I can
Speaker 1: in some places. No, I'll just say plus one to
Speaker 1: all of that. UM. I think that it's definitely learning
Speaker 1: curve UM and any kind of coalition working working with
Speaker 1: other organizations is definitely learning curve UM, and we are
Speaker 1: learning from each other to be able to build. But
Speaker 1: I think it's also important that UM. Having that coalition
Speaker 1: is important because we pull from even from like we
Speaker 1: talked about public input, right or we talked about a
Speaker 1: rally that we're having, We're pulling from several different communities.
Speaker 1: We're pulling from several different areas of people who have
Speaker 1: different interests, who can all make the event, the central event,
Speaker 1: that much better than that much stronger. So we can
Speaker 1: make so we can push, for example, a postponement of
Speaker 1: the vote for three weeks, which has been unprecedented in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: particularly for something that has to do with policing, right UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that there was lessons learned within coalition
Speaker 1: building UM that are always going to be challenges. But
Speaker 1: I think the other and I think that what we
Speaker 1: also learned is that it's important that you know, we
Speaker 1: come into this work in the particular lane of this
Speaker 1: work right. UM. You know, community builders might have had
Speaker 1: particular I have a lot of experience working with UM
Speaker 1: anti police violence, right, UM, we don't have a whole
Speaker 1: lot of experience with environmental justice or environmental UM issues
Speaker 1: or advocacy UM in that same type of way, So
Speaker 1: we might not be tapped in or even equipped to
Speaker 1: be able to have those types of conversations with people. UM.
Speaker 1: But we also know, but we're also a place based
Speaker 1: organization in the area, so that we also have a
Speaker 1: lot of experience talking to people in our community, knowing
Speaker 1: to the issues that are in our community and being
Speaker 1: able to uh make folks or have folks be aware
Speaker 1: of what's going on that affects their lives. So like,
Speaker 1: a lot of this I think is also people bringing
Speaker 1: in that information UM for lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: staying in their lane for what it is, at their
Speaker 1: expertise is so that they can contribute their expertise to
Speaker 1: uh the coalition to be able to keep on building
Speaker 1: that out right, Yeah, what has the fight looked like
Speaker 1: so far? Like, well, what kind of organizing has been
Speaker 1: done with this goal in mind the past few months
Speaker 1: or even longer. A lot of things actually, UM, we
Speaker 1: are doing a lot of things this weekend. In particular,
Speaker 1: UM CMB is holding a rally in front of Coca
Speaker 1: Cola headquarters on Friday. Sunrise is doing a people's march
Speaker 1: UM on Freedom Park Trail UM just to kind of
Speaker 1: attract pedestrian attention. There are going to be banner drops
Speaker 1: around the city and the art has played a critical
Speaker 1: role in all of this work. UM Metro Atlanta ds
Speaker 1: A has been running canvases every weekend for the last
Speaker 1: three months. UM we held phone banks. We held UM
Speaker 1: a really powerful people's town hall where basically we actually
Speaker 1: invited people up to the mic and UM said, you
Speaker 1: have two minutes tell us what your opinion is on
Speaker 1: cop city and your community and how you feel about it.
Speaker 1: Because city Council, the APF they're not doing it, so
Speaker 1: we're going to give you the space to do that.
Speaker 1: And that was live streamed and made available. UM. We
Speaker 1: had UM the Spanish speaking community participated through an organization
Speaker 1: called bod latin X, who did a bilingual panel with
Speaker 1: captioning to kind of educate folks on the issue. So
Speaker 1: a lot of it has just been going and just
Speaker 1: physically talking to people, having conversations and then just taking
Speaker 1: action in all these really powerful ways, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that is culminating, I feel this weekend. But yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and I think all of that has been like the
Speaker 1: main focus of all of this, and all of that
Speaker 1: has been built off of just talking to people. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, organizing to me is recognizing
Speaker 1: power structures talking but building people power and building uh
Speaker 1: uh ways for bringing the fight back to the masses. Right. Um.
Speaker 1: So even like right before this call, uh CMB was
Speaker 1: out flying UM at modest stations at the UM, the
Speaker 1: au c UM and other locations to make sure that
Speaker 1: people are aware that like this is happening. Um. And
Speaker 1: because that's the other thing, A lot of people, UM,
Speaker 1: A lot more people know about it now, but particularly
Speaker 1: when it first was coming out in the end. UM
Speaker 1: even now some people don't aren't even aware of what's
Speaker 1: going on, but um, like it's been their biggest defense
Speaker 1: has been uh people not knowing about this, about this
Speaker 1: ordinance trying to be passed and trying to do it
Speaker 1: in under the veil of darkness. And the more we're
Speaker 1: able to expose them, the more we're able to get it,
Speaker 1: the higher likelihood we are able to stop it, um
Speaker 1: and so um. I think, yeah, it's extremely important that
Speaker 1: when we're when we're talking about any type of organizing,
Speaker 1: we have to bring it back to the people and
Speaker 1: making sure that we're uh, you know, you know, really
Speaker 1: living up to the words like all power to the people.
Speaker 1: Have you seen any effects so far from the order?
Speaker 1: I know it's it's always difficult to gauge the effectiveness
Speaker 1: of any activistsm Um, but have have you seen any
Speaker 1: changes either? And like I know you mentioned like perception
Speaker 1: and then people being aware of this project, but have
Speaker 1: you seen anything else happen um, whether on like whether
Speaker 1: you know through the like legislative process or just through
Speaker 1: like coverage. Yeah, Like what what's going to get? So far?
Speaker 1: The major the major win is the is the postponement
Speaker 1: in the vote, Like this was supposed to be voted
Speaker 1: and passed. It was going to be passed three weeks ago,
Speaker 1: right and for for them to delay it and frankly
Speaker 1: they even said it they delayed it because they were like,
Speaker 1: we're getting too much negative pressure. We want to get
Speaker 1: we want to do more public opinion. Basically, they want
Speaker 1: to put more propaganda out there for the police, um,
Speaker 1: and try to have another vote when we think that
Speaker 1: we can get more people on our side, because this
Speaker 1: is an election season for Atlanta too, so a lot
Speaker 1: of them might worry about their seats and they know
Speaker 1: that we made a lot of noise about it, and
Speaker 1: then we've got a lot of news coverage about it.
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of people talking about this, and
Speaker 1: so at this stage they're afraid that, you know, they
Speaker 1: couldn't do this under the little darkness, and so now
Speaker 1: people know about it in our upset about it. So
Speaker 1: I think that in of itself, that's again, this is
Speaker 1: the first time this is and this has happened in
Speaker 1: the city of Atlanta um period where the city Council
Speaker 1: has been scared based off of community based organizing, particularly
Speaker 1: when it has to come to anything that has to
Speaker 1: do with policing. Atlanta is the most surveiled city in
Speaker 1: the country right um our police force. People talk about
Speaker 1: it being the Black Mecca. People talk about it being,
Speaker 1: you know, a black haven for a black Hollywood, a
Speaker 1: black haven for black folks. It is the most surveiled
Speaker 1: place in the in the in the country and city
Speaker 1: in the country. And it's also and we are nowhere
Speaker 1: close to being a stranger to police brutality and police killings. UM,
Speaker 1: and we've seen that. UM. You know, I can name
Speaker 1: a list of names just like uh that you know
Speaker 1: have been murdered by the police just in the past
Speaker 1: three years. Right, So yeah, I think that, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think an organizer joker, an organizer question at this
Speaker 1: point where people who have been working on this is
Speaker 1: like where were you August sixteenth? Where were you? And
Speaker 1: it happened when the vote was actually pushed because that
Speaker 1: demonstrated a huge win for the people. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, organizers in Atlanta and this community and this
Speaker 1: like these outcries and these like just these conversations and
Speaker 1: this this anger at all culminated in this beautiful moment
Speaker 1: where they said, like we can't pass this right now,
Speaker 1: like we just actually can't do it. For me, I
Speaker 1: was at a book club meeting and I saw on
Speaker 1: Twitter and my brain was fuzzy for the next hour
Speaker 1: because that that had never happened before and it was
Speaker 1: just it was beautiful and yeah, and just like having
Speaker 1: these conversations is just another like impact. The story went national. Um,
Speaker 1: there was an article for The Intercept having conversations like
Speaker 1: this one and just like and just being able to
Speaker 1: tie this to like, like I've said a few times
Speaker 1: during this during this conversation, just that that culture of
Speaker 1: that culture that that like okayness with extraction and exploitation
Speaker 1: of land and resources and people. And being able to
Speaker 1: take this story national and take this story to other
Speaker 1: places and say like, this is what happens in communities,
Speaker 1: look into your own and see if it's happening there.
Speaker 1: Like that is so inspiring that that's what builds movements.
Speaker 1: So that was a really powerful one. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: something like having having that result is incredibly rare for
Speaker 1: something like this, right, Like that is that's not something
Speaker 1: that happens often, and that should be celebrated based on
Speaker 1: what what you've been able to do so far. Um,
Speaker 1: what is the fighting look like going forward in the
Speaker 1: next and the next few weeks? Um? Is there a
Speaker 1: date that they're planning to vote again already or is
Speaker 1: that still kind of up in the air. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they're voting in on Tuesday, right, So, Um, that's why
Speaker 1: you know, we're still fighting all the way up till
Speaker 1: the end. Um. I think that at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, Um, we have to recognize that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: pressure Campaigns like this are important. We have to be
Speaker 1: able to do them, but we also have to be
Speaker 1: able to put our bodies on the line to be
Speaker 1: able to just if if the city council, because again,
Speaker 1: this isn't up to a vote of the people. This
Speaker 1: is a vote of corporate interests that are in city
Speaker 1: council members who are tied to corporate interests, so they
Speaker 1: ultimately can still vote even the people for it, even
Speaker 1: if the people don't want this to happen, right, And
Speaker 1: so I think it also has to be even after
Speaker 1: the vote that fight does. Let's say, if it does pass, right,
Speaker 1: we're hoping that doesn't, But if it does pass, that
Speaker 1: means that the fight doesn't end at that point. That
Speaker 1: means that are that that the onus is then on
Speaker 1: the people for us to organize even more because that
Speaker 1: means we mean bodies on the line. That means that
Speaker 1: we have to be able to physically say you're not
Speaker 1: building this ship period um. And that's the next step
Speaker 1: in the campaign. I'm speaking, this is speaking for you know,
Speaker 1: myself at this point. I can't speak for the whole
Speaker 1: coalition on this on this pace, but I think of
Speaker 1: us are in the same are on the same boat
Speaker 1: that like, after this vote, we still are in this fight,
Speaker 1: whether whatever they regardless of what the outcome is. And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different avenues in terms of like
Speaker 1: direct action and land offense and working more with indigenous
Speaker 1: communities on the issue, and lawsuits on the environmental angle,
Speaker 1: and even just the city council angle of just voting
Speaker 1: out everybody who voted yes. And there's there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways to take action after this. It just
Speaker 1: depends on the results of the vote that is happening
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Yeah, yeah, that will be. Yeah, that's it's
Speaker 1: it's as you guys said that it was going to be,
Speaker 1: uh a very serious turning point in figuring out what
Speaker 1: to do next. Um let's let's for a change, let's
Speaker 1: be optimistic as just a fun practice that might us
Speaker 1: What if um magically were not not magically because you
Speaker 1: put a lot of a lot of hard work, but
Speaker 1: like what if they um do vote no and the
Speaker 1: and they and they don't, they don't build this projects?
Speaker 1: Do you see any future for like the coalition, like
Speaker 1: like like having having all these groups work together. Do
Speaker 1: you see you taking up any other kind of projects?
Speaker 1: Because like you know, getting a network like this is
Speaker 1: very UM, it's very useful and unique, UM and as
Speaker 1: you know, at times, at times very difficult. Do you
Speaker 1: see any other kind of organizing potential for having this
Speaker 1: interconnected kind of group of people. I honestly can't see
Speaker 1: a world where we don't continue to have these conversations
Speaker 1: and we don't continue to work together, and we don't
Speaker 1: continue to tap into this like beautiful system of collective
Speaker 1: care because honestly, we've it's felt like rushing to the
Speaker 1: finish for the last three months. But like after we're
Speaker 1: like focused on a particular campaign or particular issue, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be other things to worry about. But also I'm
Speaker 1: really hoping personally that we're going to be able to
Speaker 1: take some time to slow down and process and have
Speaker 1: conversation aations to talk about what just supporting each other
Speaker 1: actually mean, what just supporting people in like a localized,
Speaker 1: substantive intersectional manner actually look like. So my hope and
Speaker 1: my wish and my UM goal is is absolutely yes, UM,
Speaker 1: I hope that will continue to work together and in
Speaker 1: lots of different ways, on lots of different projects, because
Speaker 1: we don't really know what what at least for Sunrise.
Speaker 1: We don't really know what we're going to focus on next,
Speaker 1: but um, there's definitely a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1: And I think just like what's really been powerful about
Speaker 1: this many people coming together and this demonstration of people
Speaker 1: power is that we're starting to shift the narrative, the
Speaker 1: narrative that protection and um control equal safety and understanding
Speaker 1: what safety actually means. And it's not just Sunrise and
Speaker 1: Community with It builders in d s A and like
Speaker 1: a couple of environmental groups. It's groups that have been
Speaker 1: doing mutual aid work, groups that have been um directly
Speaker 1: on the ground, like and and groups that have been
Speaker 1: you know, working and fighting in in all of these
Speaker 1: like tangible ways to just get people access to food
Speaker 1: and water and transportation and the things that we actually need.
Speaker 1: So I think that in terms of like actually shifting
Speaker 1: the narrative and diverting resources to where they need to
Speaker 1: be diverted, coalitions are a powerful tool, and I hope
Speaker 1: we'll continue to use them. Yeah. Second to to all that,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that while we each have our
Speaker 1: respective work, and I speak for CNB, we are Black
Speaker 1: Radical Organization is dedicated to the Liberated Zone theory. Right
Speaker 1: now are our focus is organizing within the Pittsburgh neighborhood
Speaker 1: of Atlanta. But even as you can see with this
Speaker 1: issue right with Cops City, Um, you know, Cops City
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, but it was
Speaker 1: the same ap D officers that killed Rashard Brooks in
Speaker 1: our neighborhood last year. Right, So these all issues are
Speaker 1: fall under the umbrella of capitalism and racial capitalism with
Speaker 1: affects all of us. So when it comes to these
Speaker 1: types of issues, we have to work in coalitions because
Speaker 1: that's what's going to be able to make us be
Speaker 1: that much stronger because we all are affected by these uh,
Speaker 1: these these intersectional systems. So UM, I definitely think that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, while it might not be on every single
Speaker 1: project that we work on with each other on because
Speaker 1: we all have our specialties in our our niches of
Speaker 1: areas of work. UM, when it comes to intersectional issues
Speaker 1: like this that are big, there are that affect all
Speaker 1: of us in different ways. UM I could definitely, I
Speaker 1: definitely as being able to work within coalitions and continuing
Speaker 1: that momentum and work that we've built off with this
Speaker 1: cops of the effort. Is there anything you want to
Speaker 1: say to people who are outside of Atlanta anyway they
Speaker 1: can show support. UM. I think one thing that I
Speaker 1: can add that maybe is a little bit more generalized, is, UM,
Speaker 1: I know that there's a lot of fear right now,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of anger right now, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of hurt right now, and it feels like
Speaker 1: our rights are being attacked on every front with you
Speaker 1: know O we weight in Texas and issues like cop
Speaker 1: City and militarization and expansion of policing in the eviction
Speaker 1: moratorium and all of these things. And I know that
Speaker 1: it can seem very daunting. And I guess my my
Speaker 1: thing that I want to say to people is this
Speaker 1: is not the time to disengage. Everybody who supports and
Speaker 1: seeks to promote and who is protected by the status
Speaker 1: quo wants you to disengage, don't do it. Come fight
Speaker 1: with us in your community, in our community, anywhere we
Speaker 1: need you. Yeah. Absolutely, I will double down on that
Speaker 1: point to say, Yeah, we could say that again and
Speaker 1: again that it's a point that always needs to be reiterated,
Speaker 1: reiterated more often. Yeah, is there any is there any
Speaker 1: place UM people can do any financial support from from
Speaker 1: far away that people can assist either through legal funds
Speaker 1: or various other means. Yes, so I've do a few
Speaker 1: I don't know communit movement bilities. We have a donate
Speaker 1: page if fuel to our website Community Movement Builders dot org.
Speaker 1: There's a donate tab you can donate directly through there.
Speaker 1: You can also donate to our cash up cash app
Speaker 1: that's Dollar Signs cmb O, r G c mb org UM,
Speaker 1: but also Atlanta Bail Fund is also is always an
Speaker 1: important resource UM if folks are taking arrest of different
Speaker 1: direct actions in different protests UM. I've had several comrades
Speaker 1: who have gone to who have who have taken the
Speaker 1: rest for very variety for a variety of actions, and
Speaker 1: we do rely on that as a source for us
Speaker 1: to be able to make sure that we're still you know,
Speaker 1: able to UM, you know, live and breathe and survive
Speaker 1: another day in this capitalist, at racist as UM country
Speaker 1: that we live within. I want to plug UM donating
Speaker 1: to and supporting the Atlanta Homeless Union UM, which formed
Speaker 1: this summer and has been doing an incredible credical work UM.
Speaker 1: I also want to plug mainline Zene on Instagram and Twitter,
Speaker 1: and UH they have been critical in UM actual like
Speaker 1: anti fascist news coverage and just kind of telling the
Speaker 1: truth on a lot of these issues. Fantastic and I
Speaker 1: want to thank thank thank you too so much for
Speaker 1: uh coming on to talk about UM what what what
Speaker 1: you'll have been working on UM. Yeah, it's it's very important.
Speaker 1: I'm happy that more people can know about it UM
Speaker 1: in the future and thinking thinking less optimistic if if
Speaker 1: they do vote to continue UM. I'm hoping that we
Speaker 1: can UM get some people down to Atlanta to help
Speaker 1: with whatever direct action organizing is going to be is
Speaker 1: going to be happening to to to prevent this UM physically.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean there's no matter the result, there's
Speaker 1: always going to be more struggle. There's always going to
Speaker 1: be more stuff to do. UM. Yeah. And just thank
Speaker 1: thank you guys for talking about this absolutely, thank you
Speaker 1: for having this on. And with that that wraps up
Speaker 1: our talk with the wonderful folks from the Defend the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Forest Coalition. UH. They had their plugs there that
Speaker 1: you can I recommend you following UM if you want
Speaker 1: to keep track on the movement specifically and what's going on.
Speaker 1: You can also check out their social media's. You can
Speaker 1: check Defend a t L Forest on Twitter. Can also
Speaker 1: check out the community Movement Builders at Community m v
Speaker 1: T on Twitter, and you can find Sunrise Atlanta at
Speaker 1: Sunrise m v m T a t L. So that
Speaker 1: is the discussion. Stay tuned for more news on the
Speaker 1: Atlanta forest and the cop City Project will be covering
Speaker 1: this in the next few you know, in the next
Speaker 1: few episodes, probably in the next few weeks, and if
Speaker 1: they vote yes to continue with I'm sure we'll be
Speaker 1: reporting there in person at some point. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and we have three yesh more episodes coming up this week,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that. Goodbye. It Could Happen Here
Speaker 1: is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: You can find sources for It Could Happen here, updated
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Speaker 1: for listening.