#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #CANADA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman -[ #Atlanta, #USA ]Manuel Teran, activist and defender of the forest was shot dead by the police (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On Wednesday January 18, 2023 in Atlanta, police shot and killed activist Manuel

"Tortuguita" Teran, he was occupying the Weelaunee forest to oppose its
destruction and the construction of the largest private training center for
American police. We recently published two interviews with participants in the
"Defend The Atlanta Forest - Stop Cop City" movement, they are still available
here and there. At the beginning of January, six demonstrators were arrested and
prosecuted for terrorism, which many interpreted as the sign of an unprecedented
repressive escalation against an ecological and popular movement. This January
18, a raid led by dozens of armed police invaded the forest to dislodge the
occupants, during the operation Manuel Teran who was sleeping in a tent was shot
dead.

In the press, the representatives of the police evoke an exchange of shots, which
the activists refute, and refuse to divulge the recordings of the cameras with
which the agents are equipped. This is a major turning point for the American
protest movement, where dozens of rallies and demonstrations have already taken
place. In Atlanta, dozens of storefronts of companies funding "Cop City" were
smashed and a local police car was set on fire. We reproduce below a declaration
of support already signed by more than 600 international collectives. As the
saying goes: "Solidarity is attack".

Text from the Monday.am website. Link to the original, here.

Solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest
We call on all people of "good conscience" to join the movement to stop Cop City
and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.

On January 18, 2023, in their final militarized raid on the forest, Atlanta
police shot and killed one person[Manuel "Tortuguita" Teran.]. These violent
reprisals against the movement are only the latest episode in a long series. The
official rhetoric is that "Cop City" is needed to make Atlanta "safe"; with this
brutal murder, we now understand better what they mean by that.

Forests are the lungs of planet Earth. Their destruction affects us all. Just as
the gentrification and police violence announced by the bulldozers crushing the
Weelaunee forest affect us. What is happening in Atlanta is not a local problem.

Politicians who support Cop City have tried to discredit forest defenders by
portraying them as "outside agitators". This slander has a shameful history in
the South, authorities have used it against abolitionists, trade unionists and
the Civil Rights Movement, among others. The goal of those spreading this
narrative is to discourage solidarity and isolate communities, while providing a
pretext for the intervention of state and federal law enforcement; these
veritable "external agitators". The consequences of this strategy appear in the
eyes of the world with the tragedy of January 18th.

Replacing a forest with a police training center can only lead to an ever more
violently controlled society, a society in which taxpayers' money enriches arms
and police companies rather than meeting social needs. Mass incarceration and the
militarization of the police have never reduced crime or improved the living
conditions of poor and working communities.

In Atlanta and the United States, police budgets have always been funded at the
expense of everything else: health, food, child care, housing, public transit,
free movement of people and economic stability for all. The concentration of
resources in the hands of the police is for the sole purpose of defending the
extreme accumulation of wealth and power by big business and the very wealthy.

What are the police doing with their increased budgets and the carte blanche
given to them by politicians? They kill people every day. They incarcerate and
traumatize schoolchildren, parents, friends who are simply struggling to survive.
We cannot be satisfied with a society organized around values of violence,
racism, greed and indifference to life.

The struggle unfolding in Atlanta is a struggle for the future. As the
catastrophic effects of climate change descend upon our communities in the form
of hurricanes, heat waves and massive forest fires, the stakes in this fight are
clearer than ever: those who come after us will inherit they from a habitable
planet or a nightmarish police state? It is up to us to create a peaceful society
that does not consider human life to be expendable.

Defenders of the forest are trying to create a better world for all of us. This
support we owe to the people of Atlanta and future generations everywhere.

We must support the people of Atlanta and future generations everywhere.

To support the fight in defense of the Atlanta forest:

- Donations for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to support legal costs due to
lawsuits against activists.

- Calling on investors and shareholders of the Atlanta Police Foundation to leave
and cancel the Cop City project (APF investor list).

- Call on the builders of the project to abandon their construction contracts.

- Organization of political solidarity funds in defense of the forest, and local
committees for the defense of the forest.

- Participation and organization of local solidarity actions.

- Support and circulate this statement in solidarity with[the fight in the forest].

Signatories:

http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2023/01/atlanta-etats-unis-manuel-teran.html
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