"Multiple Grammars of Struggle" - To Defend the Atlanta Forest and Stop Cop City

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

In this episode we interview multiple people who’ve been involved in the struggle to Stop Cop City and Defend the Forest in Atlanta. What started as a political struggle against an extremely unpopular massive new police training facility has morphed and evolved in many different directions.

We welcome Kamau Franklin from Community Movement Builders back to the platform for the third time for this conversation. He brings with him several folks with knowledge of the movement to stop cop city and what has become known as the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement.

This is a conversation that touches on modes of liberal city governance and counterinsurgency against radical social movements like the uprisings that took place across the country in the summer of 2020 in response to many instances of police violence including the police lynching of George Floyd and in Atlanta specifically the police execution of Rayshard Brooks as well. Kamau along with Sara, Paul and River discuss some of the current political economy of the greater Atlanta metropolitan area and discuss different phases of the struggle to prevent the political approval and physical construction of the massive police training facility.

Along the way we also get into conversations about some of the dynamics coalition which is diverse both in terms of political tendencies and traditions, but also in terms of its racial composition. We talk about of some of the tensions and issues that can arise from these circumstances. And there is some discussion of tactics and strategy as well that is specific to this struggle, which warrant broader consideration contingent of course on the conditions of other struggles.

You can learn more and support at https://defendtheatlantaforest.org

You can also contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund as Sara recommends in the show: https://atlsolidarity.org to support folks who are facing repression and legal cases.

And you can learn more and support Community Movement Builders at https://communitymovementbuilders.org.

Also in Kamau’s other role, he is a co-host of the Remix Morning Show on Black Power Media, make sure you check them out and support their work as well, this conversation would not have been what it was without Kamau’s support and facilitation.

Apologies that due to the number of guests and internet connections some of the audio cuts out at a couple points in the conversation. In all cases it resolves and hopefully minimal meaning and information is lost. But we encourage folks to stick with it even if the audio is a little frustrating in parts because the conversation offers so many important insights.

And last but not least, if you like the work that we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. If you want to hear more conversations about dynamic social movements, revolutionary history, political theory, and tactical and strategic discussion, then join up with the awesome folks who support our show currently by becoming a patron of the show. This October marks the 5th anniversary of doing the show. We’ve hosted over 165 conversations in that period. And for those 5 years we’re looking to add 50 patrons this month to help us sustain this work. 50 is a lot, but you can be one of those folks helping to support by just kicking in a dollar a month or by making a small annual contribution at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.