Casey’s arrest and incarceration have obviously caused immense distress and disruption to Casey’s life. They have entered the belly of the beast! Yet their dedication to abolition, commitment to study, perseverance, humor and spirit continue to shine through despite their conditions.
LEGAL UPDATE Casey’s state charges were dismissed and the case has been moved under federal jurisdiction.
One federal charge has been unsealed, a single count of arson, 18 U.S.C. 844(f)(1). If convicted, this charge alone could mean 5-20 years plus a quarter million dollar fine. We are anticipating that additional charges could follow.
Last week, Casey was moved to SF County Jail to appear in court on outstanding warrants. The transfer forced Casey to spend over 24 hours in a holding cell without access to insulin, to endure several hours long bus rides while shackled, harassment from correction officers, sleep deprivation, and inadequate access to food needed to regulate their blood sugar. These experiences were very disregulating and their mental and physical health have been fluctuating as a result.
They have just arrived back at Santa Rita/Alameda County Jail under federal custody. We anticipate that Casey will stay at Santa Rita for the foreseeable future as they await trial. We are hopeful that things will stabilize now that the recent rounds of transfers and unpredictable court appearances have settled down for the moment.
In the move to SF and back to Santa Rita, Casey lost access to the books and mail that they had been sent while previously at Santa Rita. We are intending to look into getting their belongings returned, but in the meantime they would appreciate more books, zines and printed out news articles. Any excess or duplicate literature can be shared inside.
Freeing Casey will likely be a long fight. Just as Casey has persistently for years cared for, supported, and struggled alongside incarcerated comrades, we aim to replicate these actions in solidarity with Casey as they continue their struggle from the other side of the wall.
WAYS TO SUPPORT
Write Casey With the case now being federal, Casey has a new PFN. Their mailing address is now:
Casey Goonan #UMF227 Santa Rita Jail 5325 Broder Blvd Dublin, CA 94568
Casey is excited to receive mail including updates on news and current affairs as they have been feeling cut off from the world.
What not to write about:
Do not discuss the case. Casey is still pre-trial and receiving mail concerning their case can seriously endanger them.
Do not valorize Casey. They are a person and a member of our community, not a symbol or martyr. Casey isn’t looking for praise, but rather to maintain correspondence.
Do not write anything you wouldn’t want Fox News, a cop, or a judge to see. Assume that intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reading your letter.
As you correspond with Casey, they may send requests aside from books or commissary. Please coordinate directly with Casey’s Support Committee regarding additional asks.
For those who have written Casey and have not heard back yet, Casey mentioned that they hadn’t received any of the mail that was sent to them at Santa Rita after June 22nd. With Casey going in and out of different jurisdictional systems, it is likely that much of their mail has been lost, ‘lost’, or returned to sender. Casey also wants people to know that the mail system is very slow so it may take a while for people to hear back from them.
Send Casey some commissary funds Casey’s support team has made sure that they have some funds on their commissary account upon arrival back at Santa Rita.
If you wish to help keep money on Casey’s books, there are several ways to do this:
At the jail via the TouchPay kiosk in the lobby.
Sending a money order in the mail. The money order must be made payable to “Casey Goonan #UMF227” and there must be no other material in the envelope. No cash or personal checks will be accepted.
Online with a credit card via one of the vendor platforms run by GlobalTel such as accesscorrections.com or connectnetwork.com. You will have to create an account. If the platform offers different fund options, the fund you want to get Casey money for commissary is called the “Trust Fund”.
Fundraising In addition to making sure Casey has commissary funds, we are preparing to fundraise for Casey’s legal representation. Stay tuned and on call for more info on fundraising.
Casey knows they have the support of their community and appreciates everyone who has shown up in court, written letters, sent literature, and expressed care and solidarity. This will be a long struggle, and we commit ourselves to it until Casey is free. Please join us!
To receive these updates by email, message cscommittee@proton.me
Over issues of poor basic conditions in their housing unit, Casey went on hunger strike, refusing trays and only taking liquids from June 22 to June 27. At one point, Casey went hypoglycemic and ate some gummy worms (C is diabetic.)
The strike had 4 main demands:
A pencil sharpener so that people can consistently write letters, grievances, etc.
An increase in water pressure so that people don’t have to put their lips to the faucet in order to drink.
An end to weekend lockdowns, the jail predictably claiming that this is due to “staffing issues”
Increased yard time and use of recreational equipment. (Currently the unit only receives 1 hour of yard time a week on a bare yard with no equipment, balls, etc.)
In parallel with the hunger strike, Casey filed grievances on each of these issues and circulated a petition around the unit regarding the issue of weekend lockdowns.
On the morning of June 27th a deputy met with Casey and committed to meeting the first two demands. (A working pencil sharpener and increased water pressure.)
With the meeting of these two demands, Casey agreed to end their hunger strike and ate lunch on June 27th. Casey said they intend to eat, get rest, and to study further on the policies and case law surrounding such lockdowns which already seem to violate policy and federal law. Deputies have also agreed to take up the remaining two demands with their superiors.
Casey wants everyone to know they are doing well despite their conditions. Casey appreciates all the letters and books and wants everyone to know that all mail is processed really slowly but they do intend to respond in due time.
Casey signed off with “Love and Struggle.”
♥️♥️♥️
___________
All inquiries, asks, offers, or requests to subscribe to these updates can be sent to cscommittee@proton.me
We are a decentralized collective of animal rights activists using disruptive tactics to further the goal of Total Animal Liberation. Target number one is the fur industry.
This recent weekend, we along with dozens of other cities strong-armed the most influential American designer, Marc Jacobs, to go FUR-FREE.
MJ lied to activists in 2013 by mislabeling faux fur when it turned out to be dog fur, he lied in 2018 to activists that confronted him about his use of fur when he claimed he would never use fur again – only to resume in 2023 when he collaborated with Fendi on an ugly hat (made out of fox). Fendi’s motto in the past was “Fur is Fendi, Fendi is fur”. Both corporations are owned by LVMH, owned by the richest man in the world: Bernard Aurnault (who also funds the current genocide in Palestine).
After 2 years of store protests and asking nicely, home demos erupted in the US (particularly NYC), resulting in his full commitment to never use fur again. The Chicago contingent remained steadfast in our local efforts until victory was secured.
100 million animals are tortured on these fur farms with no quality of life – all for the vanity and greed. We are happy to declare that Marc Jacobs will no longer sell fur today nor in the future. Strategic pressure campaigns work, join us.
“The flea has fascinating fighting strategies and techniques…It does not kill its host…what it does is exhaust its host and consume its blood, causing constant disturbance, eventually preventing the host from being able to rest. It makes the host nervous and demoralized. […]
[T]he guerilla fights its wars like fleas…If the battle lasts long enough to exhaust the host then it will fail in the battle due to its weakness while unable to locate the flea(s)…[F]ight like a flea.” Live Like A Porcupine, Fight Like A Flea
“The beginning of every revolution is an exit, an exit from the social order that power has enshrined in the name of law, stability, public interest, and the greater good.” Exiting Law & Entering Revolution
CONTEXT
Since October 7th, Chicago has seen countless marches and actions that have been successful in bringing out hundreds and thousands of people. However, many of these numbers consist of suburbanites driving or being bussed into the city to show support, rather than a mass of Chicagoans coming together from across the deeply race- and class-segregated city. In addition, these marches have usually been put on by a small number of nonprofit organizations. They have been heavily marshaled and largely symbolic, leaving many people demoralized and looking for more.
As every day sees more Gazans murdered by the zionist entity, symbolic parades that play into respectability politics at every turn and ask the state for permission to protest are clearly a toothless and insufficient response. Small, isolated acts of sabotage aren’t enough either—it is crucial to seek more militant forms of collective action. These actions should demonstrate an understanding of the throughline between the colonial states of the US and Israel, and the need to abolish both entirely—prisons, police, military, and state bureaucracies alike—to stop both the genocide in Gaza and the daily forms of state violence here in Chicago. From within the imperial core, there’s an obligation to interrupt the material support that the “U.S.” provides “israel.”
In order to encourage more militant collective action, there is a need for a change in protest culture that is rife with peace policing liberal concerns about “outside agitators.” Contrary to what peace police, protest managers, and the heads of liberal social justice organizations would have us believe, many people are looking to take more escalated action and learn the skills to do so together. This desire clearly expressed itself in flashes at the campus encampments here in Chicago, including in the brief but impactful establishment of the Casbah of Basel Al Araj on the University of Chicago campus.
SUMMARY OF EVENTS
Around 4:40 pm on Friday, May 17th, as the University of Chicago’s Alumni Weekend kicked off, a group of protestors marched to the Institute of Politics on the University of Chicago campus. Soon after they arrived, a group entered the building and barricaded its entrances from the inside. Banners were dropped from the upstairs windows. Staff working in the building were told that the building was being occupied and it was time for them to leave. Most of the building’s occupants complied, but the director of the institute, who happened to be a former senator, refused to leave. Cops were able to breach a first-floor door on the side of the building that led to the basement, but protestors prevented them from accessing the inside of the building for the time being.
Meanwhile, the crowd outside was trying to prevent cops from entering the building but did not succeed in blocking pigs from going up the porch stairs to the front door. Once the pigs got to the front door, it only took them a few hard yanks to break the barricade’s pull on the front door. From there, the protestors regrouped to the second floor and tried to barricade that floor. As pigs started to enter the second floor, the protestors retreated to a small conference room, and held off the pigs for long enough to leave the building through windows and onto a porch roof. Just as the cops were able to enter the room, everyone escaped onto the roof and climbed down into the crowd. From there, people were able to escape using the cover of the crowd. No arrests were made.
As police worked to enter the building, protestors outside had set up barricades in the gangway between the IOP and a neighboring building, making it harder for cops to move between the front and back yards. After protestors made their escape and active clashes with cops slowed down, people began to set up tents and chairs on the front lawn of the building, and continued to occupy space in the back yard as well. Food and snacks arrived, attempts were made to set up a speaker system (though cops threw a wrench in this plan by cutting an extension cord), and kids played on the lawn. The demands of the action and the principles guiding it were read aloud.
Struggles with police occurred in the building’s backyard, as cops attempted to control the space and warned that arrests would be made if any more tents were set up. A nearby frat blasted shitty music (the national anthem and mediocre dad rock with a quick reprieve in the form of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5), trying to drown out protestors’ chants. Protestors continued to surround the building and hang out until around 9:30 PM, at which point protestors assessed that there was not enough energy, support, or numbers to spend the night amid cops’ threats to start making arrests. The group marched to the University president’s house nearby with chants of “we’ll be back.”
TAKEAWAYS
We share these takeaways in an effort to contribute to tactical and strategic knowledge developing across campuses, as solidarity encampments have been set up, attacked, repressed, voluntarily disbanded, and in some cases escalated. We hope this can be useful to others pursuing escalated tactics in solidarity with Gaza and in resistance to colonial violence at home and far away.
(1) On escapes and exits—hope for the best & prep for the worst. Protestors who entered to barricade the IOP were able to make a full escape—footage shows them climbing safely from the roof into the waiting arms of friends. It wasn’t clear in advance that this would be possible, but folks inside were quick on their feet and had the foresight to leave to fight another day.
The University of Chicago’s campus is highly policed by the private University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) and the municipal Chicago Police Department (CPD), so drawing enough protestors to fend off an initial police response was going to be difficult, especially during Alumni Weekend when police presence was already heightened. UCPD responded most actively to the protest, quickly moving past protestors attempting to block the front steps; removing furniture blocking the front door; shoving protestors and throwing chairs at them; and then entering and sweeping the building. CPD officers set up lines on all sides of the building, but mostly sat back and watched events unfold, after initially chasing some protestors who attempted to barricade the alley behind the building back into the crowd.
Leaving the building so quickly was not the only way things could have unfolded. Had the front door barricade held, or had protestors blockaded more successfully from outside, UCPD cops would not have entered the building so quickly, and protestors could have remained inside longer. This would have necessitated longer-term organizing from supporters outside the building, and perhaps a different police response. By the time police entered the building, it might not have been possible for protestors to exit into a friendly crowd; leaving in handcuffs was thus a possibility protestors likely anticipated.
However, the protestors at Casbah of Basel Al Araj had no apparent interest in symbolic arrests, and seized the opportunity to leave when pigs breached the building and an escape route presented itself. This flexibility, and mental preparation to leave if possible rather than submit to forms of “surrender” and planned arrests, was a strategic strength.
(2) On scouting, preparation & logistics – practice more.
At the Casbah, cops were able to move relatively quickly through barricades protestors attempted on the building’s doors.Had there been more materials on site for back-up barricades—or more knowledge on site about methods of barricading doors—protestors might have been able to improvise stronger barricades and hold the space for longer. Practicing skills routinely, to be more ready to act in escalated action situations and to pivot on the fly when plans change, is an evergreen takeaway that’s especially relevant at actions where success hinges on specialized techniques and tactics.
Further, having more supplies on site for the full range of possible scenarios would’ve served the action well. Tents, chairs, food, and more defensive materials didn’t arrive on site as soon as they could have, which delayed the crowd’s ability to jump in and support holding the space.
(3) On Identifying Cop Tactics—Repression goes beyond arrests. The fact that no arrests were made is always something to celebrate. However, it’s important not to reduce state repression to a single tactic. Cops may not have taken anyone away on the day of the protest, but they did stand by with body cameras recording footage throughout, and at several moments pointed out specific individuals within the crowd, seeming to single them out for increased attention. We can’t be sure why specific people were pointed out. The cops could be noticing people arrested in previous protests, they could be trying to identify potential organizers of an action, or mapping networks to see who might know each other. Observing these practices underscores the importance of disguising identities when in action spaces, and having a robust threat model. For all we know, arrests could be attempted weeks after an action using footage of people involved, as we saw in 2020 in Chicago after a protest in Grant Park where a statue of Col*mbus used to stand.
(4) On liberal co-optation — strong principles set the tone.
This action aimed to disrupt the pattern of liberals deescalating confrontational tactics through peace policing. So, we created principles of unity that included escalation, self-defense, non-cooperation with the state, and diversity of tactics. We shared those principles through fliers handed out to the crowd before the march, and through announcing them over the megaphone at the rally outside the Casbah.
Setting these expectations, and very visibly sharing and practicing the principles and demands that don’t fit into liberal organizations’ platforms, made it harder for liberals to co-opt our action. As we thought might happen, liberal organizations emerged after a few hours and tried to tell people what to do. When they did, they were shut down and ignored by the protestors, with some responding to people claiming to be “police liaisons” with “this action doesn’t have police liaisons.” These same liberal organizations also took issue with some of the demands because “fuck the police and gentrification” don’t fit neatly into their single issue platforms, making the action harder to co-opt. Messaging should focus on reaching folks who share values and ideological leanings, like being critical of cooptation, reform, and negotiation.
The demands issued also helped prevent co-optation. They were:
1. Free Palestine
2. Abolish the University
3. Land Back
4. Fuck gentrification
5. Fuck 12
Following the logic that making demands pushes movements and insurrections toward negotiation and moderation, and leaning into the observation that there is no centralized authority capable of granting us the world we insist on building (without abolishing itself…) the demands are maximalist, general, uncompromising, and reject incremental logic. They challenge respectability and the demands-based framework itself, making it harder for liberal organizations to claim credit for the energy or power built by the action.
(5) On student radicalization — learning by doing.
Student organizations limit imagination of possible actions and control protests into being governable, peaceful, and nonviolent. Often, the heads of these organizations are obsessed with the idea that they are responsible for keeping a crowd safe and are willing to police the actions of others in the name of preventing arrest. When not intentionally challenged, the campus bubble of student organizing can isolate students from non-student genocide resisters, which means isolation from collective knowledge of resistance techniques.
While the encampments did allow for some new networks to be formed and more militant tactics to be shared, some organizers were more interested in control than in escalation. This desire for control played out along racial lines, as students in the encampements policed Black protestors and failed to understand the reality of police violence.
In addition to more methods to occupy, defend, and evade, this action also led students to think about the question of demands. Traditional organizing encourages creating “achievable” divestment demands and other institutional reforms. But students are seeing that demands and appeasement reforms don’t go far enough. The full disruption of the University’s ties to occupation, genocide and imperialism requires the abolition of the University institution.
The Casbah of Basel al-Araj showed students that they can take actions which threaten power and that they can do so without the permission of a central organization. Students saw that actions do not have to end in performative arrest. We lose our ability to attack if we all go to jail. Risking capture can be done with strategy and material impact, but being captured is not the goal.
At the Casbah, the possibility of autonomous action and militant escalation was not just theoretical. Students and non-students joined in by building barricades, covering for people exiting IOP, kettling the cops, joining other actions throughout the day, and opposing co-optation.
CONCLUSION
From the Casbah of Basel al-Araj, protestors demonstrated the possibility for forms of escalation that allows for an escape from marshals, peace-policing, student and nonstudent divides, and negotiation, and can allow for a variety of tactics. It also showed students disaffected from the encampment and failures to escalate that it is possible to attack and escape—both from the clutches of police and from the hierarchical peace policing of liberal student groups attempting to suppress more militant actions. The university is accidentally giving its students an education in autonomy and direct action. What we learn from disrupting the university, prepares us to intensify and deepen our actions to free Palestine. School may be out for summer, but the fight goes on.
On May 1, 2024, a group of rabble rousers and freaks took part in an anarchist May Day parade that stormed through the Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago. Before leaving Union Park, people danced around a May Pole in costumes, shared food, laughter and music and then hit the streets. The group of about 80 people was tailed by at least 30 squad cars as many people chanted, danced and re-decorated the highly gentrified neighborhood.
This action came together in the midst of four of Chicago’s big universities hosting occupations in support of Palestinian liberation as the Genocide continues.
Walking down Randolph street towards the original Haymarket Square, the group antagonized gentrifying zionists as they sipped their wine in the outdooor restaurants along the boulevards. The group brought noise and commotion to the Google building, Chase Bank, Starbucks and global headquarters of McDonalds — all four companies having known ties with Israel. The march culminated in a stand off with dozens of cops in front of McDonald’s Hamburger University, where some protestors were brutalized and arrested.
The cops continue to serve and protect the genocidal actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces and the US government while children die. But, a collective rage is bubbling and comrades all around the world are coming together to fight. Find your people, dance in the streets, create ruins and do everything you can to wreak havoc.
This action is dedicated to the Chicago anarchists, Haymarket Martyrs and all those who have lost their lives in Palestine.
In celebration of May Day—International Worker’s Day—actionists defaced the McKinley monument in McKinley Park, Chicago.
William McKinley, the 25th president of the so called “United States”, was a violent colonizer who orchestrated the colonization & annexation of Hawaii in 1898, and oversaw the US takeover of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Phillippines & Cuba. McKinley, whose reign focused on expansionism, protectionism & US imperialism, was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901. Czolgosz’s final words prior to his execution by electric chair were “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people– the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father.”
The monument to US imperialism was covered with messages of “Topple Colonizer,” “Land Back,” “Fuck you from Hawaii, Ceasefire Now,” “Free Palestine,” “End Every Empire,” “Solidarity Forever,” “End US Imperialism” & “Leon Czolgosz we love you.” The statue from 1904 is made from the melted down bronze sculpture of Christopher Columbus—fuck McKinley, fuck Columbus, and fuck every president and settler colonial entity. We must topple and attack US occupation & violence and the monuments and institutions that glorify it. Decolonization Now, from Turtle Island to Palestine. SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
Chicago has amplified calls from the Palestinian resistance factions for mobilization against the Zionist entity and its enablers in the month of Ramadan and to mark six months since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Israel cannot prosecute this war of extermination without the financial support of the United States. Nor can it maintain the pace of destruction without massive American arms transfers. In light of this we level our attack on the reserves and industrial capacity of the military-industrial complex.
A short drive west from Chicago sits the Rock Island Arsenal, headquarters of the US Army’s Joint Munitions Command. The JMC produces, tests, stores, repairs, and distributes conventional weapons, chemical weapons, vehicles, and other materiel to supply the US armed forces – and for arms sales and transfers. A militarily designated strategic rail network (STRACNET) rail line crosses the west end of the island on which the arsenal sits, connecting it to other JMC facilities and the wider strategic rail network at large. This rail bridge crosses a section of the Mississippi River that frequently floods – as such, its steel supports on the industrial southern bank have seen better days.
On the night of 4/6 we attacked this vulnerable section of track. Inspired by actions of anti-war anarchocommunist factions in Russia, we loosened and removed bolts from the tracks, installed a shunt to halt rail traffic, and applied an oxidizing compound of iron oxide, salt, and paint stripper to portions of the already pitted and rusting steel. And while they can power wash the supports and replace the bolts, the corrosion has already taken hold. It will fester even beneath new paint. Perhaps a similar seed of corrosion will take root in the minds of those who sit assured of the US empire’s invulnerability.
Although we do not know the effects of our actions, we are choosing to publish them to demonstrate how easily accessible these targets are and how relatively few and simple materials can be employed in the fight against Zionism and its imperial master. Our research on the national network of JMC facilities, strategic rail infrastructure, and replicable methods of disruption can be found here.
Much focus has been on the visible symbols of American complicity: the driveways of plants and headquarters with names on them, individual politicians, the registering of dissent through crowds in the streets. But the machine grinds away on slowly failing rail, road, and port infrastructure. We offer this to comrades within Chicago and beyond: The tanks do not drive themselves to the transport ships. The white phosphorus does not pack itself into shells. STRACNET rail junctions and routes crisscross the country, easily accessible by millions. How far do you live from a JMC facility? Attack at the death machine’s weak points. Create uncertainty about the things these murderers take for granted.
On Sunday, an autonomous crew targeted and redecorated a US Army Recruitment Center in the Avondale neighborhood of so-called Chicago.
One week ago, Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the zionist embassy in so-called Washington DC. He follows an unnamed self-immolation outside the zionist embassy in so-called Atlanta. In addition, in 2023, a man self-immolated in Kinshasa, DRC in protest of the genocide in Congo over capitalist green and resource extraction of cobalt and copper for the world’s technology.
As such, comrades took the following actions against the recruitment center for the 33,000+ Palestinian martyrs since October 7, for Aaron Bushnell, and for all those struggling against the US imperialist machine:
Painted Avenge Aaron, Gaza will Haunt You, and Free Gaza across the military machine recruitment center windows
Smashed windows of the main army recruitment office
Covered surveillance cameras with spray paint
Poured red paint on windows of the Marines recruitment office
As US imperialism and capitalism abound, we target the US military in its enforcement of imperialism from Haiti to AFRICOM to Palestine and beyond. We reject the US airdrops of “aid” in Gaza with one hand while it uses the other to provide logistical, materials and political support to the ongoing Nakba.
We encourage all in the heart of empire to escalate tactics against the US military weapons manufacturers and entities complicit in genocide – from the BDS list, to zionist groups in Chicago and beyond, to those engaging in the predatory recruitment of individuals to the military – often targeting Black high schoolers. We encourage all military personnel to de-enlist and let the shame of your colonial service push you to radical action.
All it takes is a small group of people experimenting, building trust, and taking action together. Make a plan, gather your tools, go out, and attack. Remember to bloc up and leave your phones at home! There’s a Navy recruitment center and crisis pregnancy center/fake clinic next door to where this attack happened.
We remember Aaron’s last words:
“I will no longer be complicit to genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers – it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
May we commit to escalated action such that US militarism crumbles into the abyss. Glory to al the martyrs.
Early on January 27th, comrades gathered to honor Tortugita by wheat-pasting posters on the building and gluing the card reader outside the bank shut (although the tap function remained available, for anyone who was wondering). A belated day of the Forest Defender, may the pigs never expect us when we are always late. Viva Tortugita, may Bank of America stop funding ATL or cumble, and long live the struggle.
Bank of America branch locked in response to BOA funding: Mountain Valley Pipeline, Cop City linked to Tortuguita’s murder, and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Chicago, Illinois — A Bank of America branch was locked and windows wheatepasted with flyers containing links to the bank’s abhorrent acts of cruelty. People are calling on BOA to drop its funding of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile pipeline described as “a scar across Appalachia.” The MVP will supply fuel to the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. RAAP is operated by BAE systems, which supplies the Israeli government with weapons used to murder Palestinians. BOA also funds Cop City, the 85-acre militarized police training compound that the Atlanta Police Foundation is attempting to build in Atlanta, GA. Construction for Cop City desecrates and bulldozes the Weelaunee Forest, the largest urban forest in the United States, dubbed one of the lungs of Atlanta.
“While I do not live in Appalachia, as a descendant of Appalachian migrants, the destruction of mountains, communities and ecosystems in Appalachia for the purpose of supplying fuel to an ammunition plant that supplies the Israeli Occupation Forces with weapons used to kill the indigenous people of Palestine enrages and disgusts me. The struggles of ordinary people across the world are interconnected, and Bank of America funds so many causes of environmental destruction and human suffering and death.” an anonymous Midwesterner said.
This action was taken in solidarity with Appalachian’s Against Pipelines, a direct action campaign of pipeline fighters opposing MVP construction on the ground. Block every path! No pipelines through Appalachia, or anywhere! Solidarity forever! Stop Cop City and Free Palestine!
P.S. IMPORTANT ADDITION:
Some of the flyers used in this action state “SHUT ELBIT DOWN!” This is due to Bank of America’s documented financing of a $500 million dollar loan to Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer. Elbit Systems Ltd. has been the centerpiece target for the direct action campaign led by Palestine Action, which has produced hard hitting actions that have included lots of red paint, smashed up offices, and other creative tactics. Palestine Action’s bold attacks have resulted in some very clear successes in England, where they have forced Elbit to shut down two of their facilities through these sustained direct actions.
The bank BNY Mellon has recently been identified by the U.S. offshoot of Pal. Action as a target and has seen some similar clever tactics deployed against it in recent months. However, BNY Mellon offices are often tucked away in suites or skyscrapers. It can be more difficult, by design, to interrupt their business of death dealing and capitalist $$$ swapping. Bank of America, on the other hand, perpetuates its business in much more accessible locations and exists almost everywhere: in small towns and cities, in skyscrapers and surrounded by the cul-de-sacs of suburban sprawl. One can easily imagine BOA as a supplemental target to BNY Mellon because of its similar financing of Palestinian genocide through Elbit. One can also easily imagine actions like this one, or with other tactics in play, could be taken at BOA branches all over Turtle Island.
QR code on the wheatpasted flyers leads to this link for more info:
