Nothing like doing court support, especially for friends dealing with the punishing storm of state repression, to remind one that #ACAB includes #AllCourtsAreBad.

May all be free.

(photo: ACAB tag spotted two winters ago on the snowy, stolen lands of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal)

Holding in my heart: each and every person (except the police) who was at a music festival in the Weelaunee Forest one year ago today. Those performing. Those dancing and reveling. Those resisting. Those doing logistics and care. Those mourning Tortuguita. Those savoring moments of reinspiration and respite, joy and connection. Those looking out for others.

Especially those brutalized, arrested, and detained that day, and now facing heavy yet absurd charges.

Cops ruin everything, from March 5, 2023, in Atlanta, to yesterday among Appalachians Against Pipelines, to March 5, 2024, in Gaza, to all the days in between.

Courts aren't any better, even when they purport justice or rule something "a genocide." Prisons and militaries, states and borders, continue apace, churning out death.

We know this.

(At this point in human history, everyone should.)

What we too often overlook amid the despair, intensity, and trauma of these times is: we are the ones who make music. Even when it feels a whisper. Or when we feel as if we're humming alone or singing aloud with only a few friends. Our tunes float from forests and rivers to mountains and seas, in melodic forms that no cop, court, or country can see, hear, or comprehend. They take the shape of everything from rituals of resistance to jail solidarity and collective defense, to our many imaginative direct actions, dreamy do-it-ourselves spaces, mutual aid through asundry disasters, and communal care, to our ability to find cracks of possibility even when their walls seem impenetrable.

Still, anniversaries can feel hard. Our bodies remember, even if our minds try to block them out.

Let's all hold all of those (except the cops) who were at a music festival a year ago in our hearts, and others grappling with the state's crackdown on @stopcopcity as a movement, until all the charges are dropped, #UntilAllAreFree—everywhere.

#AllCopsAreBad
#AllCourtsAreBad
#ACABincludesIOF
#CareNotCops
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

(photo: #ACAB Palestinian solidarity sticker seen recently on Stone Mountain in so-called Georgia; while they last, these stickers are free at @community_books_ga)

[Part 1 of 2]

[Update: Although fascists and unfriendly media have already publicly shared the defendants’ names, there isn’t consensus among those doing jail support on our side about whether to further circulate the names. So until a consensus emerges, and one based on the defendants’ wishes, I’ve deleted their names here, and urge you not to share them publicly. There’s now a workaround, though! Send your postcards to P.O. Box 5390, Atlanta, GA 30307, attn: Atlanta Books to Prisoners and they’ll get sent from there to the defendants!]

If trees could talk, they wouldn’t talk to police.

Or, for many of us, since we know that trees can and do talk in various ways, we’re sure that they would never, ever talk to the police. Especially since many of those cops want to cut them down!

We also know that trees can and do lend solidarity aplenty, whether to the ecosystems of which they are a part, those humans who sit with them, or by nonconsensually giving up their lives and limbs to be turned into paper for, say, postcards.

The trees’ sacrifice doesn’t have to be in vain. Postcards, too, can lend solidarity, and in defense of the trees and, particularly right now, those humans who are forest defenders.

This week, six folks were arrested in Weelaunee Forest on the stolen lands now called DeKalb County, Georgia, as police cracked down hard on @defendatlantaforest and @stopcopcity. They were charged with “domestic terrorism” and then denied bond.

The trees know, as we also do, that protecting forests—including by gathering in them to make and share food, engage in sacred rituals, offer and learn skills, play music and dance, and assorted other communal, life-giving activities—is the exact opposite of those charges, and that trees and people should be free.

For now, that forest (and all trees, no doubt) and those who are doing on-the-ground jail support in the Atlanta area are asking for all of us to send postcards to the six jailed forest defenders. (Scroll through the infographics here for exact instructions.)

Each postcard will not only bring care and comfort to the six forest defenders who are likely going through a range of hard/scary/stressful emotions and times but is also an implicit #ACAB to the cops and courts.

Somehow, if those postcards that used to be trees could talk, I suspect they’d glad to be bearers of solidarity—but remember, make sure your postcards don’t inadvertently talk to the cops either (again, read the instructions here carefully!).

(photo: taken in mid-October when I had the blessed pleasure of visiting this forest during sukkot 5783/2022)

#ForestsNotFascism
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon
#AllCopsAreBad #AllCourtsAreBad
#DefendAtlantaForestDefenders