We have talked about the campaign to save the Atlanta Forest in the past, but things are ramping up. For anyone that is unaware, the forest surrounding Atlanta City in the USA is at risk of being completely destroyed by developers who want to build a new police training centre (a mock city where they can practise how to kill protestors safely) and a huge sound and media studio to serve the film industry. Locals have fiercely been fighting against the development, that would not only murder a huge amount of species but also put at risk everybody living in the immediate area, as the woods serve as a buffer against flooding.
Since the call to the forest was issued, fearing that works would start on the 3rd of May, we have seen a big increase in action and in tactics to defend the forest.
Banks in Portland and the Bay Area have been sabotaged. Atlas Technical Consultants, a firm directly involved in the destruction of the forest, was visited in Minneapolis, resulting on windows smashed, a bucket of paint splattered inside the offices and a slogan urging the company to stop the works in the Atlanta Forest. A different Atlas office was also tagged in Indiana. Atlas in New York was also targeted, and then the attention shifted and Brassfield & Gorrie, another subcontractor, was targeted in broad daylight in their Atlanta office. Anonymous people would leave the scene having covered the place with paint, slogans and smashed windows. The B&G headquarters in Alabama would then be vandalised a few days later, warning the executives that their houses would be next.
The anonymous report delivered, and Keith Johnson’s house (a B&G executive from the Atlanta area) would then be visited by a group of 30-40 people, making it very clear that if you work towards the destruction of the Atlanta Forest, you are fair game.
Meanwhile, within the forest, folks have fought a different kind of fight. When the police attempted to enter by dismantling a shit barricade, another barricade was set alight and people threw rocks and smoke grenades at the them, making the police back off. On a different instance, a bulldozer attempting to cut a path through would receive the same treatment, and the big machine and the cops would have to leave the area. Since then, there are reports of a new barricade in the path, using a black sedan to block the road.
There is no doubt that more will come on the fight to save the forest, but we thought people would be interested to see the different tactics used in order to protect the forest. The activists have identified contractors and those contractors are now feeling the heat in multiple different states, not only in Atlanta but across the so called USA. Not only the offices are targets, but people will visit the houses of their executives, as when things get personal business consider things in a completely different light.
For more information, you can visit Scenes from the Atlanta Forest on https://scenes.noblogs.org/
Whilst Atlanta Police might be a distant target for folks around the world, Blackhall Studios is a multinational company with addresses in most western countries. You can show your support to the forest by organising your own demo or pressure campaign wherever you are. Think global, act local!
ON DEFENCE OF MOTHER EARTH!
