All posts by teardown

DeepMay Build Day – Hong Kong Edition

This month, activists returning from Hong Kong will give a presentation on tech tools being used in the ongoing uprising there, and lessons for the development and use of communications technology in popular movements.

DeepMay connects high tech and creative design skills to radical social struggle. Build Day is a space for introductions: to new ideas and new people. Come to DeepMay Build Day if you’re just exploring the tech/design world for the first time, if you want to put your skills to work on a collective effort, or if you have an idea you want to share with like-minded people.

DeepMay students have used data science to counter gentrification, built a website for a prison abolition collective, and designed branding for community initiatives.

Come to take in presentations and learn what others are working on, or bring your own ideas to work on and take advantage of the expertise of DeepMay advisors to accelerate your project.

Featuring
– Presentation on the technology of the Hong Kong resistance
– Demonstration of simple robots and machine learning technology
– Learn to install and operate a Linux server
– Your project here

All skill levels are welcome.
Women, queer and trans folks (and other people traditionally excluded from tech and design discussions) are especially welcome.

https://www.DeepMay.io

DeepMay Build Day

August 25, 2019 – 4:00 pm

DeepMay connects high tech and creative design skills to radical social struggle. Build Day is a space for introductions: to new ideas and new people. Come to DeepMay Build Day if you’re just exploring the tech/design world for the first time, if you want to put your skills to work on a collective effort, or if you have an idea you want to share with like-minded people.

DeepMay students have used data science to counter gentrification, built a website for a prison abolition collective, and designed branding for community initiatives.

Come to take in presentations and learn what others are working on, or bring your own ideas to work on and take advantage of the expertise of DeepMay advisors to accelerate your project.

Featuring
– Presentation by a developer of ORC (Onion Routed Cloud), a decentralized anonymity technology
– Demonstration of simple robots and machine learning technology
– Psychedelic graphics synthesis for total beginners
– Your project here

All skill levels are welcome.
Women, queer and trans folks (and other people traditionally excluded from tech and design discussions) are especially welcome.

Sunday August 25th 4pm
South Bend Commons – 1799 Lakewood Terrace SE, Atlanta
https://www.facebook.com/events/892584901115155/

Event info

Teardown Picks Up Another Weekly Food Donation Run

 


The Teardown’s network of volunteers who distribute free food has been doing a donation run every Thursday night for several years. It’s a lot of really nice food, and people from around the neighborhood meet us at the porch free store on Thursday nights when the food arrives to help unload and distribute. Anything that is not taken off the free porch by Friday morning goes to the Lakewood distro, a pop-up grocery store where everything is free.

So last month when the store called and offered to let us have another donation pickup on Thursday mornings, we jumped at the opportunity. It’s even more food, in great condition. Word is already getting out in the neighborhood so people have been showing up to help unload and organize the free store and get some groceries. Today there was a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and cheese and eggs, flowers, and baked goods.

Want to get involved? We always need volunteers with the food runs throughout the week, and our weekly meal that we serve downtown in Woodruff Park every Sunday. Or you can just stop by the free store and while you are grabbing some groceries or clothes, help out by tidying up. Send us an email to see how you can plug in.

Over a year later, GA Tech cases are finally over

Over a year ago, Scout Schultz was murdered by the Georgia Tech police.  Many in queer and radical communities were devastated, and Scout’s friends and comrades took to the streets to push back against a campus and a police force that wants queer students to die.  A firey demonstration ended in brutal arrests and trumped up charges against 6 protesters.

Police circulated wanted posters of alleged troublemakers simply because they were seen at the protest.  Student activists were arrested at home and even in class.  Some of the arrestees were facing years in jail.  The stress and fear was a tremendous burden on a community already reeling from a police murder.  One of Scout’s friends who feared being targeted as a protester committed suicide.  Still the Georgia Tech administration continued their campaign of repression.

But in response, a power solidarity effort came together to support the arrestees.  Benefit shows raised money, supporters contributed generously to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund.  Friends and comrades came to every court date, so that those being targeted wouldn’t have to face it alone.  Lawyers stepped up to provide cheap or free representation.

Finally more than a year later, all the cases have been resolved.  The state was forced to drop most charges, and nobody went to jail.  This wouldn’t have been possible without the strength and solidarity of many people.

But while the cases are over, the struggle against the Georgia Tech administration, the police, and anti-lgbtq violence continues.  We will never forget Scout Schultz!

Neighborhood Artists Gift Us Pictures and Praise

Three members of the Edgewood community (ages 7, 8, and 9) came by the Teardown during Food Not Bombs cleanup today to visit the kitten and hang out. Having gotten prior permission from their mom/aunt, we let them in. Completely unprompted, cajoled or coerced, they made amazing depictions of the house, the cats, the people here, and the free store. Then they chose locations for the art to be hung for display (on the porch door to the free store).  On the backs were notes praising copwatch (which is the name most people in the neighborhood call the house and its members) and our food project.

The box on the right is a fridge with potatoes.

“I love you and I like cop watch”

Jail support training Tuesday 10/9

Jail and court support are a critical part of any resistance movement–after all, jail and prison are some of the most powerful tools of social control for the system.  Support is crucial for keeping our movements strong.  Failing to get enough support after an arrest can be isolating, exhausting and terrifying. Learn how to track comrades who are arrested through the jail system, bail them out, and provide legal support to beat the charges. You don’t need to be a lawyer to support arrestees, anyone can do it!

Tuesday 10/9
6:00 pm
80 Mayson Ave.

Host an activist training from the Resistance School

The fight for social change involves a ton of different approaches, with different skillsets.  The Resistance School offers trainings to increase your power in struggle.

Do you or your group want to be more effective at a street protest?  Be able to protect yourself and others against police harassment?  Secure your online communication?  Give medical aid to protesters?  We offer workshops on these and many other areas.  If you have an interest that isn’t listed here, get in touch and we’ll try to connect you to any instructors we know.

We mostly give workshops when affinity groups or community organizations to invite us to, so please get in touch and arrange to host a training!

125 Newsletters Mailed out to Rebellious Prisoners: Special Prison Strike Issue

Every month, Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross sends out a newsletter to about 125 prisoners who have expressed an interest in getting it. This month, in honor of the nationwide prison strike, we sent the issue out a bit early to give updates and encouragement. The newsletter goes to over a dozen prisons, mostly in Georgia. It contains news and updates about ways that prisoners are resisting the unjust conditions of their confinement, from protests and hunger strikes to legal actions. Prisoners write contributions, everything from poetry and art to social commentary and opinion pieces and updates about their own struggles for resistance. By responding to pieces from previous months, they are able to set up a sort of dialogue and express support and solidarity with each other.

The newsletter gets passed around from prisoner to prisoner, and each issue contains a note saying to write us if you want to get added to the mailing list. So the list of prisoners who receive it grows slightly each month. We have contact with several prisoners who are particularly down for the struggle and well connected with others in their prisons, so we get several new requests for the newsletter each month from them alone.

All told, each letter costs about $0.55 to mail, including stamps, envelopes, paper, and toner. We are only restricted in how many we can mail out by the amount of money we are able to fundraise. Each time we have a mailing, we pass the hat, and each attendee throws in a couple bucks. So far that has been enough to float our mailing each month, but money is tight for Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross.

How You Can Help

If you want to contribute content to the newsletter to update prisoners about things relevant to them, like struggles going on in other prisons, you can send us a piece and we will get it into the next newsletter. You can write it yourself or find it on the Internet.

You can follow Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross on Facebook and get updates about when the mailings go out, and come help us fold, stamp and seal the envelopes.

We always need money; you can contribute or hold a fundraiser, and get in touch via ATLblackcross.org.

Another huge need is pen pals for prisoners. It can be very isolating and disheartening to be in prison, and knowing that someone on the outside remembers them and cares can be a literal lifesaver. Each letter they receive means so much, far more than the effort that it takes you to write. You can set up an account at jpay.com and exchange emails with some prisoners (in some prisons they have access to tablets so they can email). If you would like to write one of the prisoners on our mailing list who expressed interest in having a penpal or need help with tasks from someone on the outside, get in touch via the website. There is a guide to writing prisoners on the website to get you started.

However you choose to contribute, your support is vital for prisoners who are brave enough to put everything on the line for their rights.

Gentrification of Edgewood is Out of Control — Time to Fight Back

Edgewood, one of the first black suburbs of Atlanta, has been home to many poor and black families for generations. But now the neighborhood has been identified as valuable real estate, and wealthier, whiter people have begun grabbing up property to develop in hopes of making a great deal of money. In the past couple years, just on the five-block stretch of Mayson Avenue where the Teardown is located, about a dozen new, expensive properties have sprung up; meanwhile smaller, lower income housing is demolished to make way. The face of the neighborhood has been changing as property values skyrocket and the low-income neighbors of color have found it harder to afford to stay.

Aggressive Policing: A Tool of Gentrification

Along with increasing housing taxes and rent prices, gentrification has been driven by an increased police presence, and enforcement of certain laws against certain people. Neighbors of color report having difficulty walking 6 blocks to the MARTA station without facing detention and harassment by police. Black kids, some as young as 11 and 14, have been stopped and frisked by police under suspicions of drug or gang activity with very flimsy support. Roadblocks are a common sight in the neighborhood, with unclear explanations for what they are looking for why they are needed. Sometimes police do presence patrols, parking or standing in a visible area to show a police presence and communicate a message that the neighborhood is being heavily policed.

Police Answer to Gentrifiers

This increase in police presence and activity is no mistake; it is no coincidence with the rising property values and developing high-income properties. Wealthy property owners and developers communicate closely with police departments and zone 6 police and demand ever-increasing police pressure on the poor people of color in the neighborhood. They believe that people of color being visible in their day-to-day activities drives down property values, so they pressure police to make it more difficult for black neighbors to be out and about. Police commonly disrupt community events put on by black people, for example a community barbecue that has been an Edgewood tradition for decades, Edgewood day, was met with heavy police harassment. The next day another neighborhood event aimed at giving backpacks to school children was disrupted by police.

Police release a young boy from handcuffs shortly after Copwatch arrives. No reason for handcuffing him was provided.

Gentrifiers are very clear on what their purpose is in the neighborhood and who they need to get rid of two enact it. Police are one of their most important tools in bringing this vision about. Members of the Teardown and Copwatch of East Atlanta and our friends attend “neighborhood planning unit” and “Organized Neighbors of Edgewood” meetings, so we are privy to conversations between wealthy property owners and police that are not usually made public. We have heard meeting attendees ask the police why we can’t build a wall around the low income housing complex called Edgewood Court. They frequently demand more security cameras in public spaces and other law enforcement technology such as license plate readers on cars. Police encourage attendees to call 911 on gatherings of people in yards and on street corners. They talk about use of databases that help them predict crimes, and they were port on the ways in which they are meeting the demands of the gentrifiers to crack down on community activities by black people. For example a house that frequently posted barbecues in the yard was discussed as being a problem area, and police explained how they were using city ordinances and quality of life crimes to repeatedly cite and arrest attendees of these events. Copwatch documented some of these efforts, for example baseless searches, and arrests and detentions based on flimsy reasoning like jaywalking. We also documented when the house was raided by about 50 masked SWAT team officers, who searched the entire place but found nothing illegal in the house.

Gentrifiers have a lot of power and influence over the police, and they know it and are not afraid to use it. Police know it too; these are the people they answer to.

So what are we going to do?

One way to combat this is to attend the community meetings where they are making these demands and push back against them. We can help facilitate attendance by the people most affected and targeted by the police, by offering rides, information about time and location, and support when the meetings are demoralizing or threatening.

Copwatch is another tactic used to push back against unfair an overzealous policing. Filming the police limits their ability to break the law and get away with it. Documenting and establishing patterns of harassment against poor people of color that are not applied against wealthy and white members of the same neighborhood can help us to make legal challenges. But more importantly, it can help us to inform ourselves about the ways in which our neighborhoods are under attack so that we can coordinate to fight back.

Our Community Ties Make Us Strong

One of the most important things that we can do is to form bonds with our neighbors so that we know how and when we need to support each other. If a landlord is not taking care of a mold problem, or is suddenly jacking up the rent, we need to be able to come together and figure out ways to help keep each other from being pushed out of the neighborhood. Dealing with increased rents can be overwhelming when you are isolated, but we can offer projects such as the free store and the food distro to offset some of those costs. The friendships that we build with our neighbors allows us to reach out to each other in times of need and conflict so that we can help each other keep fighting–so we can all keep living.

Newnan anti-Nazi protest arrestees still need our support!

Nazis from the “National Socialist Movement” staged a hate rally in the Metro Atlanta area on April 21st.

A diverse coalition of anti-racist activists protested the rally, but police violently repressed these protesters. Cops attacked and arrested people with absolutely no justification – particularly people of color and other marginalized individuals – who are still facing state repression. Of the 10 arrests, one has had his charges dropped, two have taken pleas and paid fines, five still face misdemeanor charges ranging from pedestrian in roadway to mask-wearing to obstruction, and two face felony obstruction of an officer.

The defendants facing charges have not all been able to hire lawyers yet, so we are still fundraising for them. Other likely costs include travel, fines, and court fees. Please contribute what you can and spread the word!

Any funds remaining after the Newnan defendants’ needs are met will go towards supporting ongoing legal defense for Atlanta protesters.

DONATE HERE.  For more information visit the Atlanta Solidarity Fund