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All posts by teardown
Autonomous Circles, March 2021
An assembly for all anarchist and autonomous radicals in Atlanta (and those interested in our approach). Let’s learn from each other and strengthen our networks!
March 20th, 3pm at Coan Park
The Teardown in Review: Our 2020 Initiatives
2020 has been a strange year. On one hand, we saw the biggest uprisings in the US in a generation. On the other, covid has been a severe hit to radical movements, cutting our efforts off from the most important resource: each other. The rich and powerful want us to deal with this crisis as individuals: manage your own life, think of your own problems, stay at home and wait for experts to solve everything.
We aren’t waiting on any politician, CEO, or foundation. We have to reconnect, link up and make things happen. Here’s an overview of projects and initiatives the Teardown Community has been pushing forward in 2020. If any of these speak to you, please reach out so we can plug you in! We’ll also soon be announcing a covid-safe physical meetup to explore these and other radical efforts happening in Atlanta.
Atlanta Solidarity Fund
A project to coordinate fundraising, bail and legal support for protesters. In 2020 we provided more funds than ever before for bail and legal fees, but it’s still nowhere near enough due to unprecedented arrests this summer. Many are still facing charges and some are still in jail awaiting trial. We need help organizing fundraisers and raising awareness about the ongoing political repression of protesters, as well as help with jail support tasks.
Food Not Bombs / Food4Life
For over a decade, the Food Not Bombs collective based out of the Teardown has shared free food with the hungry in Atlanta. Since covid, the emphasis has been on our Food4Life initiative, which provides covid-safe delivery of free groceries to hundreds of households every week without fail. Many kinds of volunteers are needed to keep this operation ticking.
Atlanta Anarchist Black Cross
A prisoner solidarity organization, maintaining lines of communication with those locked in jail and prison throughout Georgia. AABC produces and mails a newsletter to hundreds of politicized and rebellious prisoners in the South, helping inspire prisoners to resist unfair conditions.
Copwatch East Atlanta
Copwatch has monitored police activity at the George Floyd / Rayshard Brooks protests this summer, working in teams to ensure that video evidence is available for those targeted for abuse or falsely accused of crimes. We’re also providing education for protesters about their rights when approached or detained by police.
Know Your Rights Training
In response to recent repression, we are offering a free training on how to protect your rights when dealing with the cops. Everyone who participates in protests or social movements should attend at least once!
Do you know what to do if the police try to harass, question, detain, or search you? The Know Your Rights covers your basic constitutional rights in police encounters. Live role playing gives you the practice you need so can assert your rights effectively in real life.
Saturday 11/14/2020 2pm
South Bend Commons
1799 Lakewood Terrace
Atlanta, GA
Help Launch A Copwatch Project in SW Atlanta
Our comrades with Community Movements Builders are developing a strategy for fighting police harassment and resolving issues in the community without involving the police. They’re training young people on doing neighborhood patrols in southwest Atlanta.
This is exactly what’s needed! Copwatch patrols have been an important tool in resisting gentrification and police in Edgewood, and we’re excited to see this effort in Pittsburgh, another neighborhood under threat from developers and abusive police.
CMB needs to raise funds to establish these patrols as a sustainable community-controlled project. Along with Copwatch of East Atlanta, we’re matching donations up to $3,500. Please donate!
Support CMB’s Community Patrols
Why We Need Survival Programs Right Now
Capitalism Creates Crisis. Solidarity is the Solution.
COVID-19 is a natural threat, but the crisis we’re all facing is political and economic. Even if we avoid contracting the virus, we can’t “self isolate” from our bills. Social distancing doesn’t put food on the table or keep a roof over our heads.
We started Atlanta Survival Programs in a rush, as COVID-19 started taking off. It was clear that the government wouldn’t respond, too concerned with protecting business profits to take the threat seriously. It was clear that there would be a huge increase in food insecurity, as grocery stores empty of food and most people’s wallets empty of funds. Knowing that no help was coming from the rich and powerful, we responded by looking to the people and resources around us, and getting organized.
Two weeks later, more than 10,000lbs of free groceries have been delivered to the homes of people in need. Hundreds of people have responded to the call to help, forming a large scale, highly effective operation almost overnight. It’s growing by the day.
This is an amazing achievement, but it’s not nearly enough.
The fact is, capitalism has left our communities hollowed out, brittle, on the edge of collapse for a long time now. Everyone is desperate. Trump talks about getting the country back to normal, but there’s no normal to return to. No job, no childcare, no health insurance, growing debt, soaring rent: this is the status quo many have been barely surviving under for years – and that’s without a pandemic-fueled recession. If we return to normal, it will destroy us. We need to create a different world to return to.
Right now, while everything is on pause, we have a chance to build that world. Instead of going to work, a hundred of us spent the past two weeks figuring out how to get food to those who need it. Some have begun organizing with their neighbors to go on rent strike, or to open up abandoned houses to get homeless people a safe place off the streets. Out-of-work engineers are collaborating over video conference, working around the clock to design DIY medical care tools. Farmers are preparing new land to grow free food this spring.
The lesson is clear: When the economy stops, we keep going – and we’re actually more capable of caring for each other without it.
The Atlanta Survival Programs are a crisis response, but they’re not a short term measure, because the crisis isn’t over until survival is possible for everyone.
Food4Life: A COVID-19 Crisis Response Initative
Free Grocery Deliveries For All
a covid-19 relief initiative
Based on projections, we expect that the new coronavirus will have a severe impact on people in Atlanta. Before long, everyone will know someone personally who’s impacted by the pandemic, and institutions will not be able to keep up with the need for aid. Official support will not be available to everyone, particularly those already marginalized and unprivileged.
Time is short, we need to act now to organize ourselves to care for our communities. While the most immediate needs are for medical care, most of us are not medical experts. But everyone can support each other by caring for other vital needs.
No matter how you’re affected by the pandemic, the Food4Life program exists to help everyone survive.
Those who:
– Are already self-isolating because their age and/or medical conditions put them in serious danger if they contract the virus.
– Can’t afford expensive grocery delivery services must either risk exposure or go hungry.
– Are sick and cannot leave home for fear of infecting others.
– Can’t afford groceries because of lost work or structural poverty
– Live in a food desert. Lack of access to healthy food weakens the immune system, putting everyone in greater danger.
The program is straightforward in practice:
– Bulk food is donated by charities, grocery stores, community groups, and farmers.
– Volunteers are provided with protective equipment and training for preventing the spread of contagions.
– Organizers dispatch volunteers to make deliveries on a schedule, and handle logistics.
– Grocery drop-offs are made directly outside the homes of people in need, avoiding direct contact.
It will take an army of volunteers to meet the need, so we’re calling on anyone who’s able to sign up to volunteer.
We need:
– Drivers
– Food Donations
– Logistical volunteers (to handle volunteer coordination, recruitment, technology, communications, etc)
Sign up to help: https://forms.gle/fgcTJhzijf59gtE27
Request free groceries: https://forms.gle/AQwMLJ9insPxeqmCA
Sponsored by Atlanta Food Not Bombs
11Alive story on our work against gentrification
Atlanta ‘Teardown House’ brings awareness to gentrification, police brutality
Residents of the Edgewood ‘Teardown House’ said this property is designed to shed light on various social justice issues.ATLANTA — Some East Atlanta residents have come up with a creative way to speak out on various social justice issues.
They live in what they call a “Teardown House” which is a bright purple home on a busy Atlanta street where visitors are encouraged to “tag” the home with various political messages.
The Teardown Featured in Curbed Atlanta
Edgewood’s ‘Teardown House’ boldly protests gentrification, police brutality
By
Several notable landmarks stand near the corner of Mayson Avenue and Hardee Street in the historically African-American community of Edgewood on Atlanta’s eastside, but only one of them, The Teardown House, is unmissable.
Autonomy Starter Kit Now Available
The current wave of insurrections sweeping the globe brings with it new tactics, new tools, and new ideas. In solidarity with these movements we offer this bundle at-cost, for those who want to be ready for the next uprising.
The Autonomy Starter Kit contains:
- High-power green laser pointer & battery
- N95 Particulate Respirator Mask
- Inhabit: Instructions For Autonomy
$15 – Available at The Teardown (contact us for details if you’re not local)
