June 26, 2024
Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.
Over half a century ago, the long hot summer of ‘67 and “Summer of Love” struck twin cornerstones of the American socio-political structure. 2020’s summer saw its own popular mobilization across class and country following the police murder of George Floyd. Only a year ago, the Writer Guild and labor unions across the US rippled summer-autumn in a wave of strikes concomitant with Atlanta’s collection of 115,000 signatures for its referendum to Stop Cop City.
2024 shows definite signs of joining the national legacy of seasonal spikes in political engagement and motion. This summer opened with the surge of pro-Palestinian encampments and walkouts at 80+ American universities, including UGA in late April, in 45 states. This wave followed seven months of American tax dollars and munitions funneling into the latest Israeli campaign in Gaza – with the Palestinian death toll currently estimated at over 37,000, at least two-thirds women and children. Echoing the rallying call from Atlanta, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights declared the coming months a Summer of Resistance aiming to stop arming Israel and stop the epidemic of militarized police training facility projects in Georgia and other states.
This broad invitation “from Turtle Island to Palestine” to mobilize for a free Palestine comes in tandem with the announcement last month from Georgia community leaders of Atlanta’s #SummerOfResistance beginning Juneteenth at Gresham Park and set to conclude in September. Planned events include teach-ins, trainings, mutual aid, music, art, and yes, plenty of rallies.
The Free Palestine and Stop Cop City movements have frequently combined forces for almost a year now. Block Cop City last November incorporated several chants for a Free Palestine from the river to the sea in its march on the Weelaunee construction site; rallies in front of Governor Kemp’s mansion have done the same. A major unifying thread between the two movements emerged in the form of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) Program, partnered with the IDF since 1992 to train Georgia (and over a dozen other states’) police chiefs and sheriffs on tactics honed in militarized police forces. And even before GILEE and Atlanta’s most recent fronts in activism arose, organizers have long recognized the two pronged history of Black as well as Palestinian and Arabic folks’ struggles from Gaza to the states (see Angela Davis’ Freedom is a Constant Struggle (2016), in particular, the Palestinian activists who identified Ferguson police using the same tear gas and military-grade equipment on Black populations that the IDF uses on Gazans).
The summer months have been baking Georgia for weeks now, and many of us have a little extra time on our hands, whether in the form of summer break, PTO from our careers and gigs, or plain unabashedly lazy weekends. And that’s okay. But whether you’re a student caught in the lacuna between classes or a cog working your butt off in the machine six days a week, you have enough time this summer to educate yourself, educate others, and walk with the folks putting their present and futures on the line to stop an extended ongoing US-prepaid massacre in the almighty name of petroleum dollars (see Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle (1983) and Pappé’s On Palestine (2015)). Several events are on Atlanta’s docket for a summer with eyes on Cop City and Gaza, including a fatefully – if not peculiarly – placed presidential debate on June 27th. The south is no stranger to resistance, particularly in these long hot Anthropocenic summers.
Free Palestine! Free the ATL 61!
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
Over half a century ago, the long hot summer of ‘67 and “Summer of Love” struck twin cornerstones of the American socio-political structure. 2020’s summer saw its own popular mobilization across class and country following the police murder of George Floyd. Only a year ago, the Writer Guild and labor unions across the US rippled summer-autumn in a wave of strikes concomitant with Atlanta’s collection of 115,000 signatures for its referendum to Stop Cop City.
2024 shows definite signs of joining the national legacy of seasonal spikes in political engagement and motion. This summer opened with the surge of pro-Palestinian encampments and walkouts at 80+ American universities, including UGA in late April, in 45 states. This wave followed seven months of American tax dollars and munitions funneling into the latest Israeli campaign in Gaza – with the Palestinian death toll currently estimated at over 37,000, at least two-thirds women and children. Echoing the rallying call from Atlanta, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights declared the coming months a Summer of Resistance aiming to stop arming Israel and stop the epidemic of militarized police training facility projects in Georgia and other states.
This broad invitation “from Turtle Island to Palestine” to mobilize for a free Palestine comes in tandem with the announcement last month from Georgia community leaders of Atlanta’s #SummerOfResistance beginning Juneteenth at Gresham Park and set to conclude in September. Planned events include teach-ins, trainings, mutual aid, music, art, and yes, plenty of rallies.
The Free Palestine and Stop Cop City movements have frequently combined forces for almost a year now. Block Cop City last November incorporated several chants for a Free Palestine from the river to the sea in its march on the Weelaunee construction site; rallies in front of Governor Kemp’s mansion have done the same. A major unifying thread between the two movements emerged in the form of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) Program, partnered with the IDF since 1992 to train Georgia (and over a dozen other states’) police chiefs and sheriffs on tactics honed in militarized police forces. And even before GILEE and Atlanta’s most recent fronts in activism arose, organizers have long recognized the two pronged history of Black as well as Palestinian and Arabic folks’ struggles from Gaza to the states (see Angela Davis’ Freedom is a Constant Struggle (2016), in particular, the Palestinian activists who identified Ferguson police using the same tear gas and military-grade equipment on Black populations that the IDF uses on Gazans).
The summer months have been baking Georgia for weeks now, and many of us have a little extra time on our hands, whether in the form of summer break, PTO from our careers and gigs, or plain unabashedly lazy weekends. And that’s okay. But whether you’re a student caught in the lacuna between classes or a cog working your butt off in the machine six days a week, you have enough time this summer to educate yourself, educate others, and walk with the folks putting their present and futures on the line to stop an extended ongoing US-prepaid massacre in the almighty name of petroleum dollars (see Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle (1983) and Pappé’s On Palestine (2015)). Several events are on Atlanta’s docket for a summer with eyes on Cop City and Gaza, including a fatefully – if not peculiarly – placed presidential debate on June 27th. The south is no stranger to resistance, particularly in these long hot Anthropocenic summers.
Free Palestine! Free the ATL 61!
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
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