It never ceases to amaze that despite all that the state and its thuggish bedfellows throw at us, we’ve got each other covered. We blanket each other with solidarity. Even from afar, across borders, we supply comfort.

That’s not a simple task, even under the best of conditions—and fascism is making for the worst. Moreover, given the weight of the collective and individual as well as historical and present-day trauma that’s layered on top of us because of the violence of states and their allies, sticking unflinchingly and lovingly (even when we don’t know and/or don’t always like each other) by each other’s side can sometimes be a challenge. Our pain, our grief, can spill out onto each other in messy ways.

Yet time and again, what the state and its cronies can’t reckon with are the deeply worn threads of our solidarity, notwithstanding our frayed edges.

Overall, we show up. Whether in front of a jail to make tender noise for those inside or at court to offer support, whether by raising tens of thousands for bail or organizing an in-person care clinic, whether by helping keep our movements going strong or holding space for rituals of resistance and communal mourning. Indeed, there’s no way to contain the innumerable acts of solidarity on any sort of laundry list.

Solidarity is being there for each other as if our social relations really matter. Meaning solidarity is acting as if the social relations we desire are already embodied in each and every one of us. Meaning solidarity is our best weapon against the state and its coconspirators.

So on a snowy day on the stolen lands of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, it shouldn’t surprise—but it should amaze—to see a big sheet-turned-into-banner voicing solidarity and empathy beyond borders for @stopcopcity and the dynamic struggle many hundreds of miles away to @defendatlantaforest.

#ForestsNotFascism
#CareNotCops
#SolidarityNotStates
#DefendWeelauneeForest
#MayTortuguitasMemoryBeABlessing

(photo: banner hanging off a railway overpass with graffiti in the background; the banner reads, “Cop city is a threat to everyone / Solidarity w/Weelaunee forest defenders / Revenge 4 Tort”)

Donations are greatly need for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, particularly as the detainers, facing the full wrath of the state, go to their second bond hearing on March 23:

https://atlsolidarity.org

The good folks at @detritus.books said it well yesterday as heavily armed police attacked a music festival for @stopcopcity, arresting numerous people: “One doesn’t have to be in Atlanta tonight to fight cop city. In this world, cop city is everywhere.”

Which is also why—besides basic good solidarity—folks in this world should be concerned about the heavy state repression being waged against Defend the Atlanta Forest; it too is or will be everywhere. For the more that forest defenders and water protectors and abolitionists and those defending bodily autonomy or defying evictions increasingly capture the imagination and grow resistance, the more the state, in allyship with its cops and courts, will up the ante of its brutal tactics.

Last night in Atlanta, 23 people scooped up by the cops were charged with domestic terrorism—this time, for the crime of listening and dancing to music in the Weelaunee Forest. They join 19 other defendants who were also charged with domestic terrorism recently for the crime of caring about and communing with trees—bringing the total to 42.

This tactic, if at all successful, won’t stay put in one city. It’s already sent Jessica Reznicek behind bars for trying to defend this earth in another struggle (see and support @freejessrez). Hence the need, wherever we are, to make sure collective solidarity beats out statist violence. Every time. Everywhere.

Unfortunately, another tool in the state’s arsenal is exorbitant bond/bail fees as part of the exorbitant charges. So our solidarity has to be both immaterial and material.

Materially, hundreds of thousands are needed to bond out and defend forest defenders in Atlanta, as part of our #NoLoveForCops and much rebellious love for each other strategy.

Let’s all give generously and/or help raise funds for Atlanta Solidarity Fund at www.atlsolidarity.org.

And let’s continue to mourn our dead and fight like hell for the living, while sticking side by side with each other—toward cops nowhere.

(photo: in every language, “abolish the police,” seen here in French on the wintery streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal)

#ACAB #ForestsNotFascism
#AllComradesAreBeautiful
#SolidarityIsOurBestWeapon

Two more “Forest Defender Tu Bishvat” (the birthday of the trees!) fundraisers that you can participate in from your home, or among your favorite trees!

Both are queer, healing, beautiful offerings to raise spirits and much-needed funds to aid @stopcopcity and @defendatlantaforest as well as @atlsolfund.

The first is a seder put on by the good folks with @anarchofeygele69, and you can join in person in Bushwick, NYC, or via zoom. As they note, their seder will include “sensual meditations with fauna, knowledge sharing on environmental direct action, and engaging in the multitude of conversations revolving around Judaism, trees/ecology, and trans/queer anarchism,” plus “creating space to mourn the loss of our dear comrade Tortuguita, a forest defender and friend who was murdered in a tree sit by police.” Suggested donation: $5-50.

The second, crafted by @ayelet___hashachar, is “a Jewish Tree Potion & blessing—for resilience, steadfastness & continued thriving of the Weelaunee forest.” As she further explains, the potion is “tree medicine,” made lovingly from what “frequently grace[s] the forest floors & canopies of that bioregion, [and] some more in the occupied Lenapehoking/Canarsie/nyc landscape, all with Jewish &/or ancestral significance.” Sliding scale per potion & blessing combo: $18-36 (or more!) plus shipping.

You don’t have to be a rad Jewish, trans+queer, and/or anarchist (though all are sacred and lovely) to partake of these fundraisers. You just need to love trees and hate cops!

You can find out lots more juicy and tender details about both of these solidarity fundraisers on the two Instagram accounts mentioned above.

More “Forest Defender Tu Bishvat” offerings to come soon, by or before the new year of the trees on this Sunday.

#TzedekForTrees
#TzedekForTort
#CareNotCops
#ForestsNotFascism

🖤💖🌿🪬

I’m uplifting three beautiful raffles—and encouraging everyone to buy lots of tickets for each—all raising funds for @atlsolfund and Tort’s family, in love and solidarity with @defendatlantaforest and @stopcopcity.

They are endearing in several ways!

First, all three are in response to my recent call to rad Jews to raise solidarity funds via a “Forest Defender Tu Bishvat,” which is our beloved “birthday (or new year) of the trees”—this year on February 5-6. It warms my Jewish anarchist heart that folks rose to this last-minute ask and opened their hearts so wide, including because I know it takes time, thought, work, and care to pull something together.

More important, all three raffles feature powerful and gorgeous hand-made/designed/crafted forms of art aimed at mending this world—and all stretch back to embrace ancestral wisdom, especially related to ecological lifeways and healing.

Even more, all three embody care—of humans and the nonhuman world.

They all set their raffle ticket price at $5 per entry, taking care to make their fundraisers as accessible as possible financially for those who want to contribute to the Weelaunee Forest defense and supporting those who in particular are dealing with the heaviness of state repression. Moreover, they put care into the loveliness of their raffle “infographic” designs and written descriptions on each of their Instagram posts. And their “prizes” consist of abundant care, from @dorimidnight’s (photo 1) Jewish plant magic set of poster, postcards, and tree poem prints, to @ssonmoss’s (photo 2) two care packages of herbal remedies, one for the winner and another for the winner to gift to someone else, to @jewishzinearchive’s (photo 3) complete set of everything it has ever made, such as a “No Prisons in Olam Haba” T-shirt. (See their Instagrams for details.)

So whether you’re Jewish or not, if you love trees and solidarity, and hate the cops, grab one, two, three, or many raffle tickets by February 5, knowing each and every dollar will go to the struggle in so-called Atlanta to both defend and celebrate trees, on their birthday and every day.

(Please share and spread the word!)

#TzedekForTrees
#TzedekForTort
#ForestsNotFascism

Sunday afternoon #FuckThePolice (and their allies) stroll amid signs of fresh snowfall and the fresh fallout of what allegedly was a #StopCopCity vigil for late last evening on the stolen Anishinabeeg lands of so-called Lansing, Michigan.

#MourningOurDead
#RestInPowerTort
#RebelliousMourning
#FightingLikeHellForTheLiving
#ForestsNotFascism

@defendATLforest
@stopcopcity
Atlanta Solidarity Fund

[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