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From All Out Atlanta

Stone Mountain, Georgia can now be added to the growing list of places – Columbia, Olympia, Anaheim, Chicago… – at which determined people have blocked the consolidation of white supremacist forces. Today, two thousand people converged at Stone Mountain Park as a fearless, heterogeneous force committed to disrupting a “white power” march organized by members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists. The Park’s choice to provide a modified permit for a white power rally at a black-frequented park — justified by free speech amendments — resulted in the deployment of hundreds of state and riot police as well as the closure of Park attractions in an attempt to manage the high degree of unrest that came as a response. Despite these attempts at management, an ensemble of anti-racist groups succeeded in repeatedly circumnavigating militarized police forces and delaying “Rock Stone Mountain” participants from leaving Stone Mountain Park for a second white power rally in Rome, Georgia that was hosted by the National Socialist Movement.

The racist structure of American life is guarded carefully by a police force originally formed to catch runaway slaves in the South and insurgent workers in the North. Attempting to keep the autonomous forces far from the assembled white power forces, police attacked our crowd at the West Gate Entrance at 10:00 AM. Unfortunately, this led to several arrests. These arrestees now need your support. Show solidarity by donating to the All Out Atlanta bail fund as well as by spreading the word and holding events plus solidarity actions where you live.

Our successes today cannot be ascribed to militant action by a few people. The clashes with the police, the construction and burning of barricades, and the use of fireworks against anti-riot police were predicated completely on the mutual cooperation of the entire crowd, of its tactical sense to march through the forest, to share water and medical supplies, and to protect one another. Today marks a collective victory for all those who assembled and took part. We recognize the contribution of anti-racists who organized outside of the All Out ATL framework: one group in particular managed to hold up the arrival of white supremacists at the main entrance of the park.

Watch: Another fight breaks out as confederate flag supporters clash with protestors. #stonemountain @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/vxrYvWykK7 — Audrey Washington (@AudreyWSBTV) April 23, 2016

Today was just one small skirmish in a much larger conflict. Resurgent white power organizing can be viewed in part as a backlash against the struggles of communities of color in recent years, such as those of the people of Ferguson as well as youth in Baltimore confronting killer cops. We still have a long way to go, but today’s event marks increased coordination by opponents of white supremacy regionally–both those fighting insurgent far-Right organizing, and those opposing the racial and imperial organization of life in America.

There is not another world, only another way to live and to fight. We do not address ourselves to the authorities in the park or police, but only to the others who dream of another life free from the American plantation. Let’s get organized to get free, to make a break, to run away and to never return.