On Wednesday January 18th Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, better known as Tort, was killed while defending the Weelaunee Forest by an Atlanta police officer.
Right now the city of Atlanta is planning on building a 85-acre police training center in the Weelaunee Forest. If completed, this facility will not only be the training grounds for an already hyper-militarized police force, it will also displace the owls, bobcats and brown-tailed deer that call the Atlanta forest home. Every year more forests are destroyed, more homes decimated, more pollution created. The United States has the 7th highest deforestation rate in the world and has lost 96 percent of our forests – at what point do we say enough is enough?
Tort and the forest defenders of Atlanta have decided that time is now.
Resistance to capital and power has always come at a price; for Tort, his family, friends and community it is one that will never be forgotten or forgiven. What is nearly as terrifying as the murder of Tort is the charges against other forest defenders for domestic terrorism for fighting back against corporations destroying this planet we share.
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade USA (CAFT USA) is an animal rights organization whose mission is to end the killing of wildlife for fur. To us, abolishing fur is one of many steps to create a world that is based on compassion and respect for the natural world. We believe that the Defend The Forest (DTF) campaign is also part of this struggle and is an integral aspect of animal liberation. Without a healthy planet – we have nothing. Without a liveable planet it won’t matter if we end the fur trade because the bobcats we fight for will have nothing without a forest to call home.
Tort gave his life defending the forest – for animal, human and earth liberation.
Rest in power, Tort.
CAFT USA condemns the actions of the Atlanta police. We reject the notion that defending the planet – even if done so with tactics that are aggressive – is domestic terrorism. We stand in solidarity with the DTF campaign and the forest defenders carrying on this fight.
Learn more at DefendTheAtlantaForest.org
Join us in the streets for an action in solidarity with the DTF campaign next Wednesday.
When: February 1st at 2pm.
Where: is 731 W. 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017