Protests in Atlanta during the Biden/Trump debate — Fight Back! News

Atlanta, GA – Hundreds of community members gathered on June 27 to protest the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in Midtown Atlanta. The event was sponsored by a broad coalition of activist groups based in Atlanta and Georgia, united around the demand for a free Palestine.

The protest began shortly after 7 p.m. and took place at the same time as the presidential debate. The event brought together representatives from a large number of organizations who spoke out against bipartisan support for Israel and its genocide of the Palestinian people, against the need for divestment and an end to all U.S. aid to Israel . They linked local popular struggles in Atlanta to the fight against American imperialism.

“What we all know is that neither Trump nor Biden will solve the problems that brought us to the streets in the first place. None of them can even pretend to have empathy for the ongoing genocide in Palestine, let alone do anything to stop it,” said Erica Schneider, a member of the Alliance of Atlanta against racist and political repression. “None of them have any interest in ending mass incarceration and closing Atlanta’s prisons where we have seen dozens of preventable deaths in recent years. »

The Atlanta Alliance is currently leading a campaign to close the Fulton County Jail, stop construction of a new $2 billion jail, and grant immediate release of inmates on compassionate grounds to prevent further deaths . The Fulton County Jail on Rice Street has gained national notoriety in recent years as inmates continue to suffer inhumane conditions. More than a dozen inmates have died at the prison in the past year alone.

“We are here to protest because we want an immediate ceasefire,” said Geovani Serrano, a community organizer with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. “But at the same time, we are here because there are many connections between what is happening in Palestine and what is happening on the border. »

“When I say take back the technology, I say ‘take back’ for a reason: the United States is currently taking back all of this technology that was used to surveil Palestinians and they are using it to surveil immigrants here in the States -United. They use it to create profiles in order to criminalize them. And not only that, but also profiles for entire families. It’s a close bond we have. »

Immigration has become a hot topic in the 2024 presidential election as the right-wing’s racist rhetoric against undocumented immigrants continues to escalate. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed into law HB 1105, which requires state and local police to identify, arrest, and detain undocumented individuals.

Alex Carson, a member of the socialist organization Freedom Road and one of the protesters recently arrested at Emory University, spoke of the need for solidarity in the fight against political repression, saying: “The monopoly capitalist class and its Police gleefully tear-gassed, brutalized, and imprisoned us for resisting their genocide of Palestinians at the Emory encampment. Our solidarity is always stronger than their repression. Instead of scaring people, they awakened a strong wave of internationalism in Atlanta and across the country. »

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