Atlanta protests at Biden/Trump debate

Atlanta, GA – Hundreds of community members gathered 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 Atlanta and Georgia-based activist groups united around the demand for a free Palestine.

The protest began shortly after 7 p.m. and ran at the same time as the presidential debate. The event featured reps from a large number of organizations who spoke against the bipartisan support for Israel and its genocide of the Palestinian people, the need for divestment and an end of all U.S. aid to Israel. They tied the local people’s struggles in Atlanta to the fight against U.S. imperialism.

“What we all know is that neither Trump nor Biden is going to resolve the issues that have brought us out into the street. Neither of them can even fake empathy for the ongoing genocide in Palestine, much less do anything to stop it,” said Erica Schneider, a member of the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Neither of them has any interest in putting a stop to mass incarceration and closing the Atlanta jails where we’ve seen dozens of preventable deaths in the last few years.”

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

“We’re here protesting because we want a ceasefire now. We want a ceasefire now” said Geovani Serrano, a community organizer from Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. “But at the same time, we’re here because there is so many connections between what is taking place in Palestine and what is taking place at the border.”

Serrano continued, “When I say ‘take back tech’ I say ‘take back’ for a reason, because the U.S. currently is taking all this technology that has been used to surveil Palestinian people and they’re using it to surveil immigrants here in the United States. They’re using it to create profiles to criminalize them. And not only just that but profiles also for entire families. It is a close connection that we have.”

Immigration has become a hot-button issue during the 2024 presidential election as racist right wing rhetoric against undocumented people continues to escalate. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp recently signed HB 1105 into effect, a state law requiring local and state police to identify, arrest and detain undocumented persons.

Alex Carson, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and one of the recently arrested Emory University protesters, spoke about the need for solidarity in the fight against political repression, stating, “The monopoly capitalist class and their police happily tear gassed, brutalized and jailed us for resisting their genocide of Palestinians at the Emory encampment. Our solidarity is always stronger than their repression. Instead of scaring people they have awoken a strong tide of internationalism in Atlanta and the whole country.”

#AtlantaGA #GA #PeoplesStruggles #RNC #DNC #Biden #Trump