Protestors in Austin, Texas shut down Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’s Talk at SXSW Panel

Report from Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) about recent disruption of a talk given by Atlanta Mayor, Andre Dickens at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

photo: @CandiceBernd via Atlanta Community Press Collective

Monday morning, protestors disrupted Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ presentation on a panel in Austin, TX. Protestors interrupted Dickens as he was speaking and accused him of seamless political alignment with Georgia’s Republican Governor, Brian Kemp on police militarization, the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (Cop City), voter suppression, and political repression against protestors. The panel was promptly cancelled as protestors unfurled a banner in front of the stage that stated “Andre Dickens, GOP Stooge. Stop Cop City.”

The panel, titled “Policy Collision: Local Officials and Governors at Odds,” brought together Democratic local officials Andre Dickens, mayor of Atlanta; Tishaura Jones, mayor of St. Louis, MO; Christian Menefee, County Attorney, Harris County, TX; and Aftab Pureval, mayor of Cincinnati, OH to discuss how they manage their political differences with the Republican governors of their respective states. The panel was part of South by Southwest (SXSW), a technology, music, and film festival that brings more than 340,000 people and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to Austin each spring. Last year, SXSW generated nearly $381 million dollars for Austin’s economy.

Earlier in March, SXSW spurred controversy among performers, attendees, and Austin residents alike because of the festival’s U.S. Army sponsorship and ties to defense contractors that supply the Israeli military with weapons. On March 4, Chicago song-writer Ella Williams, who performs under the name Squirrel Flower, led an artists’ boycott of the festival, citing SXSW’s ties to RTX Corporation. Formerly known as Raytheon, RTX Corporation produces missiles, bombs, and other weapons systems the Israeli military uses in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. SXSW has also driven intensified policing of homeless encampments throughout the city.

Monday’s disruption was organized by the Austin Weelaunee Defense Society, a grassroots organization committed to growing the strength of the Stop Cop City movement outside Atlanta. The protest also coincided with—and drew participation from—Smash by Smash West, an anonymously-called Week of Action in response to growing discontent with SXSW.

[W]hile Andre Dickens was purportedly on the panel to talk about tensions with Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp,” the Austin Weelaunee Defense Society stated in a press release sent to media, “his administration has worked closely with the state to repress the movement against the Cop City, charging protestors with domestic terrorism, indicting the non-profit social justice community bail fund the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on RICO charges, and organizing multi-agency early morning raids of local Atlanta activists.

One protestor shouted that Andre Dickens is responsible for the first murder of an environmental activist in the U.S., referring to the multi-agency raid in the Weelaunee Forest on Jan. 18, 2023 in which Georgia State Patrol, conducting the raid in collaboration with the Atlanta Police Department, killed Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán.

Dickens responded to protestors’ allegations by accusing them of having “privilege” and stating that there was a “racial element” to the protestors’ allegations against him before leaving the stage.

“By calling our demonstration an act of privilege, Dickens ignored the multiracial composition of the group present and the constant vocal disapproval by black and brown communities in Atlanta who would be disproportionately terrorized by police trained at Cop City,” a protestor who participated in the disruption told the Atlanta Community Press Collective. “The idea that disrupting a self-congratulatory gathering of political elites like Dickens is an act of privilege is laughably absurd.”

Protestors blocked the stage, chanting “Stop Cop City!” and “Free Jack!,” referring to John “Jack” Mazurek who was arrested and charged in association with the Stop Cop City movement on Feb. 8 in a series of multi-agency police raids in south Atlanta. Mazurek was denied bond on Feb. 9 and remains in Fulton County Jail.

Protestors strew handbills across the room that stated “Andre Dickens is not ‘At-Odds’ With the Far-Right of Georgia.” SXSW staff rushed to escort Dickens out of the building, but protestors trailed closely behind him.

As Dickens hurriedly left, one protestor shouted “Everywhere you go, we’re waiting for you! We’re in every city. Your political career is over!”

From the Southwest to the Northeast, the Stop Cop City Movement Continues to Spread

The disruption at SXSW in Austin, TX is part of a burgeoning wave of participation in the movement to Stop Cop City outside of Atlanta this year. On Jan. 18, more than a thousand people across the country held protests and vigils to mark the first annual Day of the Forest Defender, the one-year anniversary of the day Georgia State Patrol officers killed Terán.

Movement participants across the country held vigils in at least 40 different cities for the Day of the Forest Defender. In Savannah, GA, Stop Cop City opponents held a vigil for Terán, and dozens of people broke away and marched to the office of LS3P, the architectural firm for Cop City. Once there, protestors vandalized and defaced the office’s windows with spray paint, covering the front door and windows with “Stop Cop City” and “Murderers.”

A month later, movement participants in Tucson, AZ hosted a four-day convergence with workshops, shared meals, live music, cultural events, and protests against businesses with financial ties to Cop City. On Sunday, February 25, protestors shattered the windows of Wells Fargo and PNC Bank branches during a 100-person march in downtown Tucson. In a press conference hosted by summit participants the next day, Cop City opponents stated that Wells Fargo executive Mitch Graul sits on the board of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The following day, six summit participants used a lockdown technique known as a “cupcake”—in which protestors’ hands are chained to rebar that is submerged in a tire filled with cement—to barricade two entrances of the gated community in Scottsdale, AZ where a Nationwide Insurance executive owns a home. Nationwide Insurance is the primary underwriter for Cop City. Protestors shut down the entrances for more than four hours with their own bodies, chanting “This is not a local struggle!” and singing songs in solidarity with the Stop Cop City movement and Palestine. A large support rally gathered at one entrance, cheering the activists on. As the sun set, officers from the Scottsdale Police Department and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office extracted and arrested the protestors.

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