Banners Invade the Atlanta Sky!

Today, on the 9th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, we began to receive reports of banners carrying messages of resistance against the seemingly endless war and occupation being dropping in prominent spots around the city. Many of the banners where made during a series of art parties that we hosted to help promote a day to defend public education in Georgia.

While the AFSC does not encourage the illegal dropping of banners we also do not condemn it. The eyeways belong to all of us, not just those that can afford it. It seems a group of folks felt that we can no longer afford the human and economic cost of war and occupation, so much so that they took the time and risk to put their message to the Atlanta eyeways. Other banners reported but not pictured said, "Cut War Not Schools", and, "Defund War, Refund Schools"

Pictures By Josie Figueroa


Tim Franzen
American Frends Service Committee

Banners, Stencils, Wheatpastes for Oct 7th!

Over the past few weeks we've been working with folks to create a number of stunning images designed to bring to attention the increasing defunding of Georgia Public Education. All over Georgia, from Milledgeville to Athens, Atlanta to Savannah, Columbus to Kennesaw, communities are coming together in an effort to protect public education.

From the cuts in K-12 that have dramatically increased classroom sizes, cut important programs, and laid off much needed support staff, to the cuts in public universities which have resulted in dramatic tuition and fee increases for an already struggling student body. Georgians are resisting what some call a crisis of priorities.

Young people may not have millions of dollars to spend on a slick campaigns to win back their future(or societies future) but they do have energy, truth, and a whole lot of creativity. Look for dozens of beautiful banners, stencils, and wheatpastes that have been created to provoke thought and bring awareness to what we are losing in Georgia...our education funding, our future.

We've, of course, encouraged young people to drop banners, paint stencils, chalk, and wheatpaste in spaces that are totally legal. Though we don't condone illegal art, it should be said that we do not condemn illegal banner droppings and such, as the eyeways belong to all who look, not just all who pay.


All of this work is leading up to a nation wide day of action on October 7th, a day to defend education, a day to examine this crisis of priorities, to stand with immigrant students who are under attack everywhere including Georgia. If you are a college student, then you are likely already aware of actions planned on you campus, join them or plan your own. If you are in the Atlanta area and you want to add your voice to the choir, then come to Woodruff Park Thursday October 7th at 4:30pm. Stand with us, march with us, for the future.

It's been exciting watching different struggles unite for this cause. Anti-war groups like the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition seeing the education budget cuts through the lens of unjust war spending. October 7th is, after all, the nine year anniversary of American longest war, Afghanistan. Joining the call for October 7th mobilization is the Georgia dreamers, who face so much more than budget cuts. Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) has joined the call. Members of SCAP see the attack on education as an attack on the future post high school options for low income youth, a move that only strengthens the school to military/prison pipeline. SCAP plans to unveil several banners around the city October 7th and at Woodruff Park.

More and more people of conscious are making the connections. Why does it rain money every time our government asks for money to bomb non white nations, yet when we ask for money to fund our own domestic education system we hardly get a drop? Why are we sinking so much money into policing and imprisoning our own citizens while defunding that which arms young people with the power to truly reach their potential and achieve their dreams?

We hope YOU will add your voice to the choir in defense of education in whatever way you can. It's not to late to make your own banner, wheatpaste, or stencil! It's not to late to fight for the future!



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Operation Anti-War Visibilty Claimed the Atlanta Skies on the Anniversity of the Iraq Invasion

It's hard to believe that we have been living with war in Iraq for seven years now. With the economic crisis and health care reform taking center stage in our national discourse many people have forgotten that the war In Iraq continues. Paradoxically heath care reform would be an easier sell if we weren't spending unthinkable dollars on a war that an overwhelming percentage of American believe is based on lies, and certainly the argument could(and has) been made that our economic crash is a direct result of these multiple wars(Iraq alone cost 720 million a day!!).

It's time we start to see the Iraq war for what it is, a robbery from out communities. Not only has this war robbed us of people who were loved and needed, it has robbed us of much needed resources.

The draining of social safety nets, the pending increase in College tuition's all over the country, and the Military Industrial Complexes 11 billion dollar recruitment budget,has created a poverty draft into the military. Middle and low income youth often reach out to the military, not to serve their country, but to get a job, a steady pay check. So it's not just an overwhelming majority of our budget that goes to plan for and fight wars, it's also our loved ones.

The Georgia Peace and justice Coalition(GPJC) wanted to do something different this year t mark the 7th year anniversary of the Iraq invasion, something that would perhaps shock Atlanta, remind our city that we still live with this war, we still pay for this war, and Iraqis still die in this war. The idea that was given birth in the GPJC meeting went on to be called, "Operation Anti-War Visibility". Groups and individuals were asked to create banners and signs and that reminded folks that we're still in Iraq. Folks were asked to find ways to make sure mass numbers of people in the city saw these banners, even if it meant risking jail.

AFSC Atlanta answered that call. We hosted a banner making party and resembled several streets teams(members of these teams will remain anonymous). Five huuuge banners were created and three smaller ones. There were also stacks of posters that were made available for wheat pasting projects.

On Friday, March 19th, at 7am,we know that four banners dropped of the 75/85 connector. One very large banner that read, "Iraq War: Seven Year Too Long" was seen on the 5th street bridge, visible to morning commuters going southbound. Another huge banner that gave the casualty numbers for Iraqi civilians and US soldiers was seem dropped right next to the Olympic torch neat the North Ave exit on the connector.

During afternoon rush hour we know at least four more banners were dropped. One was 30x15 ft! One was dropped off the Freedom pkwy Bridge and another huge one was daringly dropped of the overpass on International blvd that read, "Troops out of Iraq Now."

There was also a team of folks that wheatpasted anti-war messages around the city, and there were two lunch hour street demonstrations held, on at 14th and peachtree, and the other on the Marietta Square in front of the courthouse.

We at American Friends Service Committee truly hope that this is the last year we mark this sad day. We can only imagine a world where the resources raised in our communities are invested in social uplift instead of annihilation.

I'll end this post with a quote from Martin Luther King's, "Beyond Vietnam" speech, a speech that has shaped my life in many ways.
"A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

-Martin Luther King, April 4th, 1967


Link to short Creative Loafing story on the banner drops:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2010/03/19/photo-of-the-day-anniversary/


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee