From Redwood Trees the View -4
of a New World Being Born

@ A Statement from the Tree Occupation at Cal Pol

Today—Monday, April 29, 2024—there are encamp-
ments and building occupations in solidarity with
Gaza in place at dozens of universities around the
United States, and they are beginning to appear
elsewhere around the world. Police have already
carried out a number of brutal raids targeting them,
but in many cases, the protesters have come back,
undeterred, or even faced down the police. Onc of the
fiercest occupations has taken place at Cal Poly Hum-
boldt, where students took over a building, survived a
massive police assault, and then forced the police to
retreat off campus.

As of today, the occupation at Cal Poly Hum-
boldt has held its ground for a week. The school
has been shut down until graduation. Right now,
local, state, and federal agencies are amassing
forces to prepare to raid the encampment.

At this critical moment, we received a
statement from people who have established a
tree occupation to hold territory at Cal Poly
Humboldt. We present it along with pictures
from the occupied university and a video of a
participant in the Cal Poly occupation calling to
address participants in an encampment at
another university across the country.

From Redwood Trees to Olive Groves,
the Commune Grows

We have heard the call to escalate in solidarity with
Palestine, and we are answering: we have taken to the
trees.

From where I sit, in the branches of a redwo-
od tree, I have the ocean to my right and the forest to
my left. Usually, it hurts to look at the cityscape, to see.
the colonial infrastructure remaking native lands
according to its own ends. But today, I see these
mission-style buildings covered in calls for a free
Palestine and the return of Native homelands. I see a
sprawling, ever-growing camp filled with people who
are feeding and clothing each other, held by the
protection of our barricades. I see medics keeping
folks hydrated, kids playing, artists and musicians
creating, gardens sprouting up, and everywhere the
sense that a new world is being born. This vision is
stoked by the militant flame of the brave occupiers, by
the desire to defend it all—to push the cops out every
time they attempt to harass us or pull down the barri-
cades.

The success of our occupation thus far has
come about as a consequence of our ability to adapt
whilst refusing to back down. We learn from nature
that diversity makes an ecosystem more resilient and
vibrant, and the same s true in our movements. There
is no one perspective, tactic, or voice in our camp. No.
one speaks for everyone. What brought us together
was a shared revulsion for this genocide. What keeps
us together s our commitment to escalation towards
liberation, to upholding each other's autonomy, and
to nurturing lifeways together amid this struggle.

We recognize that a diversity of tactics is
crucial for maintaining an offensive position. To
expand our tactics, we have turned to our personal
history of struggle against empire here in so-called
Humboldt. Judi Bari, an environmental activist who
was car-bombed and framed for her activity with
EarthFirst!, spoke about the need to end the global
capitalist machine in order to halt planetary destruc-
tion and oppression of all kinds. We concur. This tree
sit is a love letter to these connections, to all those
struggling to end this genocide, and to Palestinians
worldwide. Among the great old trees, a tree sit is a
sign of rebellious hope—hope as a way of choosing
agency. Itis an invitation to a new perspective on the
world itself.

“This tree sit is also a love letter to Tortuguita.
Tortuguita was 26 years old on January 18,2023 when
Georgia State Troopers murdered them in the Wee-
launee Forest. At that time, they were defending the
forest from the Cop City project. Funded by the likes
of Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Delta Airlines, UPS, Home
Depot, Equifax, Georgia Pacific, s0 on and so forth,
Cop City is a deforestation project designed to build a
massive mock city in which US police will train in
urban warfare; Isracli Occupying Forces will be
contracted to train them in the art of imposing apart-
heid. This is just one of many proposed cop cities
across the country. The fight to free Palestine and the
fight to free ourselves are intimately intwined. The
military and police see these connections—and so
must we.

‘This connection, in conjunction with a knowl-
edge of history and with our own experiences over
the last week, have shown us that any struggle to put
an end to genocide necessarily includes a struggle
against the police themselves, just as putting an end
to genocide means stopping extractive colonial capi-
talism, halting the causes of climate chaos, and
putting an end to the ongoing imperial nightmare we
live in.

Police and the military are the ultimate threat
wielded against anyone who fights effectively for a
better world. We are inspired to see all the beautiful
things that have flourished so spontaneously in just
one week thanks to a few people being brave enough
to create and defend a cop-free zone. We are not just
working to destroy the nightmare of the world as it
currently exists—we are also defending the seed of
the world to come, defending a life worth living and
sharing with others.

‘There will be no end to these wars of empire
i the struggles in“first world countries” don't devel-
op teeth and begin to embody solidarity and “land
back”as more than symbolic gestures, We will not go
back to normal. Normal means ignoring the genocide
of Palestinians every day, while living miserable lives
on a hamster wheel of labor that never made us
happy in the first place. Normal means earning a
paycheck and turning our backs on the 14,000+ Pales-
tinian children murdered just since October 7. This
occupation has shown that when you stop everything
and get off the hamster wheel, what is waiting for you
is community and endless possibilities.

We fight for the living, and we mourn the trail
of dead that this empire of money and war has left in
its path. We remember you, though there are too
many to recount here, all of you who have died at the
hands of this global empire—

Haya Sharif Bakr Al-Batniji. George Floyd. Ibrahim
Amma Saad Al-Qara. Sandra Bland. Sham Abdul Karim
Torahim Al-Hato. Treyoon Martin. Hosni Mohamed Hosni
Muhareb. Toypurina. Musk Omar Kamel Abu Ralma.
Tortugaita. Adam Youssef Muhammad Al-Hila. Josiah
Lawson. Zeina Hossam Jamil Al-Zaanen. David Chain.
Sondos Ziyad Mahmoud Al-Azaib. Rayshard Brooks.
Malik Youssef Omar Sharaf. Avalon. Mansour Hamada
Monsour Sobh. Berta Isabel Caceres Flores. Marie Thab
Darwish Gouda. Fred Hampton. Zakaria Imad Abd Muhe-
isen. Nex Benedict. Khalaf Fawzi Muhamma Al-Sazwarka.
Rachel Corrie. Shireen Abu Akleh. Al-Jarrah mahmoud
Misbah Al-Khor.

And s0 many more. We won't let you down.
We are not just workin e nightmare of the
world as it curren nding the

d of the world to co a life worth living
and sharing with others