Bringing el Barrio to FiDi
Stop Cop City Joins People’s Park
On March 30th, after many demonstrations throughout NYC in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation from Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocidal attacks on Gaza, a group of people gathered at People’s Park (Zuccotti Park) to hold space. Earlier that day, comrades had organized the first teach-in in a series titled LAND BACK INTERNATIONAL at Woodbine: “a program of political education that continues to strengthen the international connections of Indigenous land sovereignty, Palestinian national liberation, the Stop Cop City movement, and prison/police abolition.” The message was clear: no cop cities anywhere.
Calls were made by those at People’s Park to autonomously organize events at the space. So far, there have been many teach-ins and zines/sticker distros. Queers Gambit organized chess games; to celebrate Eid, folks shared food; others offered resistance themed Henna.
Following our previous action on Leap Day, where we decided to take our football to the streets as a way to collectively hold space, we moved to organize an evening of football, solidarity, and radical study. Our call read:
Please join members of the autonomous soccer team Stop Cop City United and other football comrades for an informal gathering at the People’s Park on Wednesday April 10th at 5:30pm. Come chat with us about cultivating autonomy, revolutionary play, and our experiences building community on the pitch. We will be holding space in solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation and against cop cities everywhere. We will also be distributing food for our Muslim comrades to celebrate Eid.
Upon our arrival to the space, some of us reminisced about the militant joy of Occupy Wall Street. However, since 2011, the plaza had been changed, outfitted with new marble tables and ledges (some have since had their skate-proof technologies removed) making it less fitting for large gatherings. History is littered with examples of governments redeveloping spaces after political movements have been crushed, seeking to spatially restore the logics of property and state sovereignty, like in Paris following the 1848 Revolution and the Paris Commune. As we approached People’s Park and saw young comrades sharing literature and banners hung across the tables, glimmers of life emerged from the otherwise cold, sterile environment at financial capital’s epicenter. The presence of cops all along the perimeter of the park — incredibly goofy in their self-importance, mostly looking at their phones, though NYPD TARU (Technical Assistance Response Unit) was also there taking surveillance photos of people playing soccer and eating bagels—also underlined the city’s awareness that we had not completely forgotten.
Comrades from the Bronx Palestine Solidarity Committee held a teach-in based around the zine “Ungrateful Immigrants: Towards Liberation and Against Imperialism.” We helped facilitate its translation into French so our friends who had recently arrived from French-speaking countries in Africa could participate in the discussion. Afterwards we shared food to celebrate Eid and then set up goals so that all could play. As the sun set and the markets closed, people holding down the gathering and passerby joined to play football.
p.s. Our soccer league, the Autonomous Football League, is in full swing. Matchdays are on sundays in Brooklyn. If you’d like to come watch please write to @woodbinefootballclub on instagram for info.
