Episode Details

Building A Cadre For Community Defense w/ Atlas Defense

Season 3 Published 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Description

What does it mean to defend your community when the state has already decided it won't? Today we sit down with Alex, Manuel, and Solaris of Atlas Defense, a Twin Cities community defense collective. We get into what community defense actually means, how they built a cadre with no hierarchy, and how Indigenous sovereignty and death work shape the way they think about safety. We also talk about how their organizing shifted once ICE occupied the Twin Cities, and what it takes to keep each other safe under repression.

Show Notes on Patreon

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Guests: Alex, Manuel, and Solaris of Atlas Defense

📷 Alex: @alex_does80
🛡️ Atlas Defense: atlasdefensemn.com
📷 Atlas Defense: @atlasdefensemn
🖨️ Atlas Defense Print Subscription (People's Printer): atlasdefensemn.com/product/people-s-printer
🌐 Solaris: solarisism.org

On Atlas Defense: Atlas Defense is a Twin Cities community defense collective founded in 2016, built on the idea that abolition means abundance; training neighbors in everything from verbal de-escalation to firearms so that safety becomes a shared responsibility, not something outsourced to police or the state.

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📚 Mentioned Media

Books & Texts

📚 Black Liberation Army dictionary/resource — referenced re: "group and split" organizing model

📚 George Jackson's work:

Historical Reference

🔗 Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 — Teamsters Local 574, referenced as historical precedent for general strikes

Other Media

🔗 Solarism — Solaris's website

🔗 A Black Child's Lament — Solaris's essay

🔗 SWOP MPLS — sex worker organizing partner referenced re: firearm training

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