In this autumn of 2012, the opposition to the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project is entering a delicate phase. The response which it may elicit from outside the area directly affected will be the deciding factor for the future of this battle.
To create a Deferred Development Zone, ZAD, (land set aside for major development), to compulsory purchase and demolish homes and then to certify the project as a ‘d’utilité publique’, DUP, (declaration of public interest) before even starting the initial survey work, constitutes a grand scam under the guise of Democratic Policy All this has already been done.
The area that the County Council (Conseil Général) has partly cleared and made over to Vinci is now really being stripped . Harassing people on short-term leases in order to force them to leave, preparing the eviction of those who resist (whether they are squatters or have been unable to pay their rents) and serving compulsory purchase orders on the remainder who have not sold their land and buildings. That, at the moment, is the job of the decision makers. The attack comes at a crucial time since they must remove most of the residents before the first work on the main access road begins in 2013.
Contrary to rumours spread by the press about a so-called “suspended judgement” given by the crooks of the PS (Socialist Party), all we have is just a promise, (which costs them nothing), not to plague those who refuse to negotiate until the end of certain legal inquiries. The reality is that the families and people involved continue to be subjected to more and more forceful pressure to move out.
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This fight underwent a crucial turning point in 2009 with an invitation to occupy the vacant plots. The choice to live on the land concentrated local strength, but now the danger is that the evictions will spell the end of everyone’s commitment, here and elsewhere. For the moment they are able to meet, communicate and criticise the politics behind the development of the land, through the convenience of independent local organisation.
If this saga of the airport is effectively the factor has allowed many like-minded people to meet each other, it is also the means through which we have chosen to confront the world. This is about the appropriation of land, our living conditions, population control, and all authoritarian and repressive policies that strike anywhere and impact on our daily lives, whether in neighbourhoods, schools, at work or within social movements. As a symbol of this approach, the expulsion of the inhabitants of the ZAD for the construction of this airport cannot be ignored.
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The military operation that will be used against resistance on the ground at the time of the planned eviction, will involve the deployment of several hundred para-military police and the riot police (CRS) within a single secured area. A good way to take advantage of the opportunities created by this enemy strategy will be to create additional pressure points beyond the area of the ZAD. This will divert their attention elsewhere and give us the chance to breach their security and attack wherever they are absent – i.e. where they do not expect it.
This is a situation where the developers are being faced with more and more resistance, it will be necessary to organise ourselves so that the suppression of one battle does not weaken another. We invite you therefore to also mobilise yourselves, in your own neighbourhood, not just to show your support, but also your solidarity – because your battles are also ours.
Rally together, occupy a building or a street, display a message on a placard or banner, disrupt work, sabotage a building site, obstruct traffic routes via demonstrations, hit targets in unexpected places… In short, utilise all means available to overload the opposition.
War on those who play games with our lives without a care for the misery they cause!
Now it’s time for us to play!
[ZAD website]
