Today [March 2nd] the southern half of the Calais ‘jungle’ enters it’s third day of eviction, in a process the authorities have now said will take 3 weeks to complete.
Here’s some of the acts of resistance that have been happening in & beyond the camp. It’s looking like it’s going to be a drawn-out process, so get busy researching, preparing and taking action now. This post will be updated as more action reports come through. [Read More]
On Wednesday evening, February 24th 2016, a large number of people gathered in the Libertad Square, in the context of the international week of action against the eviction of the autonomous social centre La Solidaria. After 7pm, comrades shouting “No eviction of La Solidaria” and carrying different banners in defense of autonomous spaces, began to demonstrate in Montevideo’s streets and continued until the corner of Fernández Crespo Avenue and Cerro Largo Street, where La Solidaria is located. [Read More]
No injuries, nor arrests, instead numerous facades revisited
Nearly 400 people marched in Nantes in the context of the week of resistance. The lead banner, decorated with the cartoon bird “the king and the mocking bird”, called for resistance against the states of emergency, whilst referencing Kobane to Kurdistan, Ferguson to the United States, and Notre-Dame-des-Landes in France.
300 police offices were supposed to prevent access to certain areas but they couldn’t prevent the redesigning of facades of some public buildings, banks, estate agencies and the Socialist Party office located on the path of the demonstration.
Demonstrators dressed in black, masked, and some with gas masks – with fire-extinguishers, paint and egg bombs – were able to indulge in paint and political graffiti on the walls of the city. [Read More]
This article [from Rabble] is about developments in the ZAD (‘Zone to Defend’), the site in Western France of a 9+ year occupation against the construction of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport by French construction giant, Vinci.
Things have been heating up in France following the decision by a Nantes court to press ahead with the eviction of the last remaining official residents on site, who refused to sell their land. The court ruled that, of the residents, the farms and three families could be evicted straight away, but gave a two month delay to the eight other families. With this legal hurdle out of the way, it looks likely that attempts will be made to evict the occupations in the coming weeks.
Attempts to build an airport have been ongoing since the 60s, with resistance taking various forms since 1972. The site has been squatted for the past nine years. Occupiers are calling on people to get ready to act on the first sign of eviction. [Read More]
We are pleased to announce our Winter European Speaking Tour across France, the Basque Country & Spain.
Friday 29th January – Dijon | 7pm | Eternel Detour, 16ter rue de Fontaine-lès-Dijon, Dijon
Saturday 30th January – Grenoble | 12pm | Parpaing Paillette, 104 avenue Ambroise Croizat, Saint Martin D’here
Saturday 30th January – Lyon | 8pm | l’Atelier des Canulars Canulars Workshop, 91 rue Montesquieu, Lyon
Sunday 31st January – Marseille | 7pm | Le Raccoon, Place du Lycée Thiers, Marseille
Monday 1st February – Toulouse | 5.30pm | Self-managed Social Centre of Toulouse (CREA)
Wednesday 3rd February – Pamplona | 6pm | Iruñeko Gaztetxea, Konpania Kalea, 3, Pamplona
Thursday 4th February – San Sebastian | 12pm | EHU Gipuzkoako Kanpusa, Donostia
Thursday 4th February – Zarautz | 8.30pm | Putzuzulo, 20800 Zarautz
Saturday 6th February – Bilbao | 5pm | Izar Beltz Social Centre, Bilbao
Sunday 7th February – Gijon | 5pm | Centru Social La Llume. C/Nava 1 (Esq. Avenida de Portugal), Xixón, Asturies [Read More]
This Friday, January 22nd, at dawn, people decided to blockade the road passing through the middle of the construction site for the new Eurorennes train station and in front of the women’s prisons’ main entrance.
Bins were overturned, oil spilled and the following text plastered on the jail walls and site fences:
This morning, we’re blocking this road with help from some bins tipped over and spilled oil…
Because “the city of tomorrow”, wedged between the business district’s megalomaniac construction site that is Euro-Rennes, its future LGV high-speed rail and Europe’s largest women’s prison, represents itself exactly as dreamt up in the offices of Rennes Métropole’s project. [Read More]
To the defenders of the ZAD,
Solidarity from anarchists in so-called ‘Melbourne, Australia’- the never-ceded indigenous land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, stolen and occupied by the genocidal settler-colonial state.
In response to recent threats of violent eviction by the French State, actions were taken at several locations in Melbourne, the city built on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, in colonised Australia. The actions targetted the French consulate and offices of companies of the VINCI corporate-family linked to the proposed destruction of land at the Zone-A-Defendre [Zone to Defend]. [Read More]
The mobilisation in recent days has been tremendous: thanks to the strength of the demonstration on Nantes’ outskirts, but also due to the actions and gatherings multiplying in dozens of other French cities. It’s clear that the anti-airport movement is denser and livelier than ever. This is because it’s become emblematic of so many other struggles against social and environmental destruction, the loss of agricultural land, climate change, the commodification of land and our lives. It’s also because it sprouts the discovery of inhabiting the world in other ways.
However the government confines itself in its deafness. The farmers and inhabitants of the zad are still threatened by eviction. The beginning of the airport project work is still announced in the short term.
The movement therefore calls for the continuation of actions for the coming weeks, and to pay particular attention to the judgement handed down on January 25th.
All components of the struggle also call for a day of massive mobilisation on February 27th. This mobilisation will be under the banner of stopping eviction threats against farmers and inhabitants of the zad, as well as the airport project’s definitive abandonment. [Read More]
Monday saw an eviction without court order in Dublin involving Garda and private security / builders at Villa Park, Dublin 7. The house had been left abandoned for at least two years according to neighbours before being brought back into use last October by people who needed a home. One of them told us that it was a “Beautiful house that was to be demolished in order to make a new route to warehouse / bakery behind it but neighbours objected and planning permission was refused. The person claiming ownership seemed to be very wealthy and is listed as a director of over 28 companies.” [Read More]
Whilst the cases of the last legal occupants of the Zad were being judged this Wednesday [January 13th 2016], we set out to repaint the red police station facade of the Beaujoire neighbourhood, in the purest tradition of Nantes-style greenwashing.
We’re not fooled: we know well that every court defeat implies a confidence uptake for concreters to go further in the airport project. [Read More]
Lille, France: Support action to the blocking of Nantes’ ring-road
At this very moment in Lille [Saturday 9th January] a day/evening is being held of support to the ZAD of Notre Dame des Landes and the inhabitants that face trial this Wednesday 13th January. More than 100 people gathered in the General Assembly decided to show their support to Nantes protesters that are currently blocking Cheviré bridge. [Read More]
The entirety of the anti-airport movement, with all its organizations and collectives, prepared the demo of January 9th in less than ten days. It was needed to demand the immediate abandon of the eviction trial initiated December 7th and re-scheduled for January 13th by AGO (airport conglomerate)/VINCI (contractor) in the name of the State. The eviction process concerns 4 farms and 11 family homes…
We would like to thank the farmers who came with their tractors, more than 450, to yell the rage of the world of small farmers. These eviction threats, which don’t even respect the winter truce (evictions are normally forbidden in the winter months- until march, because it’s cruel), with threats to seize land, property, and livestock, with exorbitant daily fees if they stay, are unprecedented, and intolerable. We would like to thank the more than 20,000 people who came, on bike or on foot, to bring their support to the residents and farmers. [Read More]
