Every evening during the meal distributions the volunteers of l’Autre Cantine (the Other Canteen) meet single men, families with babies and children who have no accommodation. They are out in the cold, often in the rain with wet clothes and wet mattresses. In September they even saw their belongings being thrown in the garbage by the municipal police. They ask us where to sleep and if the state will shelter them.
Since last March we have been in a sanitary crisis due to Covid-19 and have been locked again for 4 days. But them, how can they lock them outside? Why don’t the State and the town hall plan anything? Neither masks, nor shelter, it is once again the most precarious who are voluntarily forgotten.
It is inconceivable for us to see a hundred people on the street, it is a heartbreak to which no one can remain insensitive. This is why we support the new occupation of an empty building, 2 Rue Babonneau!
L’Autre Cantine promises material aid (clothing, mattresses, blankets, food) to the building’s occupants until the state takes over. [Read More]
Nantes: New squat on rue Babonneau. You can’t lockdown people outside!
Nantes: what future for the Maison du Peuple?
After a year of hard work, the Maison du Peuple was able to meet its challenge: a place open to all, capable of accommodating those who needed it unconditionally. Hundreds of people, families with children in difficulty have found a place to rebuild (education for children, unconditional support by the State, etc.). But also to offer a meeting and gathering place to the inhabitants of the city, to set up solidarity actions, to let artistic and sports talents (painting, visual arts, music, dance, etc.) flourish. And yet, this place of life and mutual aid is now threatened with eviction.
There are many reasons for this: the Maison du Peuple is a squat and does not, moreover, meet the safety standards that would allow it to be a permanent place of accommodation. It does not matter that the Maison du Peuple was able to safely accommodate homeless people at the time of confinement: it must close! Supported by various associations of all faiths, the leaseholders found themselves obliged to disassociate themselves from the silence of the public authorities. The work that would have made it possible to rehabilitate the premises was not undertaken despite repeated requests. [Read More]
Nantes: New occupation by refugees and their supporters
Following the evictions from the Censive building and from the Château du Tertre, that saw more than 150 people thrown out, a new occupation followed the day after at the 9 rue Maurice Sibille. Help us to move in, call for solidarity.
On Thursday march 8th in the morning, the former EPHAD, an empty retirement home, a six story building on rue Maurice Sibille, has been occupied by refugees and their supporters. Around 12:00, riot cops came and pushed away the people gathered in the street, aiming at people with their rubber bullet guns. They tried to break into the building but failed. They used gas through an opening. One person would have been arrested. Some local politicians and unions members were around to show support to the refugees. After several hours of tension, riot cops left, followed by an explosion of joy. People in state of euphoria went in and visited this huge empty building. The space is in good state with water and electricity, perfect to host people in shared rooms, with individual kitchens and toilets, big common spaces, a professional kitchen, etc… [Read More]
Nantes: University occupied buildings evicted
On march 7th, at 7am, a few hundred riot cops evicted refugees occupying the Censive building and the Château du Tertre, at the Nantes university. Around 50 people from Censive and 60 others from the Château were violently kicked out under the smiles from the heads of the university and authorities in charge of the police operation.
The eviction was fast. One person went on the roof to protest. Around 10am, this person was still there. As soon as the eviction alarm was called, people gathered on the parking next to the Château du Tertre.
All belongings were moved out by Demeco, a removing company, who did not want to communicate what they were going to do with the mattresses. The police started to barricade the Château du Tertre from inside to prevent any new occupation.
The Censive occupation took place on November 22nd 2017, after the violent eviction of the former Art School, directly bricked up and still heated on! The Château du Tertre was occupied by students and refugees soon after, on November 26th. [Read More]
France: The State Attacks Indymedia-Grenoble and Indymedia-Nantes… Solidarity!
Following the publication of a communiqué claiming responsibility for a fire in a garage at a Grenoble police depot (gendarmerie) during the night of September 20th/21st, Indymedia Grenoble and Indymedia Nantes have been threatened by the French police. The administrators of these sites have received emails from the Central Office for the Fight Against Crime Linked to Information Technology and Communication (OCLCTIC) demanding that the concerned articles be removed from the sites under (in) 24 hours, otherwise rendering the sites liable to blocking and dereferencing.
[Read More]
Nantes, France: Resistance demo against the states of emergency in solidarity with Notre-Dame-Des-Landes
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]
France: Recent actions against Vinci and the state in solidarity with the ZAD
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]
Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France: February 27th – General mobilisation for the abandonment of the airport project – prepare yourselves!
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]
Nantes, France: Police station repainted in support of the ZAD of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes
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]
Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France: Final communique of the 9th January tractors-bikes demonstration
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]
Nantes, France: 20,000 people protest Notre-Dame-Des-Landes airport construction
400 tractors, 1,000 cyclists and 20,000 marchers turned up on the ring road on the periphery of Nantes to protest the Notre-Dame-Des-Landes (NDDL) proposed airport, and support the ZAD ongoing occupation.
Protesters argue that building a new international airport is a climate crime, adding to and encouraging flight carbon emissions.
But also it turns productive agricultural land into non-productive fields, tarmac and terminals, while also endangering biodiversity and the habitat of 130 protected species. Surveys of the site have identified at least five legally protected species that have not been taken into account by the project records made available to the investigation and related prefectural orders. [Read More]
Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France: 9th January – Why you should come + logistic precisions
Why did the date of the call-out get moved forward?
Initially we announced a big mobilisation to take place on 16th January without knowing if Vinci and the governement would have the outrageous audacity to restart the procedure for an immediate eviction of the inhabitants and farmers of the ZAD, in the middle of January. We found out that they will be taken to court again on 13th January. That’s why we decided to move the date of the demonstration to 9th January and to double our determination.
Why is it crucial to take part in this demonstration?
The trial on 13th January is an unprecedented attack against the resisting inhabitants and farmers of the ZAD. It’s an attack in the same style as the attacks in autumn 2012, though it won’t be through a police intervention, at least not for now. AGO-Vinci is desperate to see the official locals leave, threatening them with immediate eviction, seizure of their property and their livestock, and sentencing them to exorbitant daily fines. [Read More]
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