Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): The Mohawked Salamanders Burn Down the Salamander’s School – Why We Attacked the Zad

“I simply didn’t see where the inevitable reformism was coming from this time, discreetly but surely, from those who speak of insurrection and autonomy by the thousands of copies.”
Quote from “The movement is dead… Long live reform”, November 2017.

The Zad was our pirate ship, the mother of all Zads. It emerged in a time with no way out and it was as if the world became a little more bearable. Like a brief glimmer of light, a possibility breaking through the thick, sticky fog of our future. For those of us who lead full and busy lives, off the beaten track, it was the knowledge that there would always be a place to welcome us if we were on the run. A place where the state would never come for us. A place where we would always find allies to feed us, to clothe us, to hide us in the folds of its hedges.

And this very state, which crushes us, kills us, hunts us, was given the Zad three years ago by a handful of opportunists. Those who, only yesterday, claimed this territory as being in “secession”.

This despicable betrayal, which took place behind the backs of those who confronted the police on the barricades, cannot be forgotten. Even less so when the local Comintern has come up with a project for an École des tritons [salamanders'(1) school], to celebrate the three year anniversary of what they call victory.

Rebuilding on the Planchettes(2) then? How can we not exult in rage at this umpteenth provocation? How can we not cry vengeance for the devastated East? [Read More]

Two, Three, Many ZADs

A ZAD means a “zone to defend” (zone à défendre in French). These environmental protest occupations have recorded successes such as preventing an airport near Nantes and a dam in the region of Toulouse. This a roundup of recent ZAD news. In July this year, activists from ANV-COP21 and Extinction Rebellion occupied land in Besançon near to the Swiss border, before handing it on to anonymous occupiers supported by Gilets Jaunes. They are resisting plans to build a controversial “eco-housing” district, saying they prefer the wetlands which are now threatened with destruction. Despite being initially reluctant to use the term ZAD, they are now going by ZAD des Vaîtes.

Currently, there is a standoff of sorts. The mayor refuses to negotiate until a watchtower has been demolished (for the safety of the campers she claims) and the Zadists are digging in for winter, having already celebrated two months of occupation. Meanwhile at Roybon, a small village to the south of Lyon, the squatters have won! After a long struggle both in the courts and in the trees, Center Parcs Europe decided in July to halt their construction plans. They had planned to build a new waterpark and a thousand holiday cottages in a forest, sparking concerns about the amount of pollution it would have created. The Zadists have announced that after six years of occupation, they actually quite feel like staying, which has outraged the local mayor. She is calling for eviction and the story continues. More news on social media or at their website.

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Notre-Dame-des-Landes: eviction alert on the ZAD

Eviction alert on the ZAD in Notre-Dame-des-Landes… the bailiff who had come (alone) to note the occupation of La Chèvrerie (for 2 years) about ten days ago, returned yesterday around 8am accompanied by 3 gendarmes in camouflage to signify the imminent eviction, at the request of the municipality of Vigneux de Bretagne.
Other places and huts can be evicted in the area, we invite all those who wish to join us in these last squats.
Sleepings, huts and camping areas are at your disposal to spend “active holidays” (or not) for free and without sanitary constraints…

Welcome! [Read More]

Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): Transnational Summer Camp ends

More than 500 activists from across Europe, northern and western Africa took part in the Transnational Summer Camp  held between 9th and 14th July at ZAD site located near Nantes in France.

The camp’s callout stated:

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Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): The Movement is Dead, Long Live… Reform!

This text was written during fall 2017 on the ZAD of Notre-Dame- des-Landes, France. Since then, the situation drastically changed when the government announced on January 17 th , 2018 that they are abandoning the airport project. It may seem obsolete to publish this after the “victory”. But, despite the importance this struggle has for me, I didn’t celebrate this victory. I am probably too suspicious and critical about what’s at stake and what’s hiding behind the decision.
In this difficult period for social struggles, the fight against the airport has become a kind of symbol against the capitalist onslaught, as the struggle to not lose in an ocean of defeats. So, trying a critical approach means often being confronted by a defensive reflex to protect an idealized vision. Oh well, here goes… [Read More]

Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): Intergalactic Week returns!

After the long awaited victory against the airport project, we are trying to lift ourselves out of the brutal spring, a season marked by two phases of evictions in which the government made sure to avenge the affront that the zad had represented for so many years. The massive police operations caused many injuries, the destruction of a part of the living spaces of the zad and a long military presence. But the state was forced to give up going any further and entirely eradicating our presence in this bocage. Resistance on the ground, solidarity elsewhere and the negotiation process resulted in a status quo that maintained of dozens of homes, common spaces and activities on most of the land held by the movement. Nevertheless, what we managed to preserve today could very quickly be attacked again, administratively, politically or militarily. Whilst the zad recovers from its wounds and recomposes itself, the work in the fields and the constructions resumes and we project ourselves towards the struggles of the next months. These however go beyond us and connect with others around the world. They concern the collective and respectful use of the land, the sharing of the commons, the questioning of nation-states and borders, the reappropriation of our habitats, the possibility of producing and exchanging free from the shackles of the market, forms of self-organization on territories in resistance and the right to live there freely …
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Notre-Dame-Des-Landes: Until where will we go with this scam of negociations??

I haven’t signed the files project nor do i believe in negociation with a State. I don’t want to discuss with this oppressor, i just simply and only want to destroy it. But still I feel concerned by this process of legalisation that includes almost all lands and sites on ZAD, this area that I see as a whole and not only as my little home, this last one today being destroyed anyways.
We’re calling negociations the injuctions of the prefect, while I really don’t see when have we been negociating. When have we won any advantage of this situation? When have we said anything else than “Yes yes madam, we’re scared, we’re nice people!”? And today again it’s still a topic to go and sign the (agricultural) projects, without even waiting for the ones not accepted yet?! One more time, our famous limit of when will we stop being cheated is pushed further.

Some of the plea that are FOR the legalisation and HURRY let’s legalise appears absurd to me, I stay puzzled between: are this convinced people fooling their ownself or me? I don’t think that we can be smarter than the ennemy when we play his own game.

Here are the plea that are being said :
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ZAD: Live Blog second wave of expulsions

You can see the live ticker over on enoughisenough

09:52am Clashes at the edge of the forest at Bellevue. Images by @ZAD_NDDL

Klaxon radio: If you are north of the Rohan forest, to the Datchacha, there is a a special unit of cop dressed in light blue who ambush people and make surprise arrests. So watch out, do not stay alone!

09:22am Cops attack with gas at the Bellevue camping. Image by @ZAD_NDDL

09:00am Solidarity protests in Rennes scheduled for 18:00 (06:00pm) at Sainte-Anne tonight. As we reported earlier there will also be solidarity protests in Paris: RDV 18:00 (06:00pm) at belleville.

08:54am Cops checking id’s and bags on a field next to the chemin de Suez. Images by @JFrancoisMartin

08:42am A digger arrived at the La Saulce crossing.

08:11am, The cops took the Saulce crossing. Image by @JFrancoisMartin

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Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): Mobilizing for the second phase of evictions on the ZAD

The government has announced a second wave of evictions on the zad of Notre-Dame des-Landes. The operation could be launched as soon as May 15th. We have no idea how large or how long it will be. What is certain is that we cannot trust official announcements and that we will mobilise if faced with any new attempt to pick and choose, which living places on the zad they will evict. [Read More]

ZAD: Call-out for fortification at La Grée

After three weeks of the police operation of ZAD nddl, our struggle to resist continues even as others negotiate with the state.

The next wave if evictions is said to start on the 14th of May, but they continue to harrass us. We are surrounded almost every day; they come to destroy both permanent and moveable barricades, as well as our cabins. We are rebuilding them bigger and better, making barricades become cabins and walls of permaculture. To do this we need hands, ideas, energy and enthusiasm. We want to use this socalled «peace » to prepare ourselves as best we can for the next wave of eviction. We can provide food and sleeping places for anyone who comes to support us.

Come as many as you can and bring tools. You can find the list of tools needed here.

Translator note : IF you do not speak any french, it is still possible to be involved. Just approach someonne with a radio as you arrive and let them know what language you speak, and we will connect you with people who can translate.

Source

ZAD: Cat and mouse with the cops

We woke up early [April29], although we had a long day yesterday. We walked to the cop zone, the part of ZAD that was evicted earlier this month. Today people started to restore some of the vegetable gardens that were destroyed during the Evictions. Different groups went into the cop zone to restore damage that was being done by the state action.

Cops again and again tried to prevent some of the groups in the cop zone from returning to the parts of ZAD that are still squatted. At one point our group was not able to cross the road where the cops were positioned. The group wasn’t big enough to fight their way through. We waited for about an hour and tried again but failed.

After that we went to a small lake and suddenly one squad of Riot cops came into the fields near to the lake. We positioned ourself on two sides, ready to defend ourselves if necessary. But the cops retreated after only a few minutes.
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ZAD: L’Ancre Noire Evicted

L’ancre noir (the Black Anchor) was evicted during the truce which the delegation from the assembly of usages (organ of bureaucratic power on the ZAD) begged for at the prefecture last week, in exchange for some legal papers, the same ones as the henchmen of the state were handing to those arrested last week, in the form of a bad joke that becomes more and more reality …”this paper is the price of your liberty.”

The state, we know what it is and what it does to people and spaces that deny its authority, since it began. The rebels, these people and these spaces (some of which also represent new or old states) have a similar historical tendency to confront the offensives of the State until they collapse, or until their disappearance or assimilation.
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