Ghent: Wondelmeersen occupied

Since June 20, the summer solstice, the Wondelgemse Meersen have been occupied and declared an autonomous zone!

This nature reserve, 14ha large, is the last continuous piece of wilderness of what was once a vast swamp area in the north of Ghent.

If it were up to transport company De Lijn and politicians such as Zuhal Demir (N-VA) and Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), the Wondelmeersen would be destroyed to make way for a so-called “green” depot for buses and trams. But a “green” depot you don’t build at the expense of valuable green nature. [Read More]

Liège, Belgium: La Chartreuse – a new ZAD

On 27 March, upon the threat of the concreting over of the Chartreuse Park in Lièg, local residents and activists occupied the area and built barricades to protect the green space from the Matexi real estate developer. This is quick look back at the first two weeks of the occupation and the previous struggle against the development plans.

The Chartreuse is a green wetland in the heart of Liège. The site is protected because it has an important biodiversity (and also protected buildings). Until the early 1980s, it was occupied by a military barracks, with an old fort and other old buildings.
[Read More]

Germany: Call for the defense of Lützerath

For more than a year, Aktivist_innen have been living and fighting in Lützerath, a small village right on the edge of the Garzweiler open-pit mine in the Rhineland. What is left of Lützerath is to fall victim to RWE’s capitalist destructive rage this autumn so that the company can continue to burn lignite.

Sounds familiar? It is!
Many of us fought in the Hambach Forest and made sure that it was preserved. Now it is up to us again to put the company and its exploitation logic in its place. If they want to destroy Lützerath this autumn, they are taking on a movement that can no longer be stopped. We are facing the last showdown for coal in the Rhineland!

And for that we need you now!
We have created a place for rebellious life. Here we try to form ourselves without capitalist performance constraints and to put our autonomy into practice. We call this area to be defended “Zone a defendre”, or ZAD, following the example of French battles. Because Lützerath is threatened and is attacked by RWE and police. From October, Tree cutting and clearing machines come here. That’s why we say – let’s defend the ZADRheinland together. We defended the Hambi – we will also defend Lützerath! The 1.5 degree limit runs in front of Lützerath and we will enforce its compliance here. We have already paralyzed power plants, cost RWE millions and shown more than once what we think of a state and system that puts profits above people. We no longer negotiate in the trees or in the hut village, because the climate crisis knows no compromises.

So: pack your climbing harness and tools and prepare for an autumn of resistance. Are you missing the skills? No problem; Lützerath is a place of joint learning, of looking after each other and of further education.

So come here and join us!

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]

France: Zad du Carnet, eviction risk confirmed

This morning, February 10th, we had the pleasure to be woken up by the bailiff accompanied by the cops. We were given the eviction order.

On February 4, the local elected officials and the harbour manager gave formal notice to the prefecture to demand the eviction of the ZAD du Carnet, during a hearing in summary proceedings at the administrative court of Nantes. We expect to learn the court’s decision any day.

After 5 months of pressure from the cops, the fascists, the mayors who are waiting for their checks, and the media smearing us, this time they think they can finally subdue us.
We have strong reason to believe that the decision will be to our disadvantage and will order our eviction. We expect the cops taking action within the next few days. So we need moral, human and material support!

Let’s not wait for their deliberation to organize ourselves! If you want to defend the ZAD du Carnet: it’s now or never! [Read More]

Switzerland: Call to support the ZAD de la Colline

In Switzerland, a few kilometers from Lausanne, the multinational cement company LaFargeHolcim seeks to expand the exploitation of the limestone quarry which consumes and attacks the Mormont hill. The quarry’s expansion threatens to engulf the hill’s protected forest, its unique biodiversity, its history and the cultivated lands which it is home to. The company is no stranger to such aggressions. Its involvement in over 120 cases of environmental and human rights violations is currently documented in 34 countries.

The Birette plateau is an area of precious biodiversity. It hosts an atypical flora comprising several protected species, including rare species of orchids. It is also of crucial archeological and historical importance. Furthermore, the extracted limestone participates in the colossal CO2 emissions produced by LaFarge Holcim and the cement sector, which is responsible for 12% of the global CO2 emissions. Holcim Switzerland is the company producing the most CO2 territorial emissions in the country.

Since the legal recourses submitted were unable to guarantee the termination of the project, the occupants of the Zone à Défendre (ZAD) de la Colline decided to block it in order to defend the hill’s biodiversity, local farming, cultural patrimony and, more broadly, the climate against the concrete industry. Through their physical occupation of the site, they oppose corporate land-grabbing, the rampant exploitation of resources whose transformation and usage is detrimental to the environment, health and human rights. Additionally, this ZAD seeks to understand and combat the socially and environmentally destructive system of which the company’s extractive project is a part.

Petition

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.

[Read More]

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:

[Read More]

Bure (France): Forest reoccupied

Check the info points on bureburebure.info for news, especially before coming on site.

Next to Bure, France, Lejuc forest is reoccupied since the 18th of july at 14h. Many people have moved into the place, on the ground as well as in the trees to reaffirm their opposition to the project of radioactive waste burrying center Cigéo, to nuclear power and the industrial, colonial, military world that goes with it. The police forces that occupied this strategic location until then and protected Andra’s interests were forced to leave. From now on, we call for people to come here in Lejuc forest, as well as in Bure and Mandres-en-Barrois, two villages located two kilometers from the forest

Lejuc forest is in the area of the nuclear dumpster project. Andra plans to clear it to perform archeological digs and drillings, before covering it with concrete to build ventilation shafts. The forest was already occupied twice before, in july 2016 and then from the 15th august 2016 to the 22nd february 2018, date when 500 cops evicted the forest and destroyed the houses of the people who were occupying it.

[Read More]

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 …
[Read More]