[P2P-F] Fwd: [Newsletter] urgent: A call for intergalactic solidarity actions everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD

Wed Apr 11 13:57:17 CEST 2018

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Oliver Ressler <oliver at ressler.at>
Date: Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 1:08 PM
Subject: [Newsletter] urgent: A call for intergalactic solidarity actions
everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD
To: "newsletter at ressler.at" <newsletter at ressler.at>

Dear friends and colleagues,

I would like to inform you that the ZAD – Europe’s largest autonomous
territory that emerged from the struggle against a new airport for Nantes
in France – is in danger of being evicted by 2500 riot police that invaded
the territory on Monday this week in an attempt to destroy this significant
social, agricultural and economic experiment.

Please read and share their call for solidarity actions copied below.

To find out more about the ZAD feel free to watch the film I did about it.

“Everything's coming together while everything's falling apart: The ZAD
<http://www.ressler.at/everythings_coming_together/>“, 36 min., 2017
https://vimeo.com/236277743

ZAD will survive!
Oliver

https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article5416
A call for intergalactic solidarity actions everywhere to end the
destruction of the ZAD

Wednesday 11 April 2018

We are writing with the smell of tear gas rising from our fingers. The
springtime symphony of birdsong is punctuated by the explosive echo of
concussion grenades. Our eyes are watering, less from the gas than the
sadness; because our friends’ homes, barns and organic farms are being
destroyed. Bulldozers, supported by 2500 riot police, armored vehicles,
helicopters and drones, are rampaging through these forests, pastures and
wetlands to crush the future we are building here on the to the zad (The
zone à defendre).

We are calling on you to take solidarity actions everywhere, it could be
holding demos at your local french embassy or consulate, or taking actions
against any suitable symbol (corporate or otherwise) of France ! And if you
are not too far away, bring your disobedient bodies to join us on the zone.
If the French government evicts the zad, it will be like evicting hope.

For fifty years, this unique chequerboard landscape was the site of a
relentless struggle against yet another climate wrecking infrastructure, a
new airport for the nearby city of Nantes. Farmers and villagers, activists
and naturalists, squatters and trade unionists wove an unbreakable ecology
of struggle together and three months ago on the 17th of January, the
French government announced that the airport project would be abandoned.
But this incredible victory, won through a diversity of creative tactics
from petitions to direct action, legal challenges to sabotage, had a dark
shadow. In the same breath that declared the abandonment, came the
announcement that the people occupying these 4000 acres of liberated
territory, the 300 of us living and farming in 80 different collectives,
would be evicted because we dared not just to be against the airport, but
its WORLD as well.

Since that victorious day, the battle has transformed itself and is now no
longer about a destructive infrastructure project, but about sharing the
territory we inhabit. We stoped this place from being covered in concrete
and so it is up to us to take care of its future. The movement therefore
maintains that we should have the right to manage the land as a commons
(see its declaration The Six Points for the Zad because there will never be
an Airport). Today this is the struggle of the zad (zone to defend) of
Notre Dame Des Landes.

The zad was launched in 2009 after a letter (distributed during the first
french climate camp here) written by locals inviting people to occupy the
zone and squat the abandoned farmhouses. Now the zone has become one of
Europe’s largest laboratory of commoning. With its bakeries, pirate radio
station, tractor repair workshop, brewery, anarchitectural cabins,
banqueting hall, medicinal herb gardens, a rap studio, dairy, vegetable
plots, weekly newspaper, flour mill, library and even a surrealist
lighthouse. It has become a concrete experiment in taking back control of
everyday life.

In 2012 the French state’s attempt to evict the zone to build the airport
was fiercely resisted, despite numerous demolitions 40,000 people turned up
to rebuild and the government withdrew. The police have not set foot on the
zad since, that is, until Monday morning, when at 3am the gendarmes pierced
into the zone.

On day one they destroyed some of the most beautiful cabins and barns, but
yesterday we stopped the cops from getting to the Vraies Rouge, which
happens to be where one of our negotiators with the government lives.
Destroying the house of those that agreed to sit at the table with you was
a strategic mistake. The fabulous zad press team used this as the media
hook and today we are winning the battle of the story. If enough people get
to the zone over the next days we could win the battle on the territory as
well. We need rebel everything, from cooks to medics, fighters to
witnesses. We doubt this rural revolt will be finished before the weekend,
when we are also calling people to come and rebuild en mass.

Already solidarity demonstrations have taken place in over 100 cities
across France, whilst the town halls of several towns were occupied.
Zapatistas demonstrated in Chiapas Mexico, there were actions in Brussels,
Spain, Lebanon, London, Poland, Palestine and New York and the underground
carpark of the french embassy in Munich was sabotaged. They will never be
able to evict our solidarity.

Post your reports on twitter @zad_nddl #zad #nddl and to our solidarity
action email soutienzad at riseup.net for more info in english see
www.zadforever.blog and watch this video to see what is being destroyed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrtUkBmv8s

_______________________________________________
Ressler_newsletter mailing list
newsletter at ressler.at
http://mailman.mediainvent.at/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ressler_newsletter

-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/attachments/20180411/88db51bc/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Everythings_coming_together_The_ZAD_30.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 182261 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/attachments/20180411/88db51bc/attachment-0001.jpg>