<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Oliver Ressler</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:oliver@ressler.at">oliver@ressler.at</a>></span><br>Date: Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 1:08 PM<br>Subject: [Newsletter] urgent: A call for intergalactic solidarity actions everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD<br>To: "<a href="mailto:newsletter@ressler.at">newsletter@ressler.at</a>" <<a href="mailto:newsletter@ressler.at">newsletter@ressler.at</a>><br><br><br>
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif">Dear friends and colleagues,<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
Please read and share their call for solidarity actions copied
below. <br>
<br>
To find out more about the ZAD feel free to watch the film I did
about it. <br>
</font></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> </font><br>
</font></font></font></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">“<a href="http://www.ressler.at/everythings_coming_together/" target="_blank">Everything's
coming together while everything's falling apart: The ZAD</a>“,
36 min., 2017<br>
<a class="m_-4262282932068391126moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://vimeo.com/236277743" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/236277743</a><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
ZAD will survive!</font></font><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Oliver<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><br>
<div class="m_-4262282932068391126moz-forward-container">
<p><a href="https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article5416" target="_blank">https://zad.nadir.org/spip.<wbr>php?article5416</a></p>
<div class="m_-4262282932068391126contenu-principal">
<div class="m_-4262282932068391126cartouche">
<h1 class="m_-4262282932068391126h1">A call for intergalactic solidarity actions
everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD<br>
</h1>
<p class="m_-4262282932068391126info-publi"><abbr class="m_-4262282932068391126published" title="2018-04-11T09:58:01Z">Wednesday 11 April 2018</abbr></p>
</div>
<div class="m_-4262282932068391126surlignable">
<div class="m_-4262282932068391126texte">
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Post your reports on twitter @zad_nddl #zad #nddl and to
our solidarity action email <a class="m_-4262282932068391126moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:soutienzad@riseup.net" target="_blank">soutienzad@riseup.net</a> for
more info in english see <a href="http://www.zadforever.blog" class="m_-4262282932068391126spip_url m_-4262282932068391126spip_out m_-4262282932068391126auto" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">www.zadforever.blog</a> and watch
this video to see what is being destroyed: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrtUkBmv8s" class="m_-4262282932068391126spip_url m_-4262282932068391126spip_out m_-4262282932068391126auto" rel="nofollow external" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr>v=lqrtUkBmv8s</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
Ressler_newsletter mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:newsletter@ressler.at">newsletter@ressler.at</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.mediainvent.at/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ressler_newsletter" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://mailman.mediainvent.at/<wbr>cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/<wbr>ressler_newsletter</a><br>
<br></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br><br>Updates: <a href="http://del.icio.us/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://del.icio.us/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br><br><br><br></div>
</div>