Facing the evictions: Demonstration of reoccupation !
To rebuild – against the airport!
Pitchforks, wooden beams, planks, nails and tools in hand…
Meeting Saturday November 17th in the morning.
—-Facing the evictions: Demonstration of reoccupation ! —-
The struggle against the airport project of Notre-Dame des Landes kept on growing in the last years. Among other initiatives, an occupation movement has spread on the houses and farmland threatened. A year ago, facing increasing threats on the different houses, huts and gardens, inhabitants of the ZAD and solidarity collectives called for a mass demonstration of reoccupation in case of evictions.
When Caesar is floundering…
On Tuesday, October 16th the dreaded eviction offensive started. 1,200 policemen invaded the 1,800 hectares of the ZAD. They attacked gradually occupied houses and huts, destroying them and washing away every garbage pieces out of the area, leaving nothing that could be used to rebuild. Occupiers and all those who joined them on the spot resisted, barricaded, reoccupied. Together, we have done everything to stop the destruction machinery and block police movements … We’re still here!
Our determination was strengthened by a great wave of solidarity coming from the entire country and beyond: daily demonstrations in Nantes and in various cities, supplies and materials, support actions on representations of socialist party, Vinci, airport manufacturers and other crushers of our lives…
While most homes have already been evicted as well as some huts, many other occupiers remain in the woods, in the fields, in the trees. New constructions are already underway. In addition to the occupiers, « legal » inhabitants and local peasants are also threatened to have to leave the ZAD in the coming months. This is to say that this XXL eviction attempt is going to last. Wise guys from the departmental authority officially called their military operation: “Caesar.” It is up to us show them how the resistance against the airport is actually relentless, they will finally be defeated and ridiculous.
We keep on fighting, we are still here!
Beyond the call to join the area and continue the solidarity actions in the coming weeks, we confirm today that a mass demonstration of reoccupation will take place on Saturday, November 17th 2012, starting from one of the villages near the ZAD.
After this first eviction round, we are looking forward to a time of broad, constructive and offensive mobilization, shared by the various parts of the struggle: occupiers, peasants, inhabitants, local people and from elsewhere, associations and solidarity groups… The objective is to reconstruct an open collective place on threatened lands, meant for struggle organization. We want to make this place a hub for occupiers and people struggling against the airport, a starting point for new housing constructions, an antenna to organize resistance to future works: those of the airport and its highway (which is the first stage of the project, meant to begin in January). They well may militarize the area; they will not prevent us from resettling here.
Ayrault, Vinci and others – the message is clear: Fuck off the land!
—- Additional and practical infos —-
Occupiers from the ZAD and people from the network Reclaim The Fields launched this call for reoccupation. They previously had occupied wasteland with more than a thousand people in May 2012 in order to settle the vegetable farm “Le Sabot”. Today we invite all people and groups to spread information on this initiative and to join November 17th organization.
Beyond a demonstration, this is above all about a collective action that will gain power from a long and active presence of the greatest number of persons. Plan to be there for the weekend and more if you can: to begin the occupation, to continue constructions, to defend, and to generate ideas for the future.
Bring diverse and varied tools and materials, overalls, sound, wacky creations, portable radios, pies to share and unfailing determination.
It is possible to arrive the day before. Meeting and camping spots will be announced in the days before the event.
Given the energy required to resist against evictions by then, and the consequent exhaustion of occupiers, success of this event depends crucially on the involvement of solidary individuals and collectives everywhere. We call for public meetings, relaying information and car sharing in each village for November 17th.
Posters and flyers to print and photocopy are available on the website, and on paper in nantes (B17) or in the ZAD (Vache-Rit). Any financial support is welcome (check payable to « Vivre sans aéroport » (“Living without an airport “), La Primaudière – Notre-Dame des Landes 44130 ; bank transfer: 20041 01011 1162852D32 36)
As the situation changes every day, check information regularly on: http://zad.nadir.org/
For November 17th, we are looking for wooden beams, construction and climbing materials, kitchens, tents, musicians, batukadas, huts kits, tools, tractors…
For any exchange, help, relays, and proposals: reclaimthezad**AT**riseup.net
— Why do we struggle? For the resistance to the airport and it’s world. —
At Notre-Dame des Landes, policy makers and concreters are working on a new airport to fulfil their dreams of voracious metropolis and economic expansion. For 40 years they have been wanting to destroy under concrete 2,000 hectares of agricultural land and habitats situated on the north of Nantes. The concerned area is called ZAD, originally named ‘Zone d’Aménagement Différé’ (Deferred Development Zone) by airport stakeholders is now ‘Zone A Défendre’ (Zone To Defend).
Since the beginnings of this project, resistances are organizing. This struggle is at the crossroads of issues on which unite and think of common strategies. Through it, we are fighting feeding on a drip, industrial society and global warming, territory control and economic development policies, cities and ways of life standardization, privatization of the commons, myths of growth and the illusion of democratic participation…
Today as yesterday, the opponents are far from giving up and keep on struggling via: demonstrations, legal actions, links with other struggles, hunger strikes, circulation of newspapers, free tolls operations, oppositions to drillings, sabotages, disturbance of impact studies and archaeological excavations, office and building sites occupations, etc.
To the detriment of the state and Vinci who buy and destroy to clear the ZAD, life and activity densified and diversified in the zone over more than three years. Many abandoned houses have been rehabilitated and occupied, huts were built on the ground and in the trees, collectives occupy land to produce vegetables. Meeting spaces, a bakery, a library, homes, were open to all. More than a hundred persons were constantly living in the ZAD, supported by many other people, local and from elsewhere, who met and organised there. This presence on the ground has allowed rapid reactions against the works’ process undertaken by Vinci. It is this creative and subversive pack that they seek to eradicate today in order to start the building sites.
We keep in mind the past victories against megalomaniac projects, from the nuclear industry to the military. As in the Carnet, in Plogoff or in the Larzac, we know that this airport can still be stopped. We look at the other side of the Alps where opposition to the construction of the high-speed train line Lyon-Turin mobilizes the entire Susa valley, where tens of thousands of people prevent the works. Here as well, any attempt to concrete the land will cost them dearly.
