News from the anti-MAT struggle in the Girona area of Catalonia

 

 

2nd of Sep­tem­ber, 2013:

News from the anti-MAT strug­gle in the Girona area of Cat­alo­nia

 

The active resis­tance camp against the MAT (very high ten­sion elec­tric­i­ty line) tak­ing place near Girona has squat­ted a huge, antique, aban­doned farm­house near the vil­lage of Orriols, in order to give con­ti­nu­ity to the strug­gle against this dead­ly project and the world which needs it. The resis­tance against the MAT has been active for more than a decade and has now reached a cru­cial point see­ing that the con­struc­tion of the line has now start­ed in this area and is going ahead at a furi­ous pace.

 

The police are con­stant­ly harass­ing the squat­ted zone and farm­house. This is the squat’s fifth day and the sec­ond day since the doors were opened to any­one who wish­es to con­tribute to the strug­gle against the MAT and intends to orga­nize col­lec­tive­ly in order to stop it. The lib­er­at­ed space, locat­ed very near to where two pylons are being con­struct­ed, is like sand in the gears and cogs of this machine of death and destruc­tion dri­ven by indus­tri­al­ists and politi­cians and defend­ed by the police and jour­nal­ists.

 

Dur­ing the last week of August the police pres­ence around the camp in Fellines and its activ­i­ties was very strong: peo­ple stopped and iden­ti­fied, provo­ca­tions, num­ber plates writ­ten down, con­stant patrolling along the sur­round­ing roads, protest march­es blocked, a heli­copter fly­ing above the camp and hov­er­ing near it at low alti­tude, pre­sum­ably tak­ing pho­tos, etc. How­ev­er, the harass­ment did not stop the peo­ple who came from all over the sur­round­ing areas, the Span­ish State and oth­er Euro­pean coun­tries, and even spurred them to inten­si­fy the strug­gle, as can be seen with this new squat­ted area which seems to have thrown the police off-bal­ance.

 

On the 1st of Sep­tem­ber it was made pub­lic knowl­edge that the aban­doned Mas Castel­ló farm­house had been squat­ted as a new space of resis­tance and coor­di­na­tion, and soon enough the police arrived in great num­bers, sud­den­ly wak­ing up to the fact that the action had tak­en place right under their noses and despite all their check­points. The bar­ri­cades built along the dirt track lead­ing to the house, the pres­ence of many peo­ple behind them and some oth­er resisters on the roof of the new squat, helped keep the police away, even though they tried to advance show­ing plas­tic bul­let guns, fir­ing a few shots into the air, per­haps bring­ing dogs to the scene, threat­en­ing and shout­ing and throw­ing rocks at the resisters in order to pro­voke them and thus cre­ate the legal sit­u­a­tion nec­es­sary for a speedy evic­tion order. Before night­fall, how­ev­er, the forces of repres­sion with­drew most of their faith­ful sol­diers, only to come back a lit­tle lat­er as a small group accom­pa­ny­ing the own­er of the house, shout­ing threats and try­ing to iden­ti­fy the peo­ple on the roof.

 

The night was qui­et but this morn­ing saw the arrival of many police vans yet again. Some of the bar­ri­cades have been removed by fire­fight­ers and by a trac­tor which was prob­a­bly ordered to do so by the own­er of the house. Some hours lat­er most of the vans filed away and the resisters got back to the tasks nec­es­sary in order to make Mas Castel­ló a meet­ing point for locals and non-locals who will con­tin­ue the strug­gle against this dead­ly megapro­ject.

 

Every­one is invit­ed to come and par­tic­i­pate to help defend the land around Girona. Peo­ple are arriv­ing but greater num­bers are nec­es­sary, so come and show your sup­port!

 

If you are unable to be phys­i­cal­ly present, express your sol­i­dar­i­ty in whichev­er way you see fit, wher­ev­er pos­si­ble and as soon as pos­si­ble.

 

 

Mas Castel­ló resists!