La ZAD- Largest Protest Zone in Europe Being Evicted

Europes largest protest zone is going through multiple evictions – all through much media silence! Over the past four days La ZAD, an anti-airport protest zone, composing of over 20 occupied sites has been putting up the barricades, opposing and protesting against the harassment and the evictions by a troop of police over a 1000 strong.

Largest Protest Zone in Europe Being Evicted

La ZAD (La Zone A Défendre)

Europes largest protest zone is going through multiple evictions (because there are numerous sites) – all through much media silence! Over the past four days La ZAD, an anti-airport protest zone, composing of over 20 occupied sites has been putting up the barricades, opposing and protesting against the harassment and the evictions by a troop of police over a 1000 strong. La ZAD is in the area of Notre Dame de Lande, just north of the city of Nantes, in the north-west of France.

Video of one of the earlier Police mobilisations:

Resistance aux expulsions from Résistances nddl on Vimeo.

 

Sit down protest in Bel Air:  http://zebuzzeo.blogspot.fr/2012/10/a-notre-dames-des-landes-l-etat-ps.html

Good series of pictures of barricades and resistance:  https://picasaweb.google.com/113382718807039752437/Expulsions#slideshow/5799932948346626882

Good info in English: http://en.squat.net/tag/zad/

Tear gas has been used against the barricades and the military have been mobilised to support the evictions.

Below are summaries and translations of their FLASH INFO / UPDATES (please excuse the bad english).

 

THEIR MESSAGE: And most importantly: there is plenty of places occupied (land and three houses with eviction deadline until October 27), and the the occupant-es are always on site, with lots of other people coming to defend the area, and full of messages and actions of solidarity everywhere! It is not their police pressure which make our protests impotent acts of resistance will continue until the project will not be removed.

October 16th

[Places evicted : la Bellich’, Bel Air, la Gaité, les Planchettes, le Tertre, le Pré Failli, la Pré Faillite et St Jean du Tertre.]

11h18 : // in his speech, the prefect declared that the operation is finished for today, that all went fine, without arrestations and that the military occupation will continue for several days to secure the destruction of the houses

13h15 : charge et tirs de lacrymo vers le Sabot ; arrivée de nombreux fourgons de CRS // Tear gas beeing shot around the Sabot, arrival of numerous riot cop cars

15:10 : les gens dans le Sabot se font gazer, dépanneuse et tractopelle en vue, 3 camions de CRS et 10 de gendarmes se dirigent vers le Sabot // people at the Sabot getting teargased, breakdown lorry and diggers been seen, 3 cop vans of riot cops and 10 military vans heading towards Sabot

15h20 : // barricade burning at the Sabot. It’s seems to getting hot for them

15h40 : // following a exterieur information, the Military are being mobilized for more 48h to prevent new occupations

 18h15 : // a digger is arriving at the way to the Sabot to enter in the garden by the side, 40 people are still at the Sabot

October 17th

[Places evicted: les Planchettes, le Tertre.]

8h20 : // a convoy with a rubbish truck, digger and a road semi-trailer are arriving at the Planchettes, under a big escort, big spots lighting on the Planchettes

10:05 : // there is the proposition to meet up in the Sabot to discuss, bring water and food, 10 cop vans seen driving to the north direction Fosse noires/ Planchettes, medias saying that the destruction of the houses started 🙁 , there is demo in Paris in front of the ministery of environment

11h12 : // there are 30 cop vans in the region around the Tertre where they actually destroy the house :(, there are positioned at the end of the Chemin de sueze and at Chênes de Perrières, the destruction of the Planchettes got confirmed by the medias :(, at the Sabot it seems quiet but the helicopter is turning over the Phare Ouest

12h20 : la destruction de Planchettes dans les medias 🙁 sadness and rage…

14h48 : // there are cops arriving in front of the Phare Ouest vers the Chêvrerie
14h58 : // the cops stopped to go forward, people are behind the barricades
15h17 : // people juste got charged by cops vers the Planchettes

15h45 : // some 20 cop vans are in front of the Sabot, the cops came out running

15h50 : // callout for support at Phare Ouest, the cops taking off the tree blocking the road

16h15 : // the convoy which cut the tree is leaving, another one seems to arriving quickly from direction Ardillières

18h55 : // the cops broke down the barricade of the Sabot, they entered but they don’t charge yet

19h11 : pigs got charged by the people south of Sabot, defending their home, brave friends of us, keep on rocking against this terroristes…

20h04 : // the militarys start back shooting teargas

20h22 : // It seems the fuckers are winning some terrain on the field on the south, there are also hiding behind the chickens, fucking lame

MESSAGE TO THE PORCS : if you hurt the chickens, we’ll call the animal protection !!!

21h35 : // the Manitou ’ some destruction machine ) is heading in the direction of Phare Ouest, the Sabot still keeps resisiting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we love you…….

22h07 : // 10 riot cop vans part vers les Ardillières, around the Sabot, they gas a lot, lot, lot..BUT THE SABOT IS STILL RESISTING !!! fuck you cops, fuck you ayrault, you dont get your airport !!

22h06 : // the working machine left with the convoi. We got confirmed that the cries we heard are not at all cries of fear but of rage and determination!

23h00 : // cops came back to the entry of the Sabot, they get stoned and leave…

October 18th

[Places evicted: la Pointe, la cabane collective de la forêt de Rohanne.]

9:05 : // the cops go into the Saulce, riot cops come closer to the barricade of the Sabot

9h12 : // cops continue to detstroy the barricade of the Saulce. 3 cop vans going towards the chemin de suez from the Saulce barricade

[The rest done with internet translate]

9h37 : it is reported to the police that there are people in the tree-tops of la Saulce. Cloud of tear gas.

10h25 : beginning of the expulsion of the great forest (Foret Rohanne) they are destroying the house collective. people in the trees/ cabins.

10h32 : they empty the house of the collective forest. They have a team of climbing.

11h22 : WE CALL ON ALL AND ALL TO MANIFEST THEIR SOLIDARITY WITH WHAT HAPPENS HERE AND SPREAD THE NEWS MOST WIDELY AVAILABLE Locally: 19h call to rally outside the prefecture of Nantes tonight / at 18.30 in front of the town hall of Rennes Friday evening.

12h00 : Rohanne in the forest: the excavator working and almost finished destroying the communal house, the person in the tree where the climbers are mounted refuses to go down, it is covered by a rubber bullets.

12h14 : From the online press, the prefecture announced the evacuation of the place called Point and Heath Rohanne, and mentions three arrests. To be confirmed.

13h10 : there are still many people in the trees in the forest. The cops are not climbing. There would be three arrested allegedly released. We hear again the helicopter.

16h01 : the GIGN has left the forest, they could not evict people still in the trees.

17h 34 : Lande de Rohanne: since this morning, destroying the collective hut surrounded by a handful of Gendarmes Mobiles. Some people in trees, others ground support. 4 people were descended from the trees GIPN. The remains of the hut were taken by a marabout. 17h cops to head further north to a second cabin floor, releasing those who were on their way, but regardless of at least 3 comrades still in the trees.

20h08 : We have information that a person is detained in police custody in La Chapelle sur Erdre from 4:20 p.m. for refusing to give his name. She was arrested on the road near Ardillères.

23h23 : The person arrested was released this morning, she has a meeting for January 22 at St Nazaire 14h (It is not the person arrested at 16.20, who is still in GAV.)

We learn that 500 people gathered at Nantes tonight in solidarity with the Zad. People's will!

19th October

8h53 : Nothing to report except a few patrols running on the Zad, Filter and roadblocks at certain points, this morning. The cops have massively left the area last night. We remain vigilant but it could be that it is the end of the first "wave" of operation here. It may resume in the coming days, and last …

10h30 : the operation is perhaps not finished for this phase … they expelled L'Isolette, and currently runs around the Fosses Noires.

10h35 : evacuation of the pile of rubble that became Le Tertre.

10h40 : Eviction of Coin en Cours underway, thirty people are around.

14h12 : We hope that our friends in the forest are doing well. The area is expelled and destroyed. Thank you Le Coin, we will miss you!

Received by mail: For tonight rally outside the prefecture of Nantes in 19h! It is proposed that we find in red and black! It brings songs, then bring your vocal cords! Song for all print here:  http://www.deljehier.levillage.org/ … Otherwise, it also offers a meeting point for you to carpool morbihannais … Visit the Rond-Point du Petit Molac Questembert at 17:30. Will print some of the world! El pueblo unido, Lalalalalala …….

15h43 : difficult time to live without news of our friends in places management, we are still trying to get out, but our communication is difficult KLAXON!

 

 

 

(France) Communique from the ZAD

We live here, we’ll stay here!

We live here, we’ll stay here!

After two days of resistance and solidarity, only seven houses and one plot were evicted at the ZAD, a threatened area meant to make place to an airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Everywhere police forces met determinated opponents, inhabitants refusing to leave their houses, their roofs. Demonstrations. direct actions took place around several locations, roads we barricaded, activists keeping joining the ZAD area, etc…

Since hours, opponents are defending several plots, the Far West, the Sabot, a cultivable land back in use since May 2011. Right now, the Sabot in drowned under a cloud of tear gas, with a drumming samba band. Outside the ZAD, many solidarity actions took place, such a demonstration in front of the main state building in Nantes tonight.

Contrary to what was announced by the highest state representative of the region tuesday morning, the area is far from being empty. Around 20 houses remain occupied, this is even not including house owners, renters and farmers still living in the area. The pressure and acts from the police, such as the destruction by fire from one wood hut, without checking if it was still occupied, won’t silent dissent.

Without trying to compete with the military arsenal deployed by a state to protect its projects of “public utility”, acts of resistance will go on as long as the project isn’t abandoned.

Not only here, but from Atenco to Val de Susa, to Chéfresne, everywhere people are struggling. We’ll refuse to conform to what is forced on us!

Coming on the agenda :

– Saturday October 20th, midday, meeting point at la Pointe (le Temple de Bretagne): gathering with opponents to the airport project.

– in the coming months, demonstration to re-occupy the ZAD, date to be announced on the ZAD website.

More Information: http://zad.nadir.org

Animal Uprising Outside High Court this Friday Oct 5th

Photo call: 9.15am – 10am, Friday 5 October, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL. Badger, bat and dormice masks provided!*

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/animaluprising

Photo call: 9.15am – 10am, Friday 5 October, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL. Badger, bat and dormice masks provided!*

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/animaluprising

Campaigners from the Hastings Alliance will be in the High Court this Friday, challenging the Court’s decision not to grant a judicial review of Government funding for the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road: the first and the worst of George Osborne’s ‘hundreds of new roads’.

Come and show your support for their appeal – and your opposition to Osborne’s Roads to Nowhere – this Friday morning.

Action called by the Combe Haven Defenders.

BACKGROUND

Even as scientists report a record Arctic ice melt – indicating that man-made climate change is progressing at a faster pace than had been anticipated – George Osborne wants to spend billions of pounds building hundreds of new roads: many of them pointless and damaging schemes successfully stopped by the 1990s’ anti-roads movement.

Of the 45 transport schemes approved in the past year, the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) – work on which is currently due to start in January 2013 – is the worst in terms of carbon emissions.

The BHLR is a line in the sand: stop it and we have a real chance to halt the whole programme before it gets started.

For more info on the Chancellor’s ‘Roads to Nowhere’ see http://tinyurl.com/roadstonowhere
and http://tinyurl.com/200newroads
For more info about the Hastings Alliance’s legal challenge see http://hastingsalliance.com/

* The adverse impact of the road on the area’s badgers, bats and dormice is noted in the East Sussex County Council’s own 2007 “Environmental Statement” on the road.

Two Hundred attend Camp and Rally

Some 200 people attended the “Stop the Road” Camp & Rally in Combe Haven on 29/30 September, celebrating the beauty of the valley and enjoying an amazing weekend of speeches, workshops, shadow puppetry, children’s theatre, story-telling, campfires, local music and great food. A big thank you to everyone who donated their time, energy, money and / or vegetables to the cause, and helped make it such a great event!

The Camp saw the launch of the “Stop the Road – Save Our Valley” pledge. You can download a copy of the Pledge here.

See below for more pictures from the Camp.

An excellent film about the event by local journalist Jake Bowers:

 

Media coverage extended to the national press, with both the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times (see below) – both running articles linking the Camp’s preparations for future direct action with George Osborne’s plans to build hundreds of new roads around the UK – and a letter from the Defenders in the Guardian.

Other coverage included BBC Sussex, ITV Meridian, and local coverage on the Hastings [1] and Bexhill Observer web-sites [1] [2]

Coverage in the Sunday Times

Defender Emily Johns and badger friend welcome walkers to the Camp on the Saturday

Renowned environmental campaigner John Stewart leads a workshop on “How to Stop a Road”

Local group Las Pasionarias contributed some rousing musical songs.

Intense discussions took place in workshops on campaign strategy and direct action

A259 Link Road one hour from London help us now

The Combe Haven valley is a unique habitat which was once the port of Hastings (pre 1066). Evidence is now being obtained from a small group of entusiasts which proves this unique valley, which is in the Parish of Crowhurst Sussex, was the site of the Norman Invasion and also the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Combe Haven valley is a unique habitat which was once the port of Hastings (pre 1066). Evidence is now being obtained from a small group of entusiasts which proves this unique valley, which is in the Parish of Crowhurst Sussex, was the site of the Norman Invasion and also the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Our group is fighting a battle with East Sussex County Council to stop the A259 Link Road cutting through one of the most important heritage sites in the land and also an invaluable enviromental reserve.

Bulldozers are already on the site digging trenches. An initial road protest is organised this weekend. Please familiarise yourself with the heritage story because this is important. 5000 Englishmen gave their blood in this valley and it should be preserved and not desecrated with a road that goes through open countryside – see the videos on our web site – see why we are fighting to save this place one hours drive from central London

http://secretsofthenormaninvasion.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/stop-the-road-camp-this-saturday-29th-september-2012/

 

Campaigners mobilising to fight ‘hundreds of new roads’

Campaigners are hoping to kick-start opposition to 'hundreds of new roads' with actions in Twyford Down and Hastings this weekend.

Campaigners are hoping to kick-start opposition to 'hundreds of new roads' with actions in Twyford Down and Hastings this weekend.

Government and local councils are planning to spend billions of pounds on dozens of new roads over the next few years, and new 'growth' funds and devolved spending powers for local councils threaten to add hundreds more disastrous projects to this list.

In the 1990s, what was in effect a popular uprising [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] brought Tory plans for ‘the greatest road-building programme since the Romans’ to a screeching halt.

Could this weekend's actions be the beginning of a new upsurge of anti-roads protests?

 

Twenty years ago, in 1992, protests at Twyford Down helped light the fuse of the modern environmental direct action protest movement, and hundreds of campaigners – old and new – will be gathering there this Saturday (29 September) to protest against the new schemes.

At the same time, activists in East Sussex will also be staging a two-day Camp and Rally this weekend in the Combe Haven Valley outside Hastings, threatened by a £100m road, work on which is planned to start in the new year. The Camp will include direct action training and renowned transport campaigner John Stewart will lead a workshop on 'How to stop a road'.

Of the 45 transport schemes approved in the budget by the Department of Transport, the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) is the worst in terms of carbon emissions.

Abby Nicol, a spokesperson for the Combe Haven Defenders, who are organising the Camp near Hastings, said:

Run-away climate change is one of the greatest threats we face. Yet the government are sponsoring a new wave of road-building across the country, using money that would be much better spent on improving public transport. We urge people to join us this weekend to see the amazing area that will be destroyed unless we take action to stop it, and to learn about practical ways in which we can all peacefully and effectively resist the construction of this road.

A major conference of local anti-road groups is due to take place in Birmingham in November.

Local residents camp & rally against Bexhill-Hastings link road

Local residents have released further details of the two-day programme of events- including a camp and rally – in Combe Haven Valley this weekend, 29/30 September, to protest against controversial plans to build a £100m link road between Hastings and Bexhill. The group Combe Haven Defenders have gathered experts and entertainers from across Sussex and beyond to join their 'Stop the Road' event.

 

Following a lunch and rally around 1pm, renowned transport campaigner John Stewart will lead a workshop on 'How to stop a road', drawing lessons from the successful '90s anti-roads movement [1]. Local people will also be able to attend an'Introduction to Direct Action with national group Seeds for Change, as they plan the next steps of the campaign.

Families will also be catered for with a workshop and play from environmental youth group The Otesha Project UK, shadow puppetry and story-telling. Local botany expert Judy Clark will be on hand and in the evening participants will be able to stargaze with a professional astronomer.

Local musicians have also rallied to support the campaign, with evening performances promised from Tim Hoyte, Eleanor Lynn, Anita Jardine, Las Pasionaras, Will Davis and Krysia Mansfield. The group have stated that there will be no amplified music and the event will be alcohol-free.

Guided walks to the Camp site will depart on Saturday 29 September from Bexhill Station and Bulverhythe (Sheep Wash bridge) at 11am, and from Crowhurst Station at 12 noon. Details of the Camp's location will also be available on the Combe Haven Defenders' web-site on Saturday morning: www.combehavendefenders.org.uk.

Spokesperson Abby Nicol said: 'We urge people to join us this weekend to see the amazing area that will be destroyed unless we take action to stop it, and to learn about practical ways in which we can all peacefully and effectively resist the construction of this road. The appalling traffic problems along the Bexhill Road need to be alleviated, but the building of a new road – which according to the County Council’s own figures will increase overall traffic by 14 per cent – is not a sustainable or financially viable solution. We have to look to more creative and sustainable solutions to traffic problems: the link road is not the answer. '

NOTES
[1] John Stewart was named "Britain’s most effective radical green activist" in the first comprehensive list of the country’s most effective greens, compiled by The Independent on Sunday – in part for his role in "co-ordinat[ing] protests that brought Tory plans for ‘the greatest road-building programme since the Romans’ to a screeching halt in the 1990s." For more info see www.airportwatch.org.uk/?p=2244 Combe Haven Defenders

road sabotaged to protect wildlife reserve, Ukraine

September 10, 2012

received anonymously:

"Kiev. Roads sabotaged in sanctuary.

September 10, 2012

received anonymously:

"Kiev. Roads sabotaged in sanctuary.

On the night of 08.09 Kiev eco-activists dug a trench cutting the only road that led to the sanctuary 'Zhukov Ostrov', a habitat of several rare species of animals.
Kievan middle and upper class has developed a bad habit of using SUVs for weekend hikes to forests and riverbanks.
The act was an attempt to make such kind of communion with nature more difficult."

Twyford Down anti-road protests gathering, September

There is going to be a Twyford Down anti-roads protest reunion to mark that it is 20 years since the protests started.  It's on 29-30 Sept, when it'll be the Harvest Moon.  

There is going to be a Twyford Down anti-roads protest reunion to mark that it is 20 years since the protests started.  It's on 29-30 Sept, when it'll be the Harvest Moon.  

There will be a camp run along the same lines as 20 years ago (bring what you expect to find… water butts, tents, food, etc).  That said, there will be some domes and the @ teapot are going to be doing catering (Sat dinner and Sun breakfast) – hurrah!  Camp location to be on top of St Catherine's Hill, near Winchester.

There will also be a protest / photo opportunity about this current Government's mania of roadbuilding

 Please spread this amongst your contacts who you think may be interestd.  There is a Facebook page if you do such things called Twenty Years Since Twyford: http://www.facebook.com/events/344190508996315/

More details and flyer downloadable at http://bettertransport.org.uk/blogs/roads/100912-twyford-20