A reoc­cu­pa­tion action is being planned in case of an evic­tion at the ZAD, near Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des in France: To re-plant and rebuild against the con­struc­tion of the air­port: Vin­ci get out! Not here, not Khim­ki, not any­where! Meet on the 4th Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion with your pitch­forks, tools, beams and camp­ing gear. Although we don’t know when the troops will be sent in, we are launch­ing this call-out now to be able to cre­ate a mas­sive rapid reac­tion.

A reoc­cu­pa­tion action is being planned in case of an evic­tion at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des in France: To re-plant and rebuild against the con­struc­tion of the air­port: Vin­ci get out! Not here, not Khim­ki*, not any­where!

This is a joint call out from occu­pants of the ZAD and the net­work Reclaim the Fields to meet on the 4th Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion, near Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des.

To give an idea of some of the things that have hap­pened:

On 7 May 2011, we were a thou­sand peo­ple on an action, pitch­forks in hand, to clear and put to use an aban­doned plot of agri­cul­tur­al land. This was to cre­ate a space to grow food to feed the strug­gle against the air­port — and it’s been thriv­ing since the action! We’ll be back to strive to pro­tect this farm and oth­er occu­pied places on the ZAD (Zone d’A­me­nage­ment Dif­feré), or in oth­er words, Zone About to be Destroyed).

On 24 June, Vin­ci start­ed evic­tion pro­ce­dures against eight squats, includ­ing Les Planchettes, our col­lec­tive space of organ­is­ing and hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

On 10 July, dur­ing a gath­er­ing a few thou­sand peo­ple made a human ban­ner say­ing “Vin­ci d égage!” (Vin­ci get out!)

On 23 August, the pres­i­dent of the region Pays de la Loire, Jacques Aux­i­ette, asked the local author­i­ties to clean out the rad­i­cal occu­piers of the ZAD. It was an unam­bigu­ous bru­tal call for repres­sion, but this will not pre­vent us from resist­ing, re-occu­py­ing and re-grow­ing.

To fol­low up on May 7, occu­piers from the ZAD and Reclaim the Fields, a net­work of young activist peas­ants, are invit­ing you to be a part of a huge demon­stra­tion to re-occu­py in case of an evic­tion, and urge all groups and col­lec­tives to sup­port this action. If the police force does arrive to clean us out, we want to be back by the thou­sands to give shape to the cry “Vin­ci get out!” and to con­tin­ue to occu­py the zone and to stop con­struc­tion works in their tracks.

For forty years, deci­sion mak­ers and con­struc­tion man­agers have been push­ing a new air­port next to Nantes, at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des, to make their dreams of mas­sive eco­nom­ic expan­sion and a metrop­o­lis. The ZAD: it’s 2000 hectares of cul­ti­vat­ed and inhab­it­ed land that they want to anni­hi­late under con­crete. The resis­tance against this project is at the cross­roads of many chal­lenges on which to unite, to address issues of com­mon strate­gies and think­ing.

Through this strug­gle we are fight­ing indus­tri­al soci­ety and agri­cul­ture, its eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment poli­cies, its cli­mate change and its con­trol of the land, the mega­lopo­lis and the nor­mal­i­sa­tion of ways of life, the pri­vati­sa­tion of the com­mons, the myth of end­less growth and the illu­sion of demo­c­ra­t­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion …

The deci­sion-mak­ers are con­stant­ly try­ing to sell their project and to give the impres­sion that going back­wards is unthink­able at this stage. So after forty years strug­gling, the pre­lim­i­nary con­struc­tion work of the air­port and its high­way have start­ed: drilling for soil analy­sis, envi­ron­men­tal assess­ments, archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions and clear­ing works… all pre­req­ui­sites for pour­ing con­crete all over the area.

But its oppo­nents are far from giv­ing up and the actions inten­si­fy: block­ing drillings, dis­turb­ing the envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment work of Biotope*, dis­trib­ut­ing news­pa­pers, occu­py­ing offices, con­struc­tion sites, open­ing up Vin­ci’s toll­ways, and much more..

In addi­tion, for more than two and a half years, instead of the ZAD grad­u­al­ly emp­ty­ing to the rhythm of black­mail and destruc­tion, life and activ­i­ty has been flour­ish­ing.

Many of the hous­es left aban­doned were refur­bished and occu­pied, new hous­es were con­struct­ed on the ground and in the trees, col­lec­tives occu­pied land to make veg­etable gar­dens. Meet­ing spaces, guest acco­mo­da­tion, a bak­ery and a library were opened for one and all. There are more than a hun­dred peo­ple per­ma­nent­ly occu­py­ing the ZAD, sup­port­ed by many oth­ers, local and else­where, who meet and organ­ise. The occu­pa­tions are part of a move­ment that has many dif­fer­ent forms. Among oth­er things, they have a allowed rapid reac­tions to the first steps tak­en by Vin­ci towards con­struc­tion work.

In June 2011, Vin­ci began evic­tion pro­ce­dures in order to have the legal means to remove the occu­piers of the ZAD who have “no right or title”. Now they want to stop the growth of the move­ment and make a clean sweep to start the work: as well as evict­ing the occu­piers, they are think­ing about the ten­ants, own­ers and farm­ers. At the same time, those names who are pro-air­port do every­thing they can: run­ning a cam­paign to iso­late the occu­piers, attempt­ing to divide the move­ment and break up sol­i­dar­i­ty, rein­force the dai­ly police pres­ence and repres­sion of col­lec­tive action.

Despite this con­text, we’re keep­ing the mem­o­ry of past vic­to­ries in France against mega­lo­man­ic projects, from nuclear to mil­i­tary, like at Car­net, Plo­goff or Larzac, and we know that this air­port can still be stopped. We look to the oth­er side of the Alps, where oppo­si­tion to the con­struc­tion of the Lyon-Turin high-speed train line across a val­ley, where tens of thou­sands of peo­ple pre­vent work. We are prepar­ing the same here: any attempt to con­crete the place will cost them dear­ly.

This call for action sig­ni­fies that evic­tions do not mean in any way the end of the strug­gle; it allows us to launch col­lec­tive attacks after the poten­tial evic­tions as well. It affirms that they can­not mil­i­tarise or ster­ilise this place at all times and that what­ev­er their efforts they won’t stop us reoc­cu­py­ing it. It shows the com­mon will to keep the occu­pa­tions going to pre­vent the air­port project. This event will allow, as nec­es­sary, the recon­struc­tion of col­lec­tive spaces for organ­is­ing, hous­ing, or again for grow­ing food.

Although we don’t know when the troops will be sent in, we are launch­ing this call-out now to be able to cre­ate a mas­sive rapid reac­tion. We pro­pose to meet again on the fourth Sat­ur­day after the first evic­tion — bring your pitch­forks, tools and beams — to reclaim the land and rebuild togeth­er.

In addi­tion to this call for reoc­cu­pa­tion, oth­er ini­tia­tives are clear­ly wel­come: sol­i­dar­i­ty actions wher­ev­er you are, pres­ence at evic­tion time to hin­der the police … And until then, efforts con­tin­ue to pre­vent the air­port, and life on the ZAD as well!

Prac­ti­cal Info:

- Check reg­u­lar­ly  http://zad.nadir.org, espe­cial­ly in case of an evic­tion. The date and exact meet­ing loca­tion will be spec­i­fied at the time.

- It will be pos­si­ble to arrive on the eve of the event, for the final prepa­ra­tions and bring­ing every­one up to speed. Come pre­pared to camp.

- We invite you to stay here after the action to pro­tect the re-occu­pied spaces and con­tin­ue the con­struc­tion.

*Extra expla­na­tion:
Vin­ci is the biggest con­struc­tion com­pa­ny in the world and is respon­si­ble for build­ing the air­port at Notre-Dame-des-Lan­des. It is also engaged in build­ing pris­ons, high­ways, nuclear pow­er sta­tions, deten­tion cen­ters for ille­gal immi­grants, exploit­ing the ura­ni­um mines in Niger and destroy­ing the for­est of Khim­ki near Moscow.
Biotope: An enti­ty respon­si­ble for ensur­ing, through envi­ron­men­tal expert on the flo­ra and fau­na, the eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the air­port … the new fron­tiers of green cap­i­tal­ism!

A call-out from occu­piers on the ZAD and Reclaim the Fields

 reclaimthezad@riseup.net

zad@riseup.net
zad.nadir.org