<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Subject:
</th>
<td>[Newsletter] urgent: A call for intergalactic solidarity
actions everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:08:53 +0200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>Oliver Ressler <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:oliver@ressler.at"><oliver@ressler.at></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Reply-To:
</th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:oliver@ressler.at">oliver@ressler.at</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:newsletter@ressler.at">newsletter@ressler.at</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:newsletter@ressler.at"><newsletter@ressler.at></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Everything's coming together while
everything's falling apart: The ZAD</a>“, 36 min., 2017<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://vimeo.com/236277743" moz-do-not-send="true">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="moz-forward-container">
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article5416">https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article5416</a></p>
<div class="contenu-principal">
<div class="cartouche">
<h1 class="h1 ">A call for intergalactic solidarity actions
everywhere to end the destruction of the ZAD<br>
</h1>
<p class="info-publi"><abbr class="published"
title="2018-04-11T09:58:01Z">Wednesday 11 April 2018</abbr></p>
</div>
<div class="surlignable">
<div class="texte">
<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="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:soutienzad@riseup.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">soutienzad@riseup.net</a> for
more info in english see <a
href="http://www.zadforever.blog" class="spip_url
spip_out auto" rel="nofollow external"
moz-do-not-send="true">www.zadforever.blog</a> and
watch this video to see what is being destroyed: <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrtUkBmv8s"
class="spip_url spip_out auto" rel="nofollow external"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrtUkBmv8s</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>