Against the Airport and the World it Represents

FOR A FIGHTING FARM, LET’S SQUAT THE LAND! May 7, 2011, Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France) “We invite you to a moment of collective action on the 7th of May, a gathering, and a festival. we propose that you stay for the following days to help set up the project. This initiative is the fruit of the connections between Reclaim the Fields, network of European farmers and landless peasants, and squatters… It is a call to all those who fight for the future of agriculture, those who have been giving life to the local resistance for so long, and who will not give in to resignation and all those who today want to join this struggle.” The demo-action of the 7th may aims to set up a collective agricultural project in abandoned fields to defend these lands… The initiative of the 7th May is a step in the construction of a wider movement to liberate land. Come with your clearing tools ! To know more about this action,  download the flyer announcing this action CONTACT: reclaimthezad [at] riseup.net More Information: www.reclaimthefields.org  Background: For forty years, those who decide and those who tarmac have been salivating over a new airport near to Nantes to feed their voracious dreams of a metropolis and of economic expansion. This project would cover 1,650 of agricultural land and rural hamlets: the ZAD (Zone of Recorded Planning, in French administrative language, in other words, the “Zone About to be Destroyed”). The Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project, which could have been shelved as a inopportune anachronism, has been adapted over time, becoming a flagrant symbol of the con and the ideological arrogance of Green Capitalism. The struggle has reached a critical stage with the signing, this January, of the construction and exploitation contract with the Vinci group, world leader in planning territories. The colossal propaganda offensive is being reinforced to justify the project, as it’s promoters must feel they are walking a tightrope. Although they aim to start work in the coming years, we know we can still win this fight and we are prepared to ensure that any attempt to tarmac these lands will cost them dear. The examples of victories won in this region in the past, including the defeat of the nuclear projects in Plogoff, Carnet or Pellerin, show that even the most megalomaniac companies can be paralyzed with enough determination and the right tools. As well as the many actions in support of the farmers and residents resisting around the affected area, over the past two years, more and more people have begun to reclaim, bit by bit, the houses and lands that have been bought up by the promoters of the airport. A living base is being constructed in the so called “ZAD”: tree houses and cabins, vegetable gardens, restored farmhouses, meeting spaces and workshops, a bakers, a library, a graphics workshop. There are currently more than sixty new inhabitants in the ZAD spread over more than fifteen sites. … Now, as preparations for the works intensify, the challenge is to give new energy to the struggle. That could involve directly opposing the geological and land surveys, public consultations, and possible evictions, or upping the pressure against the promoters of the project and the companies involved, or it could mean building moments of collective mass action. The squatting of the ZAD is an important foundation on which to build the fight against the airport. Squatting the affected area enables us to unite our creativity and construction with our resistance. It connects our experiences of life and production with an offensive dynamic that aims to stop any construction work before it begins. THE AIRPORT SHALL NOT PASS ! WE WILL NOT BE PART OF THEIR PLAN !]]>