From the ZAD to Val Susa : Resistance and Sabotage !

From the ZAD to Val Susa : Resistance and Sabotage !

Destroying and devastating everything to go faster, to control Spaces and individuals, to gain always more money. Developing and making us believe that we can’t oppose it ourselves to those that oppresses us. This is the logic of the societies in which we live. It is the project of the Airport Notre-Dames-des-Landes . It is the one which transforms and bungles entire towns and villages where the poor people untangle. It is also the one of the TGV line ( TAV ) between Turin and Lyon which would have to go through the Val Susa Valley, digging the longest tunnel in Europe ( 57 km ) in the mountains, while crushing the rage of all those who are struggling since 20 years against.

Who fights against the Airport in NddL and the world who brings it with, can also recognize themselves in the No-TAV struggle. States and companies would like to have us docile and resigned. But in Val Susa as on the Zad, many people decided that the projects will not see daylight, and are not limited to passively ask policy-makers or continuing shouting "NO" which has been ignored for years. They act up and are experimenting with a diversity of actions to oppose to despoilment and devastation.

Against the attacks of the state, they are resisting and choose to be in solidarity with each others. When cops and soldiers came to evict and destroy, the Zad was responding massively and our determination has thwarted their intervention.

In Val de Susa, it’s more than two years that the state, its cops and soldiers, built a fortress to "protect" the building site of Maddalena. But the movement continues day and night to cut fences , block machines , to manifest despite the barbed wire, the cameras, batons, tear gas and other repressive offensive. On the night of 13 to 14 May, an anonymous thirty No-Tav activists attacked the construction site of the High-Speed-Train in Val de Susa, by entering inside and burning down materials and equipment. This fast and accurate action had demonstrated, once again, that the fortress of "La Maddalena" is not untouchable and it is possible to stop the operation. Sabotage as part of the struggle, which was supported publicly by the No-Tav movement.

On 9 December 2013, the political police, on the orders of prosecutors of Turin and Milan, jailed four comrades, Chiara, MaTTia, Niccolo and Claudio, for "attack with purpose of terrorism". They are accused of participation in the action of May. The accusations revolve around Article 270 of the Italian Criminal Code: "causing harm to Italy and the European Union with the objective of forcing legitimate national and European authorities to refrain from engaging and financing on the high-speed-rail-line between Lyon and Turin". The appearance of these accusations against the No-Tav activists does not come from nowhere. Faced with a movement of struggle that confronts state decisions and reinforces the diversity of actions and the number of individuals who take part, the state is in trouble, so they are playing the card of "terrorist" repression. It is necessary to take into account that this juristic weapon is used by the power against the movement as a whole. The state imposes its decisions "democratically" based on the force of law and legality, legitimacy, making them compelling. Democracy is a like a reinforced door against any form of disagreement, in exception they concede moaning. The disagreement does not stop, the door is reinforced with barbed wire and soldiers. The disagreement is resistance and sabotage, it reveals the "terrorist purposes" of the fight. The power and speaks a clear language: "You dont like our democratic decisions and you act against ? You are a terrorist!". Movements against the TAV and the Airport gave concreteness to a clear "NO" through years of experience, knowledge, confrontations and actions. It is this determination that becomes Anti-democratic and terrorist, not a specific action: the attack on the site that night. This repressive offensive is the application of a device thought against any social conflict, and can hit any struggle. It is important to respond as massive as possible .

Terrorists are those who vandalize and destroy our lives and the spaces we inhabit. The terrorist is the state. Support for all those comrades detained and charged is not only an act of solidarity, but the determined claim of struggle and its reasons in Val Susa, the Zad and everywhere.

On February 22, a day of solidarity action was called by the Movement NoTav. The event of 22 February 2014 in Nantes against the airport is an opportunity to scream our support towards our comrades and share the same breath of determination : the fight does not stop ! Freedom for Mattia , Chiara , Claudio e Nicco. Freedom for All For more information on the NoTav struggle : notavfrance.noblogs.org on the arrests (in Italian) : autistici.org / macerie on the struggle against the Airport: zad.nadir.org