Movement, where is your victory?

Invitation to meet "in OFF" on February 10 2018 Sunday, February 4, 2018

Movement, where is your victory?

The statement of the movement of January 17 boasts: "This is a historic victory against a project of destructive development. " True, the airport project has been abandoned, and it’s a relief in the world of newts and salamanders. Then again, we’ll come back to it. Certainly, it is a victory for the struggle against the airport of Notre Dame des Landes. But many of us have fought and supported the struggle against the airport and its world. The capitalist world, to tell the truth, the world of economic and social inequalities, the world of oppression and exclusion. Is this struggle victorious? And if it is not, how can it still radiate towards other struggles against useless and imposed mega projects?

Is this fight victorious against VINCI?

Vinci is the winner of this situation: not only will they receive hundreds of millions of euros in compensation for the abandonment of the project, they will not only reap the profits related to the modernization of the Nantes-Atlantique airport, but will also negotiate its capital increase in the management of Airports (ADP), requiring the state to become a minority in airport management ... We most certainly understand that Vinci is the most conciliatory in this matter!

Is this a victory against the world of exploitation, profits, against the world that wanted the airport?

Is this struggle victorious against the state?

Many of those involved in the movement against the airport would like the abandonment of the project to also mean the abandonment of the struggle against the capitalist world. Already there are struggles on the subjects of private property, seizure of land between the farmers of the syndicate of the Peasant Confederation and the farmers of the FNSEA. Remember that agriculture, organic or conventional, exists only regulated by standards issued by state administrations and that private property is guaranteed by the state. They will negotiate with a state that has been organizing for decades the disappearance of the most fragile farmers, particularly through the standardization of production. The struggle for control of the Chamber of Agriculture 44 is already on the horizon (elections in January 2019). The ZAD will be an agricultural battlefield.

Among the occupants of the ZAD, there are also struggles for power. Self-Organization has given rise to numerous groups-assemblies-committees. Class inequalities has not disappeared, and some are taking advantage of these decision-making structures while others feel excluded. In the assemblies, those in dominant positions are the least radical and the most diluted.

What was missing for these dominant factions of the movement to gain legitimacy from the government is obviously the demonstration that they were able to bring order to the Zone, the order of the movement approaching that of the of State. This is how one can understand the cleaning of the notorious road D281, a veritable showdown within the movement.

Where in 2012 the state had become bogged down, today it can count on intermediaries within the movement to pacify radical resistance and normalize the area. The control exercised by the State is thus gradually found facilitated, and even implemented, on the ZAD. The dominant fractions of the movement have begun to move towards the state that now recognizes them as potential interlocutors. Which does not hide what is potentially coming ... Is this struggle victorious for the world of the newts?

We understand that salamanders and other animals of wet meadows have a lot of trouble to worry about, between a standard road where some dream to install some toad-tunnels, and plots that can finally be recombined after their sale by the State . What will remain of these hedgerows and forests that we wanted to preserve? A mini-reserve or an ecomuseum?

Is this struggle victorious with the experiments that are going on here? Non-standard experiments have been conducted here for years: farm agricultural with productions off the economical circuit, self-constructed habitats, out-of-control social experiences. Here are living spaces for undocumented or illegal people, a pirate radio, mental health groups, a non-mixed cabin, vegan farming, conflict management groups that do not appeal to justice or the police, the rethinking of plants and medical care, a non-motorized area, the Automedia, a concrete support to other struggles (canteens, support funds, provision of organizational spaces ... ) and experiments of permaculture. This area is a zone of encounters and friction by many different political visions and experiences. This is what gives meaning to the durability of this struggle and which has enriched the imaginations of our external support. Opening the door to the state gives it the power to choke one by one those projects that do not conform to standards (taxes, health, urban planning, ...). The states requirements, relayed by the internal entity that is being set up, will make these projects disappear. Is this struggle victorious against capitalism, sexism, speciesism, class contempt and authoritarian practices? After the abandonment of the project, emerges the risk of forfeiture of the political struggle by setting aside its radical dimension.

For whom can one speak of victory?

Since January 17, we are no longer fighting against this airport, but we are still fighting against its world and its allies. What is happening now in this struggle is also happening in many other struggles, environmental or social.

From February 10, let’s meet and discuss, on the Zad and elsewhere

Invitation to meet, February 10:
 11am : at La Masacrée (crossroad of fosse noir and the D281) to eat pancakes, talk, help the reconstruction site, make a press table and spread information to people who arrive for the carnival of victory
 Afternoon: a surprise discussion to reflect together on how to deal with the abuse of power in our struggles: here in Val de Susa, Bure or elsewhere.