Op-Ed: “In Defense of the ZAD, in Resistance Against Emmanuel Macron and His World”

Monday 9 April 2018

The police/military operation to evict residents of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes ZAD should begin in a few hours. In the middle of a strike/occupation movement, this intervention comes as no surprise. We are convinced that these struggles – to defend the ZAD, SNCF-French Rail, universities that are truly open, and authentically humane policies regarding migrants – are all interrelated and part of the same movement.

The first historic victory of the struggle against the airport project, which the government was forced to abandon on 17 January, opened a new phase in the struggle over the future of the ZAD. Since then, Emmanuel Macron, Édouard Philippe, and Gérard Collomb have appeared determined to end the story of this territory in struggle. To do so, the government first resorted to (and continues to resort to) division, attempting put forward the idea that certain occupiers have no legitimate right to remain on a territory which they nonetheless directly contributed to protecting from the concrete and airplanes.

Since 2013, the movement as a whole has affirmed its intention to manage the parcels in the ZAD collectively, which the government is now refusing, threatening to evict them with a huuiedness that has no justification. In light of this risk of evictions, we reaffirm our unconditional solidarity with all residents of the ZAD, regardless of their legal status, regardless of their location, whether or not they hold title to land, etc.

The government’s choice to go ahead with the eviction operation in the middle of a social movement – at SNCF-French Rail, in the public sector, in the universities (not to mention the many other mobilizations now developing) – does not surprise us. Obviously an eviction operation will strengthen an increasingly strong and increasingly shared rejection of Emmanuel Macron’s policies. But the government must feel that it can succeed in dividing those mobilizations by multiplying the number of fronts.

We, therefore, must build alliances that are stronger and stronger and oppose this senseless military operation, which has mobilized at least 2,500 military and 1,500 police to violently evacuate a zone where resilient, sustainable modes of living are being built.

We are convinced that these struggles – to defend the ZAD, SNCF-French Rail, universities that are truly open, and authentically humane policies regarding migrants – are all interrelated and part of the same movement. Among the many things we can learn from the struggle against the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport and its world, the diversity of the strategies, approaches, and alliances deployed in the Zone that have given the occupation "legs" appears decisive to us. Even more, the recent examples of concrete and active solidarity of the ZAD’s residents with the participants in the struggles of the Nantes region are a strong, concrete example of the convergence of social movements.

Beyond that, the context of Emmanuel Macron’s Thatcherian action is one that is widely shared, including not only the residents of the ZAD, but also railway workers at SNCF, public-service employees threatened by staff reductions, students tossed aside by the abandonment of the university, high-school students handed over to the absurd brutality of Parcoursup [the new selection process for university entry – ed. note], those who resist the murderous inhumanity of French and European policies toward migrants, and many others. What these struggles share goes far beyond matters of tactical possibilities (illustrated by the openly expressed fear on the part of university presidents of having to face “university ZADs”). Emmanuel Macron and his government have begun the final stage of the mechanical and systematic destruction of France’s public services (and those who provide them). The brutal cycle of “reforms” aimed at the liberalization of these services, which has barely begun, will obviously open the way to their privatization. In order to successfully complete its project, the government is making a priority target of those sectors most likely to become lasting pockets of resistance.

Around the ZAD, thanks to the work of its residents and neighbors, we have succeeded in carrying on a struggle for nearly fifty years against the airport and its world – a slogan the ZAD’s residents have made concrete through their ability to create links with other resistance movements against other infrastructure projects and to transform these few hectares of hedgerows and farmland into a welcoming space, a place of experimentation and resilience. We must succeed in defending the ZAD, just as we must manage to defend the SNCF, the university, and all public services against Emmanuel Macron and his world – a world of liberalization, commodification, and privatization; a world of concrete.

We will do it, concretely, by answering the calls for mobilization issued by the residents of the ZAD, calls to come to the site or join local assemblies in case of expulsion, and by making certain that our other mobilizations are also built around the idea of defending this territory that has become emblematic of that which our so-called leaders cannot tolerate.

The 100 initial signers: