ZAD Press release - Intergalactic Call-Out

ZAD Press release - Intergalactic Call-Out

Issued Thursday 19 April 201 8

Welcome to France.

In theory and written in stone: Freedom, equality, fraternity.

In reality and written in the flesh: Public services under attack. Solidarity criminalised. Freedom trampled. The peasantry suffocated. Working class neighbourhoods destroyed. Social movements annihilated. Hospital workers repressed. Railway workers ignored. Students muzzled. Pensioners despised. And more besides....

Welcome to the ZAD.

2,500 military personnel and their armoured vehicles arrive to attack a community of 200 inhabitants. One week later: 11,000 grenades; 250 people injured at the last count; 30 living spaces destroyed; tens of thousands of people arriving to support us (thank you!). A so-called open dialogue, with an armoured vehicle pointing at your head and a bulldozer in your back. The government’s hand extended, the middle finger raised. Welcome to the lies of this State.

Because they speak of the rule of law, while assassinating twenty people a year in France, and democracy, while pounding Syria. Because the state and the government are asking us to bow our necks till they break. Because they are asking us to bend our knees until they fracture. Because they isolate each person’s anger in order better to fragment our revolt, trying to set us against each other, even though we breathe the same gases. They will tell us not to mix everything up because they know that they are our common enemy. They are trying to divide us.

Because every paving stone, every building, every tree planted, is the fruit of our ancestors, here and elsewhere, and not theirs. We have almost forgotten that this world belongs to us and that it is high time to take it back from them. Because they cannot be everywhere – but we can. Because "ZAD Everywhere" is not just a wall slogan, a cool poster or a demo chant, but the solid idea of a convergence of struggles and solidarity. Because the ZAD belongs to those who have supported it, who are supporting it and who will support it. Because of all this, the machine’s constant attempts at separation and division are unacceptable. Because we are both the wheat AND the weeds. Because by exterminating the ZAD in Notre Dame des Landes they think they can show how strong they are, and give a lesson to all those who dare to raise their voices and fight back.

From April 23, it is possible that they will return. From what they are saying, they want to finish us off.

If this happens, we immediately call those who fight, who are indignant, who rebel – a call to all the abandoned, the repressed... to the oppressed... to those who have not yet dared... to those who have tried... to those who blew it... to those who blew it in order better to succeed... to those who have been forgotten .... to go wild collectively, whether on the zone or in other places, with creativity and imagination. Because every way of doing, every sensitivity and every action counts. Diversity is our greatest weapon. All we have to do is to express it in concert. May this week, and what comes after, be ours, and sincere and authentic.

Let’s be beautiful.

See you soon.

From occupants of the ZAD