Press communiqué from the support comité from Paris agglomeration : the resistance continues !

NDDL: The State and VINCI take back up the offensive, the resistance continues!

The central france support collective to the struggle against the airport of Notre-Dame-des-Landes calls for a mobilization against new measures looking to evict the inhabitants, the farmers, and the endangered species.

Despite a large-scale mobilization which saw tens of thousands of people come show their support at NDDL, the creation to dozens of support committees all over france, the existance of new “Zones to Defend” (ZAD) in other regions to fight against infrastructure/urbanization projects that are harmful and imposed from above, the State and VINCI are going on the offensive with their project of a second airport in Nantes.

With the retreat of the forces of order from the zone, after a pseudo public inquiry and a show of dialoging, the appeasement strategy seems to demobilize the opponents and get the issue out of the media- or so they think. One year after an incredible mobilization in response to sudden, violent evictions, four measures recently adopted clearly indicate the desire to start works as soon as possible, in spite of all the ecological evidences and legal appeals by the inhabitants:

 Exemption requested by Vinci for the deplacement of endangered species before the end of the year, a vague compensatory measure to mask the reality of the destruction of endangered species and an entire wetland ecosystem. An environment impact statement 2,000 pages long was put on the website of the Loire-Atlantique police headquarters for three weeks and they called it “public consultation”! This study doesn’t take into account the repeated statements from the National Council of Nature Protection saying it’s not a good idea to move these animals or destroy this ecosystem.

 Ban on planting, VINCI/ AGO has won two court cases from the courts of St. Nazaire and Nantes, forbidding everyone to sow or plant on the ZAD or face a 200 euro fine, even though it is the beginning of the season for winter planting and several farmers have legal access to their land. The decision of the St. Nazaire court (which concerns about half the zone) was cancelled, but the decision of the Nantes court is still in effect.

-Evictions round two, the legal offensive has started up again, and the baliffs have passed at Bellevue farm and the Chateigne (farm squatted by local farmers and collective place of organization) to warn of imminent eviction, and the Moulin de Rohanne will be evictable starting November 22nd.

 Declaration that the highway to pass through the ZAD (and is the first step before the machines capable of building an airport can enter) is of “public usefulness”, and shows the desire of the State and Vinci to advance in the works no matter the cost, and despite the mobilization. The central france collective makes public their determination to struggle against this project and against the backers of big harmful imposed projects, like the predatory multinational Vinci, who in collusion with polititians who care more about their privileges than the public good, stretch the sphere of merchandising, the destruction of vital resources, and of control over our lives.

In solidarity with the struggle of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, we invite people to mobilize and join the demo in front of the Ecology Ministry on Saturday.