[labofii] urgent message in English re repression of mouvements in france.
Dear friends,
My fingers are still gently shaking, my nervous system is back on full alert, like that of thousands of us who last weekend felt what state terror does to bodyminds. This is a very important and urgent message, which requires a simple action from you, that takes no time, and involves signing a call as an individual or organisation
https://lessoulevementsdelaterre.org/en-eu/blog/nous-sommes-les-soulevements-de-la-terre and or networking the call far and wide.
The war of worlds just turned another corner here in France, the attack on the defenders of life has reached a crescendo of authoritarian repression.
Exactly a week ago, 30,000 of us, peasant farmers and activists from France and internationally, from the mohawk nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyCou6Q6GiM to chilien water wars, responded to a call by the mouvement 'Les Soulevements de la Terre'
https://lessoulevementsdelaterre.org/ (The uprising of the Earth) , which links diverse local ecological struggles across France. The mouvement's actions over the last two years have targeted concrete factories, BayerChemical production, high speed rail, new roads, sand quarries and more. Actions have involved a creative mixture of civil disobedience and what has been termed ‘disarming’ actions, which involves the dismantling of ’the weapons that destroy the planet … thus averting greater 'violence’ , in broad daylight (but masked up).
This time we took action against a Mega Reservoir under construction in Sainte-Soline. These Mega-bassine, are ecologically destructive false ‘solution' to climate breakdown, promoted by industrial agriculture, and many in other regions have already been declared illegal through court actions and construction stopped. Under a spring sun, the snaking crowd in three fingers approached the huge hole in the ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYoLm4u0enI%2C aiming to get inside this crater, a symbol of an empty future. The French state decided to violently attack the crowd with 3200 police launching 5000 explosive grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets in just 2 hours ! 200 people were injured, 40 seriously, some have lost eyes or have been disfigured and as I write 2 people remain in comas, hanging onto life. The police even blocked the ambulances coming to help
https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2023/03/28/sainte-soline-l-enregistrement-qui-prouve-que-le-samu-n-a-pas-eu-le-droit-d-intervenir_6167340_3244.html. All because we were trying to get into a giant hole to defend water and resisting those who privatise it.
A few days later, with right wing media repeating terms like "eco-terrorism” on loops and to distract us from the ultra violence of the state, the interior minister announced that he would have the "Soulèvements de la Terre" disbanded and banned. How a loose network made up of unions, activist groups, farms, NGOs will be banned we do not know. If it goes through however, there would be a total ban on folk coming together, on hiring halls to meet, on fund raising, on having any comms with that name or any similar types of actions. There are ten days to respond.
A few weeks ago Macron pushed through the pension laws without a vote, resistance and strikes have been galvanised across the country as his government is becoming more authoritarian daily. The attack on "Les soulèvements de la Terre” is to be understood in this context: the movement has become a powerful, diverse and effective response to climate breakdown.
Last night the interior minister called for another collective to be disbanded, a legal support group that works with radical movements. He also said that there will be "no more ZADs (zones to defend) set up in our country. Neither in Sainte-Soline nor elsewhere," and that he is setting up a special "anti-zad" unit ! The " Soulèvements de la Terre" emerged from the experience of Zad of Notre Dame des Landes that won against an airport project, and is where we live.
https://zadforever.blog/ The state fears that others might set up camp in forests, wetlands and prairies to defend them against destruction and show to the world that there are other ways of producing and being together than patriarchal colonial capitalism. The most dangerous moment in mouvements are when they begin to win.
In order to make then disbanding legally more complicated, "Les Soulèvement de la Terre" is asking everyone to say that they are part of the “uprising of the earth",
https://lessoulevementsdelaterre.org/en-eu/blog/nous-sommes-les-soulevements-de-la-terre by signing this call
https://lessoulevementsdelaterre.org/en-eu/blog/nous-sommes-les-soulevements-de-la-terre published in Le Monde newspaper. As I write over 48,000 people have signed, including numerous international celebrities,
Thanks for the solidarity and care,
In love and rage
Jay - The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.
________________________________
Jay Jordan
( pronouns they/them )
( pronoms iel )
https://labo.zone/Our new book (in english) “We Are ‘Nature' Defending Itself: Entangling Art, Activism & Autonomous Zones“ <
https://vagabonds.xyz/wandi/> is now out with Pluto, Vagabonds and the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest.
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