<nettime> ZAD Press release - Intergalactic Call-Out

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

ZAD Press release - Intergalactic Call-Out

Issued Thursday 19 April 2018

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

----------------
NB , no I didn't translate it - but the French version ends with
'Let's be magnificent' ... ;-)

Cheers, NDdL ZindabAD!
p+7D!
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