Bringing The ZAD Back Home: Episode Four

The Cinema Committee returns with another video update on the ZAD.

In the time since our last episode was released, the free-territory known as the ZAD has undergone a few drastic changes and suffered more than one tragedy. On the morning of May 17, 2018, the forces of order invaded the ZAD and demolished all of the structures that hadn’t filled out the proper form. The majority of the demolished dwellings weren’t built in an orthodox manner and utilized a wide variety of building materials, just as many of them stood in the middle of the forest. While the squatted stone buildings were simply bricked up to prevent re-entry, the authorities leveled every other irregular site that hadn’t entered into negotiations. Among these demolished structures was La Chateigne, the historic heart of the ZAD since its victory over Operation Caesar in 2012.

The police returned on May 18 to clear the last six of the illegal structures and then resumed their military function of keeping the farm-roads open to traffic. Battles continued for days against this armed occupation, the bricked-up buildings were re-opened, and a young man named Maxime lost his hand to a police grenade. On May 22, one of the gendarme’s hundreds of TNT-based grenades finally went off too close to a person and 21 year-old Maxime will never have a hand again. After this widely publicized tragedy inflicted by the state, a series of demonstrations and actions for Maxime took place across France, including in Paris where the emblematic monument of the Place de Republique was tagged with the phrase: the republic also cuts off hands.

The police claimed they would not longer use these powerful grenades (of which they’d already thrown thousands) and temporarily backed off from assaulting the ZAD. Their armed presence never wavered, however, and they soon returned to evict the stone buildings that had been re-occupied and sweep any structures that had been thrown up in the interim. Daily battles took place to maintain barricades on the roads but on June 14 the police were ultimately successful in opening the 281 highway through the ZAD for the first time in six years. While all this might inspire sadness, none of those emotions are called for given how resilient the Zone has become over the years. Not only are people still living their entire lives on the ZAD, their constant presence on the land is the true heart of what has now been a two month battle. Now that the massive riots and evictions have ended, the ZAD is returning to what it has always been with its residents tending to the crops they’ve been planting since spring.

On the day we release this episode, our friends in France have organized a massive demonstration in the town of Bar-le-Duc over five hundred kilometers away from Notre Dames des Landes. On the opposite end of the country, 3000 people descended on the small town for a day of protest, music, and much vandalism. Bar-le-Duc is near the site of a proposed nuclear storage facility in Bure and hosted a smaller ZAD prior to being evicted on February 22. While a large demo attempted to reoccupy the site on March 3, the police outnumbered them and were able to stop the attempt. During today’s demo in Bure le Duc, a large number of people wearing animal masks, carrying tree branches, and carting around a giant owl took their time circling the town. As they did so, hundreds of people smashed and vandalized the offices of several banks and companies engaged in constructing the proposed nuclear facility, with only three people being arrested. Now that the airport is defeated at Notre Dames des Landes, there are multiple regions which could soon host another Zone to Defend.

Our latest episode concerns the reoccupation and rebuilding that took place in the ZAD of Notre Dames des Landes on April 15, 2018. On this momentous day, thousands of people converged on the Zone to defend it from an army of police and rebuild what was destroyed that past week. An epic battle was captured on film where the strength of diversity can be seen for all. After the police were barraged with mud, sticks, rocks, fireworks, and improvised explosives, a force of a thousand rebels nonviolently pushed back the forces of order and reclaimed an important crossroads. While this battle was taking place, the shriek of the communal saw-mill could be heard in the air as the carpenters created more material to rebuild the demolished structures.

By the end of the day, a massive wooden barn crossed the fields as if it had legs of its own. This moving castle, while destroyed the next morning, is a perfect symbol of what can be accomplished when every group, tendency, or form-of-life can manage to work together for a common purpose. April 15 was a magical day on the ZAD and we have strung together its obvious highlights for your personal enrichment. While it’s hard to believe, everything depicted in this film happened over two months ago, and the ZAD is already a new model for direct resistance against capitalism. We wish everyone the best of luck in the coming battles. Towards a glorious summer and a future of liberation.

ZAD PARTOUT!