Hi,

Others links, infos, about the ZAD:
- twtitter, in French:
https://twitter.com/defendrehabiter

-This article:
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-de-mediapart/blog/060418/comme-la-zad-de-notre-dame-des-landes-defendons-dautres-manieres-d-habiter
followed, below, by its translation.



As with the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, we should defend other ways of
living





*January 17, 2018, the ultimate abandoning of a long hoped-for airport
project in the Notre-Dame-des-Landes region of France is a promising
victory for those supporting a new way of thinking in harmony with the
environment. As one of the longest recent struggles in France concerning
the environment and ecology, this substantial victory resonates as an
expression of hope for those continuing to fight in the name of ecology.
Nevertheless, the French government is still threatening to clear out and
dismantle the zone. It’s for this reason that a number of architects,
urbanists, thinkers, and citizens, have gathered together to write the
following statement in order to defend this unique experience of living the
future.*



The Victory Against the Construction of an Airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes
is based off a very large and diverse mobilization. Through the myriad of
diverse means of struggle that have contributed to the abandonment of this
airport project, the resistance by way of the permanent occupation of the
Zone to Defend (ZAD) has a primordial place. For over tens years now, by
continuing to allow for this territory to thrive, both the old and the new
inhabitants living there have helped to preserve and prevent the
destruction of both the natural lands as well as agricultural spaces. The
population has gone to great lengths to care for these spaces through
creating new forms of collective organization and the development of a
variety of activities: woodworking, bakeries, the collective cultivation of
vegetables and grains, professional forest clearing [bûcheronnage], the
creation of a library, orchards, a brewery, cheese production facility, a
cannery, an herbalist shop, musical gatherings, a tannery, a foundry, and a
silk printing shop… They have shown that another way of living was
possible, well beyond the state-form and standardized scenarios of
industrial agriculture, as much through other modes of construction as well
ways of imagining a viable and sustainable future for the rural and
agricultural territories.



*A Common Territory*



Throughout this wooded countryside, one could see the invention and weaving
together of a diversity of forms of life, all aspiring for a better harmony
and balance with the territory they occupied. Within the interactions
between the “historical” population, the farmers, the squatters, neighbors,
both wild animals and livestock, vegetation, insects and trees, but also
with everyone who passed through the region—friends, students, militants,
travellers, artisans— everyone together created a common territory, beyond
old notions of property, and other forms of belonging and typical routines
of living. This full-scale experiment undertaken over a long period of time
led each and every person to evolve in both their own representations as
well as their personal practices, far beyond the landscape of the
countryside. And for this very reason, the joyous horizon opened up by the
ZAD in spaces other than in the metropoles, is something that should matter
to each and every one of us.



*Another Way of Inhabiting and Building*



The ZAD is also the adventure of its construction. It can be seen in the
construction of a renovated farm, through a collective construction site,
through the new agricultural warehouses and barns created with fantastic
architectural designs; it can also be found in the poetic force of a
collection of cabins in the woods, it’s poetic force can found in the
middle of a lake, at the edge of a wilderness or in a vacant field; The
ZAD’s force can also be found in the presence of loosely constructed or
nomadic habitats, the campers, trucks, and yurts that complete the
inhabited landscape.

Outside of the norm, multiple, diverse, poetic, adapted, makeshift,
precarious, simple constructions— made out of local or reused materials—
out of earth, wood, straw, or through the recuperation of previously used
materials, these constructions respond, at their scale, to the ecological
stakes and energy crises at hand, in direct contrast to the world that the
industry of concrete and steel continues to construct throughout the entire
planet. The constructions of the ZAD are also the result of an inventive
architecture, one that is hands-on, DIY and very creative, a construction
process that is preferred through the collective stimulation of the ZAD
collective, pushing folks— both those accustomed to such work as well as
neophytes— to re-appropriate for themselves the activity of constructing
something for themselves. The multiplicity of forms constructed shows the
numerous possibilities for living and building outside of the logic of
real-estate and property essentially based on speculation leaving little
way in latitude for the population or the architects to propose alternative
solutions.

Whoever traversed this territory, whomever participated at these
construction sites, recognizes and knows the value of the forces that led
to the other ways of renovating these farms and the construction of these
cabins. In stark contrast to the autarkical image circulated against it,
the ZAD is a space of passage, of exchange, a site itself that becomes a
school; a school of life, but also a school for dwelling and building.

What has unfolded there is the invention of a contemporary vernacular—
comprised of the current global concerns and made out of local materials.
What has also taken shape there is the defense of a living heritage arising
from out of a united struggle that has opened up our various imaginations.



Against the Destruction of the ZAD

We are well aware that simply making our sources of energy cleaner, our
buildings more ecologically sound and creating more green cities, will not
be enough to assure a sustainable future. We must also adhere to the
importance of creating and discovering more simple and less excessive forms
of life and uses of energy and resources— activities which we have fully
committed ourselves to, has therefore led us to defending the ZAD, its
current inhabitants, and their sites of living.

Given the complexity of the situation and the debate regarding the legality
of the situation, a resolution will doubtless be made in haste, through
force and destruction. It is for this reason that only proposition that
make sense is putting any decision regarding the future of the lands on
hold and opening up of a dialogue according to the wishes of the members of
the anti-airport movement.

We are therefore opposed to any expulsion of the inhabitants of the ZAD as
well as the destruction of its forms of collective organization and the
atypical constructions that have been developed there and which will
continue to be developed there. We are committed to defending those who are
living there and affirm that new ways of constructing and building are
today legitimate and necessary in taking into consideration the major
ecological stakes our societies are confronted with.




On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 4:04 AM, XLterrestrials <podin...@mailbox.org>
wrote:

> Dear ol' Nettimers,
>
> We - The XLterrestrials - haven't posted here in quite some time...
>
> But we think it might be a good moment to draw your attention away from
> the web-footed worlds, the heavy theory, and deep analysis...  and toward
> the realtime, sorta-AFK, land-based autonomy struggles... which could
> certainly use some solidarity mobilization and info-distribution from those
> of you who are communications + digital network ninjas.
>
> La ZAD is undergoing an extremely dramatic moment !
>
> ...
>
> “Possibly the largest experimental, autonomous, peaceful, free,
> self-sustaining, land-based community in the whole of the EU is being
> destroyed by the rabid state of clueless neolib Macaroons and 2,500
> Robo-popos since 4am this morning – April 9th ! ” – XLt analyst in Btropolis
>
> ...
>
> And a little surprised no one has written anything here yet, so...
>
> it's DAY 2 of the ATTACK ...
>
> If you are just tuning in, this will be an easy entry point to catch up:
>
> http://xlterrestrials.org/plog/?p=17598
>
> ...
>
> In solidarity...
>
> Je Suis La ZAD !
>
> the XLterrestrials
>
>
> 0~~~~O-----o
> www.xlterrestrials.org/plog
> arts + praxis organisms
> o-----O~~~~~0
>
>
> p.s. And this might also be a very good moment to expand tactical and
> community comm in new places ... like Mastadon.social ... and Riot ...
>
> #ZAD
>
> #NDDL
>
> #ZADRESIST
>
> #  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
> #  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
> #  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
> #  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
>
#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:

Reply via email to