WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, CNT-AIT, #184 - A convoy, water to create something common (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

It was on August 12, early in the morning, that I left my village in Lot
by bike to go to Lezay, the starting point of the "water convoy". Lezay,
commune in the department of Deux Sèvres, very close to Sainte-Soline,
where the major demonstration against mega-basins took place on March
25, 2023, and which had been very strongly repressed by the State and
its ultra-police forces. armies who had visibly come there "to wage war"
on the protesters who oppose these water grabbers.
Indeed, the construction of these mega-basins (sometimes several
hectares) will serve a small minority of farmers to continue in the
logic of an industrial agricultural model supported by the FNSEA
(national federation of farmers' unions). It is as much to establish a
democratic debate on the sharing of water as a common good, as to
support another way of doing agriculture, through a global approach to
living and living in a territory, at the antipodes. of an agribusiness
and its capitalist commercial logic and its extremely harmful and
devastating consequences on a human, health, environmental and
ecological level.

This event, which took the form of a bicycle and tractor event, took
place in several stages of 50 to 60 km, during the week of August 18 to
25, 2023. The last stage took us to the headquarters of the
Loire/Brittany regional water agency in Orléans, where a delegation was
to ask this funding body to stop all construction sites and projects for
the construction of mega-basins, as well as a moratorium. We owe the
initiative and organization of this demonstration to "the Peasant
Confederation", the citizen collective "Bassines Non Merci", as well as
"Les Soulèvements de la Terre", which initially withdrew, following the
attempted dissolution by decree of the Ministry of the Interior, but
which has since been rebutted by the Council of State, during the
summary hearing of August 8, 2023. It should be noted, this bicycle
demonstration, certainly original in its form, was not a first, since
such an approach had taken place within the framework of the struggle
led in Larzac during the summer of 1978; but also during the struggle of
the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes in 2015.

600 cyclists will take to the road at the start of the afternoon of
August 18; divided into 4 platoons of 150, separated by a small interval
of time, both to facilitate movement and for safety, in order to reduce
collisions and falls. A joyous procession sets off behind a tractor
which will open the convoy and a flatbed truck with sound. Every time
you cross a village and town, there will be a noisy dissonant music from
bicycle bells decorated with pennants. Following this somewhat folkloric
parade, we will find a van/infirmary and its medical team; a bicycle
repair workshop which will work throughout the convoy, during the lunch
break and when we arrive at the reception areas; then dry toilets on
wheels, towed by a van, a broom car for people who are tired or have
mechanical problems, and at the end of the procession the tractors with
their banners with protest slogans but which do not lack humor , and who
will transport tanks and other water tanks on their trailer, very
necessary in this still very hot summer. The parade will stretch for at
least two kilometers.

These first pedal strokes will mark the beginning of a moment, which
will be marked by joy throughout this convoy. We can note from this
event, which will take place over a distance of approximately 340 km,
its great intergenerational diversity (from 7 to 72 years old), men,
women, professions, social backgrounds; people coming from all regions
of France, representing a large number of departments. The pleasure of
sharing this moment of cycling together is there; the leisurely pace,
adapted so that everyone can follow, will also encourage countless
discussions along the way, exchanges and meetings which will continue
throughout the day. All the participants in this event/demonstration
obviously feel concerned, because who brought them there, and are well
aware of the major problem that is raised here: the sharing of water,
this common good, its use, and the delivery in question of an
agricultural model.

We were applauded and encouraged in each village we passed; a bit like
the Tour de France, but with a little fewer people; It must be said that
the route was not known in detail, people only learned about it shortly
before our arrival, often at the same time, the information being given
by a few cyclists projecting themselves in front of the convoy. The end
of the stage was a deliciously moving moment, a warm welcome was
reserved for us under the applause and songs of the numerous volunteers,
who were there to prepare the 700 meals, set up barnums, canteen, stage,
dry toilets, basic showers (we wash with a bucket, a basin, or directly
in the cistern). Parking our bicycles in the designated spots and
setting up six hundred tents was a spectacle in itself. All stages will
be marked by speeches from organizers, local collectives in struggles,
information/history points, exchanges/debates; music, songs, dances, and
even improvised choreographic attempts on our bikes, will punctuate
these days of sweet madness.

PERSPECTIVE: "MOTION! MOVEMENT! OF THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT!.."

It is the refrain of a committed and rebellious song, taken up heartily
by the "velolutionnaires" and other participants in this joyful
demonstration, accompanied by its fanfare which contributed to this
atmosphere as much festive as it was protesting. This refrain sounded
like an urgent call to build this movement of resistance to the market
economy; of these disasters already there and of a probable annihilation
to come. Chronologically, the above-mentioned initiators and organizers
of the "water convoy", we place this action in the continuity of other
demonstrations, gestures and criticisms which have been made against the
industrial agricultural model, of monopolization and land
artificialization. Made up of a diversity of citizen associations, trade
union and political organizations, this constellation forms what we
call: "The Uprisings of the Earth".

It is from an observation of failure, of the impotence of social
struggles to constitute a force of resistance, and to consider another
orientation than that imposed by a neoliberalism crushing everything,
and only expressing its brutal nature, what is this movement in 2021.
Betting on convergence, of bringing together what diverges, of unifying
what is plural, from struggles finding common points for the different
actors, allowing the initiation of a dynamic and a synergy. It is indeed
a question of "composing" with this plurality of actors, of groups, in
their different modes of intervention, their sensitivity, imagination
and their social or world representations. This is perhaps a question of
placing this movement in research and experimentation, of this difficult
art of composition in the social struggle. Can we hope to see a movement
which constantly "works" on the social body, asserting its independence,
outside of any political party and union, but which does not exclude
their participation, and their specific mode of intervention?

A movement which in its development would ultimately make it possible,
if not to dissolve, at least to attenuate the identity markers and their
withdrawals, the labeling, the displays, the ideological confinements,
which are so many divisions among the exploited, the dominated, the
oppressed. Can we hope for this moment when this social force will grow
in the affirmation of its autonomy, as its differences are resolved in
its "co-wandering", and its determination is strengthened by greater
lucidity and cohesion. Without being able to prejudge what will become
of it, we can however observe precursory signs and stirrings in this
movement which tends to be better structured to build this resistance
and force social transformation. This will certainly have to happen,
among other things, through the practice of direct democracy; which has
never been anything other, it must be remembered, than face to face; the
break with any form of representative delegation, or other governmental
mediation (God, the State, the Market) and which is achieved concretely
through the expression of our differences, our disagreements, our
dissensions.

It is in the richness of these interactions, these discussions,
exchanges, debates, the sharing of analyzes and critiques, but also in
the heat of the action, in the creativity of practices and gestures to
be carried out, which will allow to this movement of walking on the path
of its emancipation. The local committees which have been set up
throughout France can form the basis of decentralization in the
self-organization of struggles and the learning of self-management.

THE EXCEPTION: "DOWN WITH THE POLICE STATE, DOWN WITH THE STATE"

It's another refrain from a song that marked this festive and protest
moment. Cover of a song by Dominique Grange, with a small variation in
the chorus; it was not only down with the police state that was taken up
and sung about, but also down with THE STATE in short, which undeniably
gave it a libertarian tone. Did everyone take this radical criticism of
the State and its overcoming seriously? We can obviously doubt this. But
it is certain that this echoed those who participated in the
Sainte-Soline demonstration on March 25, 2023, a date which will remain
in the memory of many and for a long time; and which made more than one
person aware that the State could be extremely violent and strike hard
when we try to get in the way of its projects and those it serves:
merchants, industrialists, the bankers. We learn a lot in action; the
social struggle also carries positive effects, which allow class
awareness of its modern servitude or social alienation; but it also
allows for self-affirmation, progress in strengthening one's autonomy.
Yes!, it is always possible, and we want to maintain the hope that an
emancipatory social movement can be built and developed; that it is at
the same time a resistance to the abominable reason of the commercial
economy, which continues to destroy nature and our living environments,
endangering the very habitability of our earth; but also a movement
which builds in its emancipation new social relationships, to the
living, to the earth, to the world. It is through the search and
construction of these new links, these new types of relationships, that
we will advance on the path to our liberation. What is at stake here in
this attempt to bring about and develop a social movement is ultimately
what has always animated anarchist thought and practices: building and
organizing from free association and on an egalitarian basis, solidarity
and mutual aid of all the oppressed.

As always, where there is social struggle, protest against the
established order, the participation of those who have always held high
the ideal of freedom will be felt, and this state of mind was very
present during of this week of demonstration. Anarchy is the law of the
material world, it is everywhere at home in social disorder, everywhere
active in those who decompose in order to always better recompose
themselves, arrange themselves, determine themselves, harmonize
themselves, in an endless movement of the indeterminate. Only
intelligent Man knows how to navigate chaos.

The globalized state-capitalist system is complex; LET'S BE COMPLEX!,
let's be elusive!, let's be everywhere! The gaps are there, let's rush in!
To all those who refuse the enslavement of the living and of humanity to
these plutocratic and oligarchic mafias.

To all those who are alive and well, we say to them: In the name of the
earth and of freedom. Let's rise up!

http://cntaittoulouse.lautre.net/spip.php?article1371
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