WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #343 - Ecology, Ecoterrorism", repression: the noose is tightening on ecologists (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Never short of inventing an enemy from within to better justify its

policy of control and generalized repression of opposition, the Borne
government through its Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has
become an "ecoterrorist". the face to be destroyed. Far from
discouraging opponents of capitalism, ecocide by nature, ecological and
social struggles are multiplying and ZADs are expected to multiply. ----
Never short of inventing an enemy from within to better justify its
policy of control and general repression of opposition, the Borne
government through its Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has
made "ecoterrorist" the figure to be brought down. Far from discouraging
opponents of capitalism, ecocide by nature, ecological and social
struggles are multiplying and ZADs are expected to multiply.

Ecoterrorism: the word was dropped by Darmanin at the end of the first
demonstration in Sainte-Soline. One more step in the construction of the
"ecological threat" by those in power, giving free rein to all excesses.
Because beyond the speeches, the repression, already well initiated by
Hollande and Cazeneuve in 2015, when environmental activists were placed
under house arrest at the time of COP 21, has seriously increased over
the past year.

Trials targeting environmental activists have thus multiplied. From now
on, activists practicing civil disobedience, like those from Dernier
Renovation who carry out spectacular and high-profile actions, are
almost systematically arrested and placed in police custody. Another
very visible fight in recent months, that against megabasins, has seen
nearly twenty-five people prosecuted over the past year. And in the
trials that have already taken place, the sentences are particularly
heavy and disproportionate.

Ten months firm for a stone throw
Thus, after the demonstration of October 29, 2022 in Sainte-Soline, five
people were sentenced to two to three months in prison... for simple
participation in the banned demonstration, without any specific fact,
neither violence nor degradation, be accused of them, via the offense of
"grouping with the aim of committing damage or violence".

In June, a person in immediate appearance was sentenced to ten months in
prison for having thrown a stone during the second demonstration in
Sainte-Soline, on March 25. In July, another was sentenced to one year
in prison under an electronic bracelet after a month in pre-trial
detention. He was accused of having sprayed a gendarmerie truck, and of
having briefly seized a gendarme vest stolen from Sainte-Soline. In all,
nearly twenty people have already been sentenced for these
mobilizations, and many others are still awaiting trial.

This is because the State does not skimp on the means to find possible
offenders. Crazy investigative methods were thus implemented to find
activists who uncovered a basin in November 2021: fadettes, live
geolocation, shadowing... several full-time investigators were mobilized
for several months. In the fall of 2022, the police also did not
hesitate to arrest a protester in his hospital room after his serious
injury due to an LBD shot in the head in Sainte-Soline.

An incredible multiplication of resources
But the repression has taken another step forward in the Lafarge affair.
In December 2022, around 200 activists entered a cement plant site in
Bouc-Bel-Air in Bouches-du-Rhône, and committed damage there. It is then
directly the Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate (SDAT) which is contacted.
For months, surveillance camera tapes were scrutinized, people were
tapped, GPS trackers were installed on their vehicles and surveillance
was set up. For the first time in France, spyware is even installed on
an activist's smartphone.

These exceptional means of investigation, permitted by the
anti-terrorist regime, are in reality used to provide intelligence on
the Earth Uprisings, suspected of being at the origin of the action. In
June, the National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques
(CNCTR) also warned of the confusion between the obstruction of violent
actions and the surveillance of militant activities by the intelligence
services. They are increasingly demanding intelligence resources
(geolocation, surveillance, wiretapping, etc.) targeting activists.

Then, in June, still in the Lafarge affair, around thirty people were
arrested throughout France. Awakened in the early morning by assault
rifle barrels pointed at them, violently arrested, their homes searched,
they were then taken, blindfolded, to the premises of the DGSI / SDAT.
There, their DNA is taken against their will via a health mask. Their
police custody lasts four days.

One of the arrested, seriously ill, will have to see three doctors
before he can be released. If the terrorist classification is not
retained, two people are subsequently indicted for "criminal
association" and "organized gang damage". The investigation is underway.
They face twenty years in prison.

A specially created "anti-ZAD" cell
But even without anti-terrorist means, the State already has a whole
arsenal to repress the green movement. The separatism law and its
"republican commitment contract" has already been used to bring
associations into line. Thus, the prefect of Vienne asked the city of
Poitiers to stop subsidies from Alternatiba. The association organized
an alternatives village in September 2022 containing training in civil
disobedience. Faced with the town hall's refusal, the prefecture
referred the matter to the administrative court. In Deux-Sèvres, it was
the Association for the Protection of Information and Studies of Water
and its Environment (APIEE) which saw its subsidies cut. His crime:
having financed dry toilets for a rally against megabasins. Even the
Human Rights League (LDH), a historic yet recognized association, was
threatened by Darmanin with having its subsidies removed after its
report on police violence in Sainte-Soline.

Another sign of hardening, in September, the Minister of the Interior
set up an "anti-ZAD cell". Made up of five lawyers, it is responsible
for supporting the prefects to prevent the installation of any zone to
be defended on the territory.

Finally, the final weapon used by the government: dissolution. If the
Earth Uprisings have won their summary judgment, the judgment on the
merits has not yet taken place at the time of writing these lines, but a
dissolution would set a dangerous precedent, and would allow the
implementation of new means intelligence to suppress the movement.

And the horizon does not seem to be brightening. In recent months, the
parliamentary commission of inquiry into "small groups, perpetrators of
violence" in this spring's demonstrations has particularly targeted the
environmental groups present in Sainte-Soline. It is likely that it will
lead to a new repressive bill in the coming months.

Agrippine (UCL Nantes)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Ecoterrorisme-repression-l-etau-se-ressere-sur-les-ecolos
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