#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #France, UCL AL #333 - Spotlight, Megabasins: let's refuse the privatization of water (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On the weekend of October 28 to 30, thousands of people (seven thousand according

to the organizers) gathered in Sainte Soline, at the call of the collective
Bassines non merci, Les uprisings of the earth, and supported by dozens of
associations, unions and political organizations (including UCL) for three days
of mobilizations against the mega-basins project in the south of Deux-Sèvres.
---- In the region, no less than 16 basins, including that of Sainte Soline, are
at risk of being built. These gigantic plasticized craters are used to store
water drawn from groundwater to monopolize it in order to irrigate intensive
agriculture for the benefit of export and industrial animal exploitation.
The weekend of protest having been banned by the prefecture, a gigantic
repressive device made up of 1,700 gendarmes, 7 helicopters, army trucks, a water
cannon, as well as a drone were at work to intimidate , verbalize and file the
activists. Identity checks and searches took place upstream (as far as Poitiers)
and in the huge area where it was forbidden to drive a vehicle. Unsurprisingly,
when it comes to defending a crater, there is money: at least one helicopter was
constantly flying over the camp.

Despite this abundance of means put in place and the violence of the repression,
the determination of the demonstrators of all ages and the ingenuity of the
organizers of the day, we managed to thwart the very many roadblocks which
separated the camp and the mega basin. The demonstrators thus crossed, on foot,
on crutches, in wheelchairs, by bicycle, the fields and their ditches or hedges,
but also the lines of gendarmes who deployed their entire warlike arsenal: tear
gas, de-encirclement, deafening grenades ( GM2L replacing the GLI-F4), chemical
marker rifles, and some LBD shots.

The diversity of tactics was used brilliantly, in particular by dividing the
demonstration into three processions with different levels of intensity. The
white procession was able to keep the police in check while keeping the intensity
of the conflict relatively low (human chain, moving farandole), preventing the
state forces from holding a line, breaches being created thanks to courage and
determination of the protesters. More offensive tactics have also shown their
effectiveness, with the red procession arriving first on the site of the basin.

Repression hurt again
Indeed, after an hour and a half, he crossed the protective grids before being
very violently pushed back. The repression having once again caused injuries and
mutilations, while the memory of the death of Rémi Fraisse on the ZAD du Testet
in a similar context of police violence is still in everyone's mind. The medics
counted fifty injured on Saturday evening, including 4 in serious condition.

6 police custody are also to be deplored, with 4 immediate appearances before the
Niort court on Monday, October 31. We convey our support to the injured and
repressed by this disproportionate repressive device.

Nevertheless, this day was able to show that by a strategic unity, mixing all the
organizations of the social movement and working in a common intelligence, as
well as a strong will and going in the same direction, we can win important
victories. Because in addition to the invasion of the basin, it is also the
sabotage of one of the many pipes of the basin which was severed this Sunday 30
by the militants, and the construction of a watchtower surrounded by palisades.

The groups of the Libertarian Communist Union, present on this day, would like to
salute the organization of this weekend and we thank the comrades who welcomed us
and whose logistics and efficiency are to be underlined.

This fight against this umpteenth resource grabbing project carries with it the
desire to build a fairer world, rid of a destructive model of agriculture, which
imposes itself on all populations without worrying the environmental impact and
the catastrophic consequences that this can have on the ecosystem. We will
respond to future calls to mobilize, and urge all political and militant
structures to invest in this fight as soon as possible.

NO BASARAN!

UCL Deux Sèvres, Bordeaux, Finistère, Caen on November 11, 2022.

At the time of going to press, the State has signed an agreement for the
construction of 30 mega-basins in the Vienne, with a storage capacity of 8.8
million cubic meters of water. The Uprisings of the Earth and Bassines non merci
have announced a new date for national mobilization for March 25.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Megabassines-refusons-la-privatisation-de-l-eau
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca