The repression which fell on the demonstrators in Sainte-Soline on March
25, 2023, then throughout the year through trials, arrests and
dissolutions concerning everything that moves in France did not has not
undermined the determination and strength of the movement against
basins, which is only the visible face of a determined effort to
reappropriate spaces and means of life that capitalism is gradually
tearing away from us to transform into commodities. ---- It wasn't a
mistake...
The extreme police violence exercised against anti-basin demonstrators
on March 25, 2023 in Sainte-Soline (79) was not the work of a few
mustachioed and helmeted "rednecks" seizing the opportunity to attack
leftists with tense shots . It was not due to errors of judgment by an
entire company of poorly directed gendarmes who accidentally sprayed the
demonstrators with various grenades. Nor was it the work of an
"authoritarian and narrow-minded" prefect, nor even of a government
hierarchy which made mistakes at the highest level...
The chain of responsibility which left more than 200 injured out of the
20,000 people present that day ( at least two of whom only remained
alive thanks to the solidarity and initiatives of other demonstrators )
was a planned mechanism, planned, obeying "whatever it costs" in terms
of human lives and bodies damaged for a long time.
March 25, 2023 in Sainte-Soline was therefore not a mistake that could
have been avoided if we had put "good" law enforcement officers in the
"right" place, led by a competent hierarchy obeying political power.
"intelligent" and humanist. This was a rational response to the rise of
a protest that political leaders - who are only the representatives of
those who benefit from a well-known system: capitalism - fear. A system
that many denounce... while ultimately accepting it.
In this regard, we have sometimes heard or read that "the"
twenty-somethings present in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023, were
stunned by police violence that they did not think was possible.
Basically, they had no idea who they were dealing with. This is a
somewhat hasty judgment: if it is true concerning a certain number of
them, many others, actors and actresses of struggles for several years,
knew that capitalism is a merciless machine which wants to crush all
opposition, and that the political system that governs us is at its
service. You can be young without being care bears (and vice versa).
The government may have claimed the opposite, but what made March 25,
2023 so characteristic was the complicity between the different
commitments during the demonstration. It was visible in images and
words, and only a few politicians felt obliged to dissociate themselves
from the "thugs" - with the obvious aim of maintaining a certain
credibility in the political and media world and, for some, their
tricolor scarf.
A class struggle on a territorial scale
The movement against megabasins is only the most visible part of a
larger whole which intends to move away from an ecology consisting, on
the one hand, of putting pressure on those in power to demand general
measures with a view to "saving» a planet of which we do not know, in
reality, what it really is; and, on the other, to implement virtuous
individual behaviors. Apart from this inaccessible and political "macro"
and this moralistic and ineffective "micro", the anti-basin movement
like all those linked to capitalist territorial planning mark a desire
for direct reappropriation of a very real space , known to everyone and
controllable. Whether against a motorway project like the A 69 between
Toulouse and Castres, against a new semiconductor factory near Grenoble,
against cement manufacturers like Lafarge, against the tourist industry
which drives the poor out of the cities and pollutes the environment
with its cruising monsters, etc., such initiatives, both local and
controllable by those who lead them, also have a global sense in which
every person, themselves dispossessed and exploited on others grounds,
can recognize each other .
In line with the struggles against the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport,
against the burial of nuclear waste in Bure or against the THT lines,
these movements have taken on a more global and massive dimension over
the last five years. They owe this, among other things, to a context of
social conflict illustrated by the long episode of the yellow vests, the
battle against the "labor law" and pension reform. This favorable
context allowed the class struggle to manifest itself at all levels of
society to concern all aspects of exploitation and the desires of life
against capitalist barbarism.
Political power never has any qualms when it comes to defending the
interests of a dominant class that it considers threatened. All those
who do not have the same interests and who make it known then become for
him a dangerous class whose capacity for contagion must be reduced and
initiatives muzzled through fear. For several years, the French state
has feared possible encounters between different struggles, as well as
the emergence of uncontrollable and unpredictable movements. The
"expertise cells" and other think tanks which are looking into this
question are active, and the object of their reflection is obvious: how
to paralyze this dangerous class which is even reluctant, nowadays, to
be represented in the framework of parliamentary democracy?
"Commemorates actions"
To return to what happened on March 25, 2024 in Sainte-Soline,
"commemorative actions" were organized. First, on March 23 in Melle,
there was the erection of a cairn remembering the injured but also
solidarity; as usual, the prefect deployed a huge police force to
"contain" the several hundred demonstrators gathered on this occasion!
Then, on March 25, "megabooms" took place in 40 cities in France in
front of prefectures and/or gendarmes, each time bringing together
several hundred demonstrators at the call of Bassines non merci, the
Confédération paysanne and numerous local collectives. Proof that
neither police and judicial repression nor the abortive attempt to
dissolve the Earth Uprisings have diminished the determination to
continue the fight. Finally, on the 31st at the Melle cinema, more than
a thousand people dedicated their day to stories and testimonies "one
year later". Two documentaries produced by Off Investigation (and
available on YouTube) were screened: Mégabassines - Secret History of a
State Lie and Sainte-Soline - Autopsy of a Carnage , which returns
clearly and precisely to March 25, 2023 and which met with great
success. Furthermore, we will not fail to see the full interview with
Serge carried out for Autopsie d'un carnage which says even more about
the responsibilities of this "carnage".
We nevertheless noted a tendency, both in the testimonies and in the
discussions on documentaries, to make emotion and victimization a means
of mobilizing and homogenizing the movement. However, nothing is gained
by over-dramatizing a situation with words, especially since victims who
revolt and act at the same time cease to be victims. The use of pathos
is not recommended if we want to avoid political demagoguery! Among
various stands, there was that of the regional coordination Ni maître ni
bassines (NMNB), which marked a clearly anti-capitalist libertarian
presence and allowed for fruitful exchanges with a view to future struggles.
Yes, but...
Because exchanges, discussions, criticisms are necessary. This is an
essential condition for the development of a movement. Despite our
commitment and our enthusiasm, let us, as a matter of principle, guard
against any triumphalism. The State and the bourgeoisie are strong, and
we unfortunately know very well how to secrete the seeds of our
weakening ourselves and within ourselves. Each time movements emerge
that question the social order, there is no shortage of candidates to
erase their autonomy by setting up intermediary structures responsible
for representing these movements, then negotiating with the dominant
class. The yellow vest movement thus suffered such attacks, but
fortunately its diversity and its desire for autonomy made its recovery
difficult, and both the neo-leaders from its ranks and those from
traditional parties therefore failed in this enterprise. .
It is up to us to take such experiences into account, to prevent the
same attempts at recovery by "enlightened" avant-gardes from tarnishing
the momentum of current struggles which, let us be well aware, is
fragile. The grassroots collectives that have been created must
absolutely remain autonomous, and the coordination that takes place must
only reflect what they are. And, above all, the debate in these
struggles must be permanent, because it is the necessary condition for
the extension of their politicization.
Towards new adventures
Bassines non merci calls to converge in Poitou from July 16 "to put an
Olympic and revolutionary stop to the projects of the hoarders": "We
invite all the convoys to leave traces on their route, to carry out
inventive gestures to break through the opacity of the basin sector,
defend the water and reclaim the land. By bike, by tractor, by car, by
canoe, on foot... We invite each collective to organize themselves
according to their wishes.» This is clear: it is the autonomy of the
collectives which will prevail this summer over any attempt to
constitute an "enlightened" avant-garde.
The mobilization weekend of July 20 and 21 will be preceded by a
week-long "village" (from the evening of July 14 to Friday 19) to meet,
show solidarity, prepare, start to act, and build future of our struggles.
We cannot forget that we will be in Vienne, where the Civaux nuclear
power plant sits, which has just been promoted to the rank of supplier
of tritium for the new "war economy" desired by the government. Linking
the fight against ponds to that against nuclear power is obvious which
can have the double advantage of helping to bring the anti-nuclear
movement out of a long stagnation and of countering the tendencies of
certain anti-pond "ecologists" to put the anti-nuclear in their pocket
with an election handkerchief on top. We will also have to support
everything that can allow social movements that are running in parallel
to end up meeting on a common and clearly stated objective against the
capitalist system.
Poitou
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4162
_________________________________________
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
25, 2023, then throughout the year through trials, arrests and
dissolutions concerning everything that moves in France did not has not
undermined the determination and strength of the movement against
basins, which is only the visible face of a determined effort to
reappropriate spaces and means of life that capitalism is gradually
tearing away from us to transform into commodities. ---- It wasn't a
mistake...
The extreme police violence exercised against anti-basin demonstrators
on March 25, 2023 in Sainte-Soline (79) was not the work of a few
mustachioed and helmeted "rednecks" seizing the opportunity to attack
leftists with tense shots . It was not due to errors of judgment by an
entire company of poorly directed gendarmes who accidentally sprayed the
demonstrators with various grenades. Nor was it the work of an
"authoritarian and narrow-minded" prefect, nor even of a government
hierarchy which made mistakes at the highest level...
The chain of responsibility which left more than 200 injured out of the
20,000 people present that day ( at least two of whom only remained
alive thanks to the solidarity and initiatives of other demonstrators )
was a planned mechanism, planned, obeying "whatever it costs" in terms
of human lives and bodies damaged for a long time.
March 25, 2023 in Sainte-Soline was therefore not a mistake that could
have been avoided if we had put "good" law enforcement officers in the
"right" place, led by a competent hierarchy obeying political power.
"intelligent" and humanist. This was a rational response to the rise of
a protest that political leaders - who are only the representatives of
those who benefit from a well-known system: capitalism - fear. A system
that many denounce... while ultimately accepting it.
In this regard, we have sometimes heard or read that "the"
twenty-somethings present in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023, were
stunned by police violence that they did not think was possible.
Basically, they had no idea who they were dealing with. This is a
somewhat hasty judgment: if it is true concerning a certain number of
them, many others, actors and actresses of struggles for several years,
knew that capitalism is a merciless machine which wants to crush all
opposition, and that the political system that governs us is at its
service. You can be young without being care bears (and vice versa).
The government may have claimed the opposite, but what made March 25,
2023 so characteristic was the complicity between the different
commitments during the demonstration. It was visible in images and
words, and only a few politicians felt obliged to dissociate themselves
from the "thugs" - with the obvious aim of maintaining a certain
credibility in the political and media world and, for some, their
tricolor scarf.
A class struggle on a territorial scale
The movement against megabasins is only the most visible part of a
larger whole which intends to move away from an ecology consisting, on
the one hand, of putting pressure on those in power to demand general
measures with a view to "saving» a planet of which we do not know, in
reality, what it really is; and, on the other, to implement virtuous
individual behaviors. Apart from this inaccessible and political "macro"
and this moralistic and ineffective "micro", the anti-basin movement
like all those linked to capitalist territorial planning mark a desire
for direct reappropriation of a very real space , known to everyone and
controllable. Whether against a motorway project like the A 69 between
Toulouse and Castres, against a new semiconductor factory near Grenoble,
against cement manufacturers like Lafarge, against the tourist industry
which drives the poor out of the cities and pollutes the environment
with its cruising monsters, etc., such initiatives, both local and
controllable by those who lead them, also have a global sense in which
every person, themselves dispossessed and exploited on others grounds,
can recognize each other .
In line with the struggles against the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport,
against the burial of nuclear waste in Bure or against the THT lines,
these movements have taken on a more global and massive dimension over
the last five years. They owe this, among other things, to a context of
social conflict illustrated by the long episode of the yellow vests, the
battle against the "labor law" and pension reform. This favorable
context allowed the class struggle to manifest itself at all levels of
society to concern all aspects of exploitation and the desires of life
against capitalist barbarism.
Political power never has any qualms when it comes to defending the
interests of a dominant class that it considers threatened. All those
who do not have the same interests and who make it known then become for
him a dangerous class whose capacity for contagion must be reduced and
initiatives muzzled through fear. For several years, the French state
has feared possible encounters between different struggles, as well as
the emergence of uncontrollable and unpredictable movements. The
"expertise cells" and other think tanks which are looking into this
question are active, and the object of their reflection is obvious: how
to paralyze this dangerous class which is even reluctant, nowadays, to
be represented in the framework of parliamentary democracy?
"Commemorates actions"
To return to what happened on March 25, 2024 in Sainte-Soline,
"commemorative actions" were organized. First, on March 23 in Melle,
there was the erection of a cairn remembering the injured but also
solidarity; as usual, the prefect deployed a huge police force to
"contain" the several hundred demonstrators gathered on this occasion!
Then, on March 25, "megabooms" took place in 40 cities in France in
front of prefectures and/or gendarmes, each time bringing together
several hundred demonstrators at the call of Bassines non merci, the
Confédération paysanne and numerous local collectives. Proof that
neither police and judicial repression nor the abortive attempt to
dissolve the Earth Uprisings have diminished the determination to
continue the fight. Finally, on the 31st at the Melle cinema, more than
a thousand people dedicated their day to stories and testimonies "one
year later". Two documentaries produced by Off Investigation (and
available on YouTube) were screened: Mégabassines - Secret History of a
State Lie and Sainte-Soline - Autopsy of a Carnage , which returns
clearly and precisely to March 25, 2023 and which met with great
success. Furthermore, we will not fail to see the full interview with
Serge carried out for Autopsie d'un carnage which says even more about
the responsibilities of this "carnage".
We nevertheless noted a tendency, both in the testimonies and in the
discussions on documentaries, to make emotion and victimization a means
of mobilizing and homogenizing the movement. However, nothing is gained
by over-dramatizing a situation with words, especially since victims who
revolt and act at the same time cease to be victims. The use of pathos
is not recommended if we want to avoid political demagoguery! Among
various stands, there was that of the regional coordination Ni maître ni
bassines (NMNB), which marked a clearly anti-capitalist libertarian
presence and allowed for fruitful exchanges with a view to future struggles.
Yes, but...
Because exchanges, discussions, criticisms are necessary. This is an
essential condition for the development of a movement. Despite our
commitment and our enthusiasm, let us, as a matter of principle, guard
against any triumphalism. The State and the bourgeoisie are strong, and
we unfortunately know very well how to secrete the seeds of our
weakening ourselves and within ourselves. Each time movements emerge
that question the social order, there is no shortage of candidates to
erase their autonomy by setting up intermediary structures responsible
for representing these movements, then negotiating with the dominant
class. The yellow vest movement thus suffered such attacks, but
fortunately its diversity and its desire for autonomy made its recovery
difficult, and both the neo-leaders from its ranks and those from
traditional parties therefore failed in this enterprise. .
It is up to us to take such experiences into account, to prevent the
same attempts at recovery by "enlightened" avant-gardes from tarnishing
the momentum of current struggles which, let us be well aware, is
fragile. The grassroots collectives that have been created must
absolutely remain autonomous, and the coordination that takes place must
only reflect what they are. And, above all, the debate in these
struggles must be permanent, because it is the necessary condition for
the extension of their politicization.
Towards new adventures
Bassines non merci calls to converge in Poitou from July 16 "to put an
Olympic and revolutionary stop to the projects of the hoarders": "We
invite all the convoys to leave traces on their route, to carry out
inventive gestures to break through the opacity of the basin sector,
defend the water and reclaim the land. By bike, by tractor, by car, by
canoe, on foot... We invite each collective to organize themselves
according to their wishes.» This is clear: it is the autonomy of the
collectives which will prevail this summer over any attempt to
constitute an "enlightened" avant-garde.
The mobilization weekend of July 20 and 21 will be preceded by a
week-long "village" (from the evening of July 14 to Friday 19) to meet,
show solidarity, prepare, start to act, and build future of our struggles.
We cannot forget that we will be in Vienne, where the Civaux nuclear
power plant sits, which has just been promoted to the rank of supplier
of tritium for the new "war economy" desired by the government. Linking
the fight against ponds to that against nuclear power is obvious which
can have the double advantage of helping to bring the anti-nuclear
movement out of a long stagnation and of countering the tendencies of
certain anti-pond "ecologists" to put the anti-nuclear in their pocket
with an election handkerchief on top. We will also have to support
everything that can allow social movements that are running in parallel
to end up meeting on a common and clearly stated objective against the
capitalist system.
Poitou
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4162
_________________________________________
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
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten