The Quartier Libre des Lentillères is a center of struggle nestled in
the heart of Dijon, reinventing our relationship with our commons and
our autonomy. From May 30 to June 1, 2025, the Quartier Libre des
Lentillères celebrated its 15th anniversary with a major celebration. A
look back at the history of this place and the experiences of the people
who live there. From the only "urban zone to defend in France" to a
"disreputable squat," to quote Nathalie Koenders, Mayor of Dijon,
there's no shortage of adjectives to describe the neighborhood. But it's
its residents who speak best of it: "Although its history is closely
linked to that of the ZADs in France, the Quartier Libre des Lentillères
has never claimed to be such." Rather, it's a self-managed neighborhood
born from the occupation of wasteland by local residents, squatters, and
environmentalists. It's a territory of political, ecological, cultural,
and social experimentation."
It's therefore a land of struggle where solidarity and mutual aid have
for 15 years held off the Dijon city hall's off-site project to
establish a "Jardin des maraîchers eco-city," whose construction began
in spring 2015 near Les Lentillères. But since 2018, the very heart of
the neighborhood has been at the center of the power struggle.
Born out of a protest on March 28, 2010, led by the Urgence Bio
collective, the creation of the Lentillères Collective Vegetable
Garden-"Pot'Col'le"-in 2010, followed by the Market Garden in 2012,
established the structure of the area. The neighborhood is now divided
into collective vegetable gardens, crops, and residential areas, as well
as spaces for refuge and biodiversity conservation. Since 2010,
construction projects have punctuated the occupation of the 9-hectare
site: in April 2012, the first collective housing project was launched.
Several key dates have linked the neighborhood's history to that of the
struggle for dignified accommodation for exiled people.
The Lentillères neighborhood is an open space, reinforcing the city's
struggles.
Today, this issue is an essential foundation of neighborhood life. In
June 2016, Roma families moved in, followed by migrants evicted from the
"Cap Nord" squat. There's also La Cyprine, a
feminist-trans-anti-speciesist shelter with no straight cis men. Far
from being an enclosed space, it's a place of daily exchange and
contact: the Foufournil bakes the bread sold at the market on Thursdays,
alongside vegetables grown on site; a vegan meal is served at the La
Chouchou canteen on Wednesdays; and, of course, the annual Spring
Festival, which attracts many revelers, regularly brings concerts by
Tarbiya, a Tuareg blues band!
And there are plenty of parties! This June, the Lentillères community
center celebrated its 15th anniversary. After yet another defamatory
press release from the town hall last February, the Lentillères chose to
respond to the growing hostility with collective inventiveness and
subversive joy: massive support gatherings, posters, pirate plantings,
banners... Everything was designed to make the neighborhood visible in a
city plagued by the grayness of concrete.
The Lentillères by those who live there
We participated in the festivities, but as we said earlier: it's the
people who live in the neighborhood who speak about it best! We gave
them the floor:
How do you see the neighborhood's place within the social movement? What
role can it play? Despite what one might imagine, the hundred or so
people who live in the neighborhood aren't necessarily involved in
activist activities, and engagement isn't a criterion for living there.
In this respect, the Lentillères neighborhood is neither a movement nor
a collective as such, but is made up of several diverse collectives that
are involved in local struggles and social movements to the best of
their ability.
The spaces can be made available at any time, whether as a room or a
workshop. The market gardening collectives offer, at their own level and
depending on the season, a partial function as a granary for struggles
and can provide vegetables for charity meals or for strikers. The
feminist drummers and the tractor, which often lead the march of the
neighborhood's women residents in demonstrations, reinforce the marches.
Is it also a space for discussion and the production of ideas? Yes,
beyond the material dimension, the Lentillères neighborhood is also a
meeting place that allows us to consider intersectionality and the
complexity of life paths in the face of the massive machine of liberal
and patriarchal capitalism. In this context, we can sometimes be a force
for alternative proposals and protests on various issues that affect
users and residents: work, queer feminism, precarity, racism, etc. This
is also regularly manifested through the organization of actions,
discussions, presentations, screenings, etc.
While the objective of the various collectives participating in
neighborhood life has never been to reach out to the decision-making
bodies of power to change them, like some unions or political parties,
we hope to be able to help influence the balance of power with them by
supporting, in our own way-festive, brazen, and determined-those who
defend the values of solidarity.
Can you elaborate on your legal proposal for a ZEC? Since 2019, the
Lentillères community has proposed the creation of a Communal Ecological
Zone (ZEC): a new zoning scheme to legally protect the interdependence
of uses-market gardening, housing, culture, nature-and guarantee
collective governance by its users. Although the proposal was included
in an appeal against the urban plan, it has never received any response
or concrete progress from the city hall.
Today, the resistance continues: the legal battle to regularize and
perpetuate the neighborhood, as well as the one-hectare strip that the
city hall still wants to raze, continues.
In Dijon, as elsewhere, self-managed spaces raise the essential question
of land use and the possibility of living differently. Beyond market and
authoritarian logic, the Lentillère lifestyle could well change the
entire city!
Charly and Maï (UCL Dijon), Lysandre (UCL Vosges)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Dijon-Le-quartier-des-Lentilleres-veut-changer-la-ville-entiere
_________________________________________
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
the heart of Dijon, reinventing our relationship with our commons and
our autonomy. From May 30 to June 1, 2025, the Quartier Libre des
Lentillères celebrated its 15th anniversary with a major celebration. A
look back at the history of this place and the experiences of the people
who live there. From the only "urban zone to defend in France" to a
"disreputable squat," to quote Nathalie Koenders, Mayor of Dijon,
there's no shortage of adjectives to describe the neighborhood. But it's
its residents who speak best of it: "Although its history is closely
linked to that of the ZADs in France, the Quartier Libre des Lentillères
has never claimed to be such." Rather, it's a self-managed neighborhood
born from the occupation of wasteland by local residents, squatters, and
environmentalists. It's a territory of political, ecological, cultural,
and social experimentation."
It's therefore a land of struggle where solidarity and mutual aid have
for 15 years held off the Dijon city hall's off-site project to
establish a "Jardin des maraîchers eco-city," whose construction began
in spring 2015 near Les Lentillères. But since 2018, the very heart of
the neighborhood has been at the center of the power struggle.
Born out of a protest on March 28, 2010, led by the Urgence Bio
collective, the creation of the Lentillères Collective Vegetable
Garden-"Pot'Col'le"-in 2010, followed by the Market Garden in 2012,
established the structure of the area. The neighborhood is now divided
into collective vegetable gardens, crops, and residential areas, as well
as spaces for refuge and biodiversity conservation. Since 2010,
construction projects have punctuated the occupation of the 9-hectare
site: in April 2012, the first collective housing project was launched.
Several key dates have linked the neighborhood's history to that of the
struggle for dignified accommodation for exiled people.
The Lentillères neighborhood is an open space, reinforcing the city's
struggles.
Today, this issue is an essential foundation of neighborhood life. In
June 2016, Roma families moved in, followed by migrants evicted from the
"Cap Nord" squat. There's also La Cyprine, a
feminist-trans-anti-speciesist shelter with no straight cis men. Far
from being an enclosed space, it's a place of daily exchange and
contact: the Foufournil bakes the bread sold at the market on Thursdays,
alongside vegetables grown on site; a vegan meal is served at the La
Chouchou canteen on Wednesdays; and, of course, the annual Spring
Festival, which attracts many revelers, regularly brings concerts by
Tarbiya, a Tuareg blues band!
And there are plenty of parties! This June, the Lentillères community
center celebrated its 15th anniversary. After yet another defamatory
press release from the town hall last February, the Lentillères chose to
respond to the growing hostility with collective inventiveness and
subversive joy: massive support gatherings, posters, pirate plantings,
banners... Everything was designed to make the neighborhood visible in a
city plagued by the grayness of concrete.
The Lentillères by those who live there
We participated in the festivities, but as we said earlier: it's the
people who live in the neighborhood who speak about it best! We gave
them the floor:
How do you see the neighborhood's place within the social movement? What
role can it play? Despite what one might imagine, the hundred or so
people who live in the neighborhood aren't necessarily involved in
activist activities, and engagement isn't a criterion for living there.
In this respect, the Lentillères neighborhood is neither a movement nor
a collective as such, but is made up of several diverse collectives that
are involved in local struggles and social movements to the best of
their ability.
The spaces can be made available at any time, whether as a room or a
workshop. The market gardening collectives offer, at their own level and
depending on the season, a partial function as a granary for struggles
and can provide vegetables for charity meals or for strikers. The
feminist drummers and the tractor, which often lead the march of the
neighborhood's women residents in demonstrations, reinforce the marches.
Is it also a space for discussion and the production of ideas? Yes,
beyond the material dimension, the Lentillères neighborhood is also a
meeting place that allows us to consider intersectionality and the
complexity of life paths in the face of the massive machine of liberal
and patriarchal capitalism. In this context, we can sometimes be a force
for alternative proposals and protests on various issues that affect
users and residents: work, queer feminism, precarity, racism, etc. This
is also regularly manifested through the organization of actions,
discussions, presentations, screenings, etc.
While the objective of the various collectives participating in
neighborhood life has never been to reach out to the decision-making
bodies of power to change them, like some unions or political parties,
we hope to be able to help influence the balance of power with them by
supporting, in our own way-festive, brazen, and determined-those who
defend the values of solidarity.
Can you elaborate on your legal proposal for a ZEC? Since 2019, the
Lentillères community has proposed the creation of a Communal Ecological
Zone (ZEC): a new zoning scheme to legally protect the interdependence
of uses-market gardening, housing, culture, nature-and guarantee
collective governance by its users. Although the proposal was included
in an appeal against the urban plan, it has never received any response
or concrete progress from the city hall.
Today, the resistance continues: the legal battle to regularize and
perpetuate the neighborhood, as well as the one-hectare strip that the
city hall still wants to raze, continues.
In Dijon, as elsewhere, self-managed spaces raise the essential question
of land use and the possibility of living differently. Beyond market and
authoritarian logic, the Lentillère lifestyle could well change the
entire city!
Charly and Maï (UCL Dijon), Lysandre (UCL Vosges)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Dijon-Le-quartier-des-Lentilleres-veut-changer-la-ville-entiere
_________________________________________
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
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