Submitted anonymously
STOP EVICTIONS FROM CALAIS TO THE ZAD - FRANCE, THE WORLD IS WATCHING YOU!
On Saturday the 8th at night these words were attached to the walls of the French embassy in solidarity with the demonstration happening on the ZAD that day. Here is a text that was written about the action.
This week in London we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the battle of Cable St, when working class Jewish and Irish people and supporters fought back the fascists who wanted to march on the East End. Sadly, this anniversary falls at a time when all across Europe fascism is rising again; From the anti-migration referendum in Hungary last week to the racism around the Brexit referendum in the UK. The politics of separation and xenophobia are becoming widespread and admissible and France is no exception. This dark specter hides behind legitimate concerns over unemployment and poverty, but scapegoats those most vulnerable as responsible.
This month the French government has announced that it plans to evict the Calais “Jungle”, currently home to around 10,000 people in transit. The French state is trying to present this eviction as “humanitarian” but the reality is that those in transit will be forced to claim asylum in France and/or be deported. It is no secret that European border policies kill. In Calais last year alone, 22 people were killed trying to cross the border.
A Migrants Welcome demonstration in Calais last week saw those without papers and supporters get tear gassed, beaten, arrested and sprayed with a water cannon. The “Jungle” is a waste ground on which those in transit through Calais have been forced to live after all the other housing solutions in the city were evicted by Calais mayor Natasha Bouchart. This wasteland is the only option for most people living there, and while there is no more viable alternative, it must be defended.
At the same time the French state announced plans to evict the Zad, Europe’s largest protest site against the construction of an airport and “its world” near Nantes. The Zad is an example of autonomous living, where alternatives to the state are being practiced in every area of life, from health to justice to food production. This Zad inspired many other protest sites or Zads around France against “useless projects” created for profit and through exploitation rather than for sustainability or human necessity. In October 2014, Remi Fraisse, a student was killed at a Zad near Toulouse, after the explosion of a flashbang grenade thrown by the police.
The French state is trying to play these two evictions against each other by being intentionally misleading about when the evictions will occur. And while it is important to recognise the many differences between the two struggles and what is at stake, parallels can be drawn. Both struggles are made up of outsiders to civil society whether by choice or through force, and instead are creating somehow outside alternatives.
We must remember the dark years of European history which followed the brave actions in Cable St, and support those in Calais and all those who choose to live differently in the Zad. Because as history tells us, step by step our freedoms can be eroded and these dark times we live in could get a lot worse.