
For over 50 years, farmers and locals have resisted the building of a
new airport for the French city of Nantes (which by the way already
has one). Now in these rich fields, forests and wetlands, which
multinational Vinci want to cover in concrete, an experiment in
reinventing everyday life in struggle is blossoming. Radicals from
around the world, local farmers and villagers, citizen groups, trade
unionists and naturalists, refugees and runaways, squatters and
climate justice activists and many others, are organising to protect
the 4000 acres of land against the airport and its world. Government
officials have coined this place “a territory lost to the republic”.
Its occupants have named it: la zad (zone a défendre) zone to defend.
In the winter of 2012, thousands of riot police attempted to evict the
zone, but they faced a determined and diverse resistance. This
culminated in a 40,000 people strong demonstration…