How French commune La ZAD has become a symbol of resistance
- Text by Cian Traynor
- Photography by Collectif Mauvaise Troupe
La ZAD (Zone A Défendre) is Europe’s largest postcapitalist land occupation, a rural protest camp on the outskirts of Brittany in Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
Ever since 2009, this 4,000-acre space comprised of farms, woodland and abandoned properties has been inhabited by environmentalists opposing the construction of an international airport. The project is a long-term development that threatens to turn the surrounding countryside into a sprawling metropolis.
Authorities have repeatedly tried to evict the protesters and clear the land only for the ‘ZADists’ to remain steadfast in their presence, using permaculture strategies to harness the land while turning makeshift structures into a thriving community – one with its own theatre spaces, bakery, bike workshops and even a pirate radio station.
As plans for the airport development seemed to drift into a state of hiatus, the ZAD commune only grew stronger, taking root as a home for activists and a place of social experimentation. In doing so, it has become a symbol of resistance to various infrastructural projects across France – dubbed by politicians as “a lawless territory lost to the republic”.
At the end of 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for the airport development to resume. However, in January, ecology minister Ségolène Royal said that there would no forceful evictions at Notre-Dame-des-Landes for fear of a civil war breaking out.
Amid this renewed atmosphere of uncertainty, inhabitants of the ZAD (along with others who support their cause) have published a digital booklet in English – part historical chronology, part manifesto – to give voice to its struggle. Ahead of a mass demonstration on February 27th, the publication aims to help the story of the ZAD find wider public awareness and counteract unfavourable depictions of the movement among the French media.
“We call for the spirit of the zad to continue to spread, taking a unique path every time, but with the desire to open cracks everywhere,” it reads. “Cracks in the frenzy of security measures, cracks in the ecological disaster, cracks in the tightening border regimes, cracks in the omnipotent surveillance, cracks in a world that puts everything up for sale. In these disenchanted times, the zad and all that it represents, like the struggles of yesteryear and elsewhere, is a glimmer of hope in the here and now.”
To find out more, check out Defending the ZAD, a new little e-book on the struggle against an airport and its world.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Venice Biennale will not award artists from Israel & Russia due to war crime accusations
Art Not Genocide — Both countries will still be allowed to exhibit work at their respective pavilions, but be excluded from judging considerations, as they have leaders facing arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.
Written by: Noah Petersons
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
