What is Zadruga Urbana?

Republication from Zadruga Urbana

 

“Zadruga Urbana” is a group of people who came together with the shared dissatisfaction for the current system of food production, who believe in the necessity for a collective movement to take the process into their own hands. We believe that collective gardens raise people’s awareness of producing their own food, consuming locally and being autonomous/productive, enabling individuals without land of their own to produce food with a sensitivity for their local natural environment.

Our group wants to bring people together to learn and promote the ideas to find solutions for change towards a more sustainable life regardless of previous experience. Everyone is welcome to participate in our gardens and network, to learn and share the skills of producing our own food. We aim to use local seeds and to fertilize our crop naturally.

ZAD: Anyone can take part or not take part in a struggle against a dam

And now, what can we do?

Sunday 2 November 2014, by zadist

All the versions of this article: [English] [français]

 

Saturday night, at the construction site of the dam project in Sivens, at around 2am, Remi died. For those that were there over the last 6 months at Testet, for those who were in the battles of at the ZAD at Notre Dame Des Landes, for those who at one time or another have found themselves face to face with a line of cops, one thing is obvious, this was neither an error nor a suspicious death, here we are talking about an assassination.

Saturday night Remi died after a long day of confrontations. The day before the opponents of the project made the guards leave the site and managed regain ground by destroying what still remained on the site by setting it on fire. The next day the anti riot unit of the gendarmerie returned to the site to protect what is now an empty parking lot. At 2am that night the death of Remi was announced by medics. Despite this the police continued to shoot at the protestors until the early morning.

Rémi killed in clashes with police at the ZAD of Testet

In solidarity to the heroic struggle of ZADists in Nantes and Testet to defend land and its sustainable use against the imperialistic capital and its puppet state of France, and to prevent further social and environmental disaster to spread, we selected this article as a sample of reporting from self-organized counterinformation in English.  We wish we could follow the events but our availability of French speakers and translators is very limited.Rémi lives among all of us who will continue to struggle neglecting all the violence, terrorism, and ruthlessness that state repressive mechanisms utilize to break up any form of social resistance develops against their destructive plans.

France:  October 27th, 2014
Background info on the struggle against the dam in Testet: 1, 2

According to a statement from squatters in the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, during the night between Saturday and Sunday the 26th of October 2014 a protester named Remi was killed in clashes that broke out after a rally against the construction of a dam along the Sivens forest in the wetland of Testet in the Tarn department (southern France).

Around 7000 people gathered in the ZAD (zone to be defended) of Testet, after months of police attacks and destruction of the wetland and habitations of those who defend the area. In the late evening and overnight, dozens of people attacked the forces of order that were protecting the dam construction site. Activists expressed their anger trying to delay the resumption of works, originally scheduled for Monday the 27th of October.

Call-out for actions and manifestations on the 22 February 2014 !

Thursday 6 February 2014, by zadist

All the versions of this article: [English] [français]

Resistance and Sabotage !
This call-out is motivated by:

=> the call-out of the NoTAV movement at Val di Susa in Italy calling for a national day (22 02 2014) of mobilisation and action, each one in their area, city, environment.
=> the call-out of the ZAD movement at Notre-dame-des-Landes in France calling for a national manifestation in Nantes, France

This is a call-out for actions and manifestations on the 22 February 2014 !

• A day of action and sabotage to abolish all those megalomaniacs, devastating projects with the illusions of a durable development, green capitalism, geo-engeenering !
• A day of action and sabotage to regain our freedom and rights to take decisions about our own lives, our environment, our planet,( in a emancipated manner), instead of those in position of global decision-making, who are using the flag of democracy to impose their society of totalitarian power.
• A day of action and sabotage to bring to a halt the destructions and exploitation of entire species, the waste of tons of raw materials and natural resources everyday, justified by the term ’public interest’, while behind it there’s only money, profit and capital.
• A day of action and in solidarity with all those who fight, and for all those that lost their freedom and especially all those that are oppressed or imprisoned as "terrorists" or as simple delinquents.
• A day of action and convergence with all those struggles heading for a different world, where life and common values are worth more than money, competition and dominance.

No border ! No Nation ! No Pasaran ! No more BULLSHIT !

From the ZAD to Val Susa ! From Hambacher Forst to Square Taksim ? From Calais to Lampedusa Hambourg to Exarchia From Heathrow to Atenco From Valogne to Wendland From Niscemi to Mayo Monte Belo to Khimki Fukushima to Tshernobyle From prison to prison

Resistance et Sabotage !

ZAD, France: This is not a camp

Translated by resistrA http://resistra.espivblogs.net/2014/01/zad-france-this-is-not-a-camp/

Jan 27 2014

it’s a pirate look-out

Following various announcements for a possible start of construction of the Notre Dame des Landes airport, a series of articles were released in the press that pretty much regurgitated copy-pasted clichés. One of these articles caught our attention notably. In almost all the articles that would preach the possible eviction and the final catastrophe of ZAD we read “200 people, alter-globalists, continue to camp in ZAD.” The figure might seem rough. The term “alter-globalists” is not a term that the people who chose to fight against the airport and the world of “development” would embrace. But we don’t give a damn about that! For now we will hang on to the bad joke that describes what’s happening here as “camping”.

Quinoa & Amaranth can feed the world.

Republished from DailyKos Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 01:00 PM PDT

Amaranth can feed the world..

by Demfem

Amaranth grain

This is a diary which will try to bring to the attention of those that are interested in food resources a grain that may well be what saves the human race from starving to death. It is an ancientt grain, grown by early American civilizations. The article linked above, one of many that I will be using, says

Amaranth has a long and interesting history in Mexico where it's been grown and harvested for thousands of years by the Mayan and Incan civilizations. The Aztecs believed Amaranth had magical properties that would give them amazing strength.

Because it was important culturally to the Aztecs, the conquistadors did their best to eradicate it. Fortunately for us, they were not entirely successful. I say fortunately because it may be the grain that saves us from mass starvation on a global scale.
More below the fold..

Amaranth is a very interesting plant. It will grow just about anywhere, under conditions that would kill any other food plant. It needs a little water when planted and can do without until harvest if necessary. Amaranth will grow in poor soil, in rich soil, and in rocky or clayey soil that other crops will not grow in.
Mixed with corn flour or meal, amaranth flour or meal, is a complete food for humans. It has all the proteins and amino acids the human body requires for maintenance.
Amaranth is also a dual crop, the grain is a foodstuff for people, the stalks and leaves combined with corn stalks and leaves, are a complete feed for livestock. It can be fed in round bales or as silage.

Amaranth puts nitrogen back into the soil naturally, eliminating the need for artificial nitrates which run off and pollute the water ways. A field can be kept in good shape by rotating amaranth with corn without adding any artificial fertilizer.

1968 : A chronology of events in France and internationally

1968 : A chronology of events in France and internationally

A short chronology of the events which swept France in May and June 1968. Starting as a student revolt, the events culminated in mass workplace occupations and a general strike of 10 million workers.
Followed by a short international chronology.

May 68 - 40 years on

It was a festival without beginning or end; I saw everyone and no-one, for each individual was lost in the same enormous strolling crowd; I spoke to everyone without remembering either my own words or those spoken by others, because everyone's attention was absorbed at every step by new objects and events, and by unexpected news.
— Bakunin, Confessions
May 1968 has entered into legend - to the point where when new waves of struggle break out in France young people get irritated by the inevitable comparisons to 68 that are aired in the media. The 2006 anti-CPE movement is only the most recent example. Yet May 68 was the most advanced movement of an exceptional year of struggle that remains a high-point of the post-WWII era. Hopes and possibilities were raised high - yet the revolution never came, even though the idea of revolution (though often limited and confused) was a part of the general ferment and atmosphere in a way that seems extraordinary now, looking back from where we are. Our times are in many ways the era of counter-revolution that followed - the outcome of the defeat of the struggles of the 1960s and 70s, when 'the social question' dominated life to varying degrees.

La ZAD is not a story that is told, it is a story that is lived

Testimonies > La ZAD is not a story that is told, it is a story that is lived 

Friday 18 January 2013, by zadist

All the versions of this article: [English] [français]
 

La ZAD is not a story that is told, it is a story that is lived.

You are sleeping, this is a dream.
After an hour and a half on the road, we arrive at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. We park in a small parking lot, across from the town hall. A graffitied road sign loudly proclaims “ZAD”; we are not very far.
If, regarding urbanisation, the acronym ZAD means “Zone d’Amenagement Differé”(Zone of Deferred Development), for us it takes different meanings. The 2000 hectares upon which Vinci plans to build an airport and companion road network have been re-baptised “Zone à Défendre” (Zone to Defend) by the project’s opponents. This project will not be realised. The project’s opponents already are envisaging the future and the possibilities of putting their desires into practice. Coming from a defensive position, they now fight “for”, for a “Zone d’Autonomie Définitive” (Zone of Definitive Autonomy).