They occupy the agricultural lands of Gonesse to prevent their urbanization. The handful of environmental activists gradually grew, giving life to a ZAD, a Zone to Defend. Words of Zadistas met on the eve of the hearing at the Pontoise Tribunal seized for illegal occupation.
They are environmental activists, members of the Collectif Pour le Triangle de Gonesse (CPTG) or of Extinction Rebellion. Some claim anarchism, others civil disobedience. Many have pledged allegiance to the “Oath of the Triangle” like political figures such as Yannick Jadot, MEP for Europe Ecology Les Verts, Clémentine Autain, MEP for France Insoumise for Seine-Saint-Denis or Aurélien Taché, MEP for Ecology, Democracy and Solidarity du Val-d’Oise, committing them to “save this common heritage. ” All have in common the will to fight against the project of the future station of line 17 on the agricultural lands of the Triangle de Gonesse.
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The small village of refractory Gauls
To enter the interior of the ZAD, you have to wait for the door to be opened, locked with a padlock. Behind the tin walls, in this large vacant lot, despite the cold and the rain, life is organized there. Several huts made of odds and ends. We sleep there, we cook there, we meet. Each in turn is a chore of potatoes or dishes.
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“I arrived on Sunday February 7 at the very beginning of the ZAD. I am from Taverny in the Val-d’Oise. I have supported the actions of Bernard Loup for several years. (editor’s note, the president of the CPTG who campaigns for the preservation of agricultural land in the Triangle de Gonesse). I want to honor my swearing in, (note, the Oath of the Triangle, a petition to save the lands of Gonesse from urbanization) and I want to stay until the announcement of the abandonment of the project of this station useless“, assures Djissi *.
“On the Zad, these are mainly people who are used to committing themselves to causes, who have experience of squats. We share the same values of self-organization. There is no leader, all major decisions are taken as a result of meetings. Everyone is autonomous and is invited to work on the participatory site. Our little village of refractory Gauls grew like a mushroomDjissi smiled.
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On the eve of a judicial decision which could pronounce the dismantling of the ZAD, Djissi affirms it: “If we are expelled, I will make resistance through communication, through pedagogy, through explanation. I will stay put in a position of non-violent civil disobedience.”
We are opposed to projects of public interest, housing, job creation, economic activity and for that we sacrifice agricultural land
Iceberg * lives in Seine-Saint-Denis. He is a supporter of the CPTG, Collectif pour le Triangle de Gonesse, and also of the Carma project, (bio-composting, market gardening and horticulture project in the Triangle de Gonesse). He considers himself a defender of agricultural land in the broad sense. “I signed the oath of January 17th, (Editor’s note, Oath of the Triangle) and what unites us here is to preserve the land“, he says.
“The ZAD is one way. We must get out of the fantasy of the Zadist who would be on his radical positions, who would like not to discuss. However, the President of the Republic and his predecessors have made a commitment to a certain number of things and none of his commitments is respected.“, he denounces. And to add:”Today we no longer have a choice, intensive and chemical agriculture has destroyed our land. “
“The struggles, whether from here or elsewhere, are alike. Each time, we are opposed to projects of public interest, housing, job creation, economic activity and for that we sacrifice agricultural land“, he laments.
“I am answering you as a young person who does not want to participate in his environmentally destructive jobs, who believes more in what the government or Emmanuel Macron says. We want something else. The agricultural project defended by the ZAD also creates jobs. Jobs that make sense“.
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There are many exchanges, a political culture is being built
Zinga * is a student, she has occupied the ZAD since February 7. She had the first cold nights. “This week we are soaked but we are happy to be there. I come from Essonne and have already mobilized for the preservation of the Saclay plateau. In this collective which fights against line 18, we quickly saw the link between these two fights. We do not want the Grand Paris Express project, a Trojan horse to total urbanization, to concrete agricultural land here as in Saclay “, says the young woman.
“More and more people have joined us. There are very different people, young, older, autonomous, people close to anarchism, Extinction Rébellion, local collectives like Aubervilliers or Saclay. Activists who identify with the fight against Greater Paris, against the 2024 Olympic Games and more generally against the artificialization of agricultural land or natural spaces“, she adds.” And to continue: “There are more and more of us. There are many exchanges, a political culture is being built. There is really a movement which can get out of what is happening here and which joins the mobilizations against the Global Security law and police violence “.
“Why did we do this ZAD? It’s not because we like nights at -10 degrees in a tent, it’s because we are in an increasingly secure state and environmental activists are now repressed“, she denounces.
“We also try to create links with young people from working-class neighborhoods who are much more repressed than us. We are not going to lie to each other, there are few racialized people on the spot. Suddenly we have to create a link, it is necessary that the agricultural land be used to feed the most precarious populations those which are repressed by an increasingly secure State.“, she maintains.
If we are kicked out we will resist but how we have to debate it
Sacha *, this year, put his biology studies at the Faculty of Orsay on hold. This is not his first mobilization. “I am part of the collective fighting against line 18 of the Grand Paris Express which threatens the very rich agricultural lands of the Saclay plateau in Essonne. A project from the end of the last century. Since we have struggles which are very similar, I arrived here at the start of the occupation. It was obvious that we had to come in support“, he asserts.”Here it is very heterogeneous, there are people of all ages and from all backgrounds. It’s very diverse and very interesting“.
“Friday if we are expelled, we will resist but in what way, we must discuss it. We will not necessarily be able to agree on the same line but each will do in his soul and conscience “, he explains.
This Friday, February 19, the Pontoise court seized in summary proceedings by the Ile-de-France public land establishment, chaired by Valérie Pécresse, must rule on the illegal occupation of part of the lands of the Triangle de Gonesse and rule on a possible evacuation of the ZAD and its occupants.
* the first names have been changed to preserve the anonymity of the people interviewed
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