Two local farmers from Nantes and local politician on hunger strike against the planned airport
The campaigners against the proposed new Nantes Airport just outside the city at Notre-Dames-des-Landes have entered Nantes with sheep and tractors and “plan to stay a while” ! They are supporting two peasant farmers who have gone on hunger strike because they have had papers served for the compulsory purchase their land to make way for the airport. What is particularly dreadful about this is the fact that the authorities who want to build the airport are still facing legal challenges from the campaigners. If these legal challenges are successful, the airport make be stopped but peasant farmers will have lost their land and their livelihood.
To send messages of support to the campaigners and the hunger strikers email acipa.info@free.fr
A third hunger striker has joined the two local farmers opposing Nantes airport
Date added: April 17, 2012
At Nantes, the two local farmers have completed 7 days of hunger strikes, and say they are in good health. They have been joined by a local left wing politician, so there are now three of them. There is a lot of local support for these farmers who are putting their health at risk to save their land and their employment. They say the maga airport project is a devourer of agricultural land and public money, for the most great advantage of VINCI (the company building the airport) shareholders. This project goes against the current social issues and current ecological good of the area. Click here to view full story…
Two local farmers from Nantes on hunger strike and supporting occupation in the town, against the airport
The two local farmers who are on hunger strike.
Hunger Strike – farmers of Notre dame des Landes
Many more photos at http://acipa.free.fr/Plus/Actualites/Photos/photos.htm
Below are details in French and below, in English (badly translated by Google!).
NOTRE DAME DES LANDES : GRÈVE DE LA FAIM DE 2 PAYSANS
Communiqué de presse des opposantes au projet d’aéroport à Notre Dame des Landes:
OUR LADY OF THE MOORS: HUNGER STRIKE FOR FARMERS 2
CALL FOR MOBILIZATION:
After the strong mobilization of March 24 in Nantes, we return to this city with the same goal of maintaining the pressure on our policies. We arrived on Wednesday at dawn with sheep and tractors and we’ll stay a while! A great political stupidity calls for strong action: two farmers are engaged in a hunger strike.
With their support committee, they are installed in front of the Monument to the Resistance, the Morand Bridge in Nantes.
Their act of resistance and solidarity is also a cry of anger toward the obstinacy of the political world to want to destroy and concrete over land. Its objective is to obtain, from all the candidates for the presidential election, a commitment to repeal the Declaration of Public airport project.
This action will be long and hard: the mobilization (protest) will be strong! During the demonstration on 24 March, we called people to resist; it’s time to get involved personally.
Spend a half day, full day, or stay overnight as soon as possible before the Prefecture of Nantes, so that this movement has a national resonance.
The elections are coming soon and expropriation orders are already in the mailbox! It is now time to act!
For more info: acipa.info @ free.fr
Read here the leaflet distributed during this operation
follow the synopsis on the blog Words of Campaign
Photos will be posted as and when our album
Press Release from the opponents of the airport project at Notre Dame des Landes:
This morning, Wednesday, April 11, 2012, two peasant farmers who received the expropriation (compulsory purchase) order for the airport project at Notre Dame des Landes (44), begin a hunger strike.
With their support committee, they are installed in front of the Monument to the Resistance, the Morand Bridge at Nantes.
Their act of resistance and solidarity is also a cry of anger toward the obstinacy of the political world to want to destroy and concreted. Its objective is to obtain, from all the candidates in the presidential election, a commitment to repeal the Declaration of Public airport project.
More and more citizens denounced the waste of agricultural land for useless projects (airport Notre Dame des Landes is!) And the use of public funds for private purposes.
The committee support the strikers called everyone to come and support them with their presence.
Contact Support Committee:
Cyril Bouligand: 06 21 04 76 84
Philippe Champigny: 06 78 73 68 65
Julien Durand: 06 33 51 01 25
The campaigners have made a film, the Heart of the Struggle
« Notre-Dame-des-Landes, au cœur de la lutte » le film
It is at
http://lagoradebretagne.over-blog.com/article-notre-dame-des-landes-au-coeur-de-la-lutte-le-film-102068906.html (I hour 10 minutes, in French)
Vous aussi participez à la lutte en cliquant “j’aime“ et en partageant le lien sur vos réseaux …
Construire un aéroport transatlantique taillé sur mesure pour le Concorde, à 27 kms au nord de la rocade de Nantes, à Notre-Dame-des-Landes ! Oublié un temps, ce vieux projet qui remonte aux Trente Glorieuses renaît de ses cendres à la fin des années 90 sous la houlette de Jean-Marc Ayrault, maire de Nantes.
Les paysans conduisent la « révolte » contre ce projet qui mangera 2 000 ha de terres, soit en une opération l’équivalent des terres agricoles qui disparaissent chaque année en Loire-Atlantique.
Julien Durand, Michel Tarin, Sylvain et Brigitte Fresneau, Marcel et Sylvie Thébault nous racontent leur lutte au quotidien contre un projet jugé coûteux et inutile, écologiquement irresponsable. Ils sont rejoints pas Hervé Thébaud et Françoise Verchère, respectivement pilote de ligne et élue, également farouchement opposés au déménagement de l’actuel aéroport de Nantes-Atlantique.
Plus qu’une simple opposition, cette lutte révèle les questionnements de citoyens engagés sur les motivations réelles de ce projet. C’est au fil de la lutte un apprentissage de la démocratie et une véritable alternative de société qui se dessine, le projet aéroportuaire devenant le symbole d’une société dispendieuse tournée vers le passé.
Le projet est aujourd’hui dans sa phase pré-opérationnelle, les démarches d’expropriations sont en cours, la tension à son comble mais Julien, Michel, Sylvain, Brigitte, Marcel, Sylvie ne lâcheront rien car ils sont persuadés que la victoire les attend au bout de cette lutte emblématique. Comme des milliers d’autres, rejoignez-les !
Les réalisateurs
Christophe Kergosien et Pierrick Morin sont des militants écologistes, en aucun cas des professionnels du cinéma. Ils travaillent tout deux par ailleurs. Il y a moins d’un an, ils ouvrent un blog, l’Agora de Bretagne, avec un objectif : valoriser par l’image les actions de terrain. Leurs films, entretiens, reportages, réalisés à leurs frais et sur leur temps libre, sont systématiquement libres de droit. Ainsi, ils apportent une valeur ajoutée aux initiatives et de nouveaux outils aux acteurs de terrain.
pour les joindre : 06 47 00 63 35 ou par mail lagoradebretagne@free.fr
Danger et bruit : réalités et propagande
Hunger strikes in Nantes
Picture the scene: it’s early in the morning. The sun is shining and you’re sitting having your breakfast, which happens to be a café au lait and a baguette because, for the purposes of this exercise, you are French. While you quietly contemplate some elaborate existentialist theory (did I mention you’re French?), you notice the post drop through the letterbox. One official looking letter drops to the floor. You open it, cautiously…
Oh là là! What has fallen onto your doormat is nothing less than a compulsory purchase order for your farmstead! That’s right, the farmstead you’ve lived and worked on for as long as you care to remember, the ground you’ve tended to with your own bare hands, your past, your present, your future… All of this is being taken from you. Stolen. Demanded by a government which claims to represent you. And to what end? In order that a multi-billion pound industry can build a new runway over the top of it. Why, you ask? So that they can increase their profit margins of course (tsk, don’t waste our time with stupid questions, Monsieur!!).
Sadly this is no elaborate horror story. This week, the first two farmers in Nantes have been issued with compulsory purchase orders for their land by the government in order to make way for asecond Nantes airport. What is particularly dreadful about this is that the authorities who want to build the airport are embroiled in legal challenges from those campaigning against the airport. If the campaigner’s challenges are successful, the airport will be stopped but the farmers will still have lost their land and their livelihood.
Faced with the total destruction of their way of life and the loss of their homes, these brave farmers are fighting back. This week marks the beginning of their hunger strike.
For years campaigners in and around Nantes have been fighting against plans for a new airport. In March, thousands of campaigners took to the streets of Paris to protest against the plans. Many of them had travelled 400km from Nantes to the French capital on their bikes and tractors. This Wednesday, in support of the two farmers and their hunger strike, campaigners set up camp outside the Monument de la Résistance in Nantes with their sheep and tractors! They need your support – please join the campaigners if you can or email them a message of support.
With plans to expand airports popping up all over the EU, there has been an unprecedented EU-wide fight against expansion. As well as fierce battles in Nantes, Plane Stupid activists recently visited anti-airport expansion campaigners in Munich, and in Frankfurt, where campaigners have recently won a ban on night flights. Up to 5,000 thousand campaigners are turning up everyMonday to take part in protests in the new airport terminal, with up to 20,000 people showing up for Saturday specials.
Throughout history people have taken bold actions to stop injustices from taking place on their doorstep. The French farmers are now doing just that. By going on hunger strike they are not only standing up for local communities and the climate in the face of powerful corporate interest and single minded politicians, they are demonstrating to us all that we have the ability to take the power back. Join them, and let’s take that power back together.