As of September 1st construction firm NGE, which is building the hugely controversial A69 motorway, can legally start cutting down the last few trees that stand in the way of the massive project, which is being built in between Toulouse and Castres in the south-west France.

Police had proceeded with the expulsion of people on the ground of the Zone a défendre (ZAD), an area occupied to stop a project, on August 30th. There are however stil a number of people that we call “écureuil” (squirrel) who are in the trees night and day to protect them from being cut down. The cops have now started harassing the écureuils, trying to get them to come down from the wooden houses they’ve built in the trees. This has led to the fall of two écureuils, both of whom are hospitalised. One has suffered six fractures including to their spine.

The sheer violence which the écureuils have to face is nothing like earlier State violence. This is not the first such action against the A69 motorway. On a plot of land a few kilometers away from the current occupation, a merry band of écureuils resisted for nearly two months in the Crem’Arbre before the State was forced by the courts to stop its operations. They managed to save multiple trees and stop NGE from cutting them down. That is not to say it was easy, a number of écureuil had no choice but to climb down due to the physical and psychological torture inflicted upon them, whether it be intentional noise and light to keep them awake at night, cutting off any access to food or water, misogynistic and racist insults, cops cutting the ropes and the branches to which they were attached …

This time, in addition to all this violence, the écureuils in the Cal’Arbre have had to put up with direct physical attacks by the Cnamo, a police unit specialised in getting people out of trees. For example one écureuil was attacked mid air while both they and the cop were barely attached to anything or for example when the Cnamo directly tried to cut through a hut in one of the trees while someone was inside. It got so bad that only two days after they started trying to get the écureuils out of their trees, one had to threaten to self immolate and light a fire in the trees to get them to not cut the only rope her comrade was attached to. The sheer severity of the injuries sustained by the écureuils and the violence they have to put up with clearly begs the question of whether they are trying to kill the écureuils, and I’m not even going to start talking about the local fascist militias which have burnt cars and tents on the ZAD.

This motorway is not only wholly useless, originally pushed by some now deceased business tycoon called Pierre Fabre so that he could cut 15 min off the trip from Toulouse to Castres, it also against the will of most of the local population. Polls have shown that most are opposed to this useless project, as is also evident in their direct support of the ZAD by either participating, bringing food, lending materials or entire fields. The A69 motorway project is directly supported by some of the most powerful people in France as the contract for the lease of the motorway is highly advantageous to the company which got the contract, Atosca. Not really surprising that someone powerful is going to be making a lot of money from this when you see that they’ve spent €2.76 million in policing in just a year to try to force the project through. Last but not least, this project is also terrible for the environment, not only because it will cover acres of land in cement but also because its construction and use will lead to a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

Against such a shitty project, people have also organised offensive action. Whether it be a protest led by the controversial Soulevements de la Terre or the attacks of the GIEC (short for Gang d’Insolents Eclatant le Capital, or “Gang of Insolents Exploding Capitalism”). There have been many work engines that have caught fire, many bridge or tunnel foundations that have been destroyed and cops have had to fire many rounds of tear gas to defend their seige of the ZAD. There will probably be more of those actions but it’s through the occupations of the trees that we can completely halt the construction. So those trees must not fall.

As I write this, we’re only two days into the police intervention but things are looking difficult. The écureuils need as much support as they can get to stop this disgusting chimera of corruption and the destructive urge that people get from chasing profits. You can stay up to date with whats going on (zad_a69 on instagram, t.me/infoZAD_A69 on telegram). You can come and join the people who are organizing the resistance on the ground by going to the Bacamp (43.592728, 2.143446). You can donate money to help with legal fees and anything else the ZADiste might need. You can climb on top of a tree to stop the bulldozers from cutting down a tree to keep the fight alive wherever you may be.

We must resist, to keep the Earth habitable, to defeat capitalism and destroy the State.

– a ZAD supporter

Pics: Police attack the occupation and écureuils hold the trees, courtesy of ZADists