Freedom News

The Zad of the Link: call to join ZAD du LIEN

The ‘L.I.E.N’ [“la liaison intercantonale d’évitement du nord” – The Northern Bypass or LINK in English] is the latest section of motorway scheduled for construction around Montpellier, France. For 30 years, residents and activists have fought against this project which would see a river of concrete plough through some of the last green spaces around

Switzerland: Call to support the ZAD de la Colline

In Switzerland, a few kilometers from Lausanne, the multinational cement company LaFargeHolcim seeks to expand the exploitation of the limestone quarry which consumes and attacks the Mormont hill: the area with remarkable flora and fauna. The quarry’s expansion threatens to engulf the hill’s protected forest, its unique biodiversity, its history and the cultivated lands which

Two, Three, Many ZADs

A ZAD means a “zone to defend” (zone à défendre in French). These environmental protest occupations have recorded successes such as preventing an airport near Nantes and a dam in the region of Toulouse. This a roundup of recent ZAD news. In July this year, activists from ANV-COP21 and Extinction Rebellion occupied land in Besançon

E.A.Z: the Everyday Autonomous Zone

One of the most beautiful banners I ever saw was designed by a working-class activist named Af. He had previously worked at a brickyard in Maltby, but one payday he cashed in his wages and used them to travel around India for six months. Upon his return he became the ‘Guru of Norfolk Park’. Norfolk

ZAD: a month away from possible eviction

Following the announcement by French prime minister Edouard Philippe that the ‘illegal occupants’ will be evicted at the end of March, for four weeks now ZAD has seen a large police presence, with about 200 gendarmerie mobilised daily in the area. Their mission: to control the entrances, and to engage in a number of harassment operations,

France: ZAD declares victory as airport plan dropped!

In a communique the famous horizontal community Zone à Defendre (ZAD) has declared a “historic victory” and called for “expropriated peasants and inhabitants to be able to fully recover their rights as soon as possible.” The entirety of the land area devoted to the airport project — 1,650 hectares of land declared as being of public

France: The Intergalactic Week of Zad

The quiet, wildlife-filled countryside just outside Notre-Dame-des-Landes, north of Nantes has been a point of massive contention between various French governments and the country’s environmental direct action movement since 2008, when permission was granted to build a €580 million airport serving as “the international gateway” to Western France. Squats and camps sprung up on fields due