“I went to ZAD in the spring of 2016, two years ago. I was amazed by the mix of people there – in places like this there were more elderly and more women than you usually find – as well as the abundance of activities.

When we arrived in Saint-Jean-du-Terre the debate did not start immediately because a group of cows were passing from one side of the ZAD to the other. Then the horses fled and we went to look for them. On returning to the farm it was time to take the bread out of the oven and also to welcome the militants who arrived from Paris, who participated in demonstrations against the Employment Act. Finally, we held the discussion outside, around the oven, because the library on the first floor had not yet been built.

I was invited by members of the collective ‘Mauvaise Troupe’ to talk about my book about the ‘Imaginary of the Paris Commune’, which had just been published in French. How to build ‘common forms’? That was the original title of my book, Communal Luxury, that they asked and that they had saved: ‘communal luxury’. It was the formula that circulated between artists and craftsmen during the toilet: let’s make sure that the cake is not distributed equally, but that the best is distributed.

At ZAD you do a lot of work, but not for a salary, which changes everything.

Among the audience, some had a deep literary formation and others were self-taught. The tensions were, of course, within the DDA. On a regular basis, in the General Assembly, diplomats were accused of how easily they spoke, with the risk of crushing others, even if they didn’t want to.

Another line of rupture confronted historical and ‘naturalistic’ growers, for whom man has to stop intervening in nature: no more branches of the forest should be touched. Another, more anecdotal, issue was about dogs. For some, in a ZAD everyone is free, even the dogs; for others, the dogs bothered the cabals.

I returned six or seven times for pleasure. I like the relationship that feels there over time. It has nothing to do with capitalism. At ZAD you do a lot of work, but not for a salary, and that changes everything. We have to take care of the animals, the crops, the children. At all times they are busy building, growing, repairing their homes.

They have also erected collective buildings, as well as recreational facilities, such as a lighthouse. A lighthouse in the middle of a wooded area, slowly raised and maintained: here’s an example of communal luxury!

It is eaten very well in AD, except in the absence of food

The days are also full of political and cultural activities. This is what ‘Mauvaise Troupe’ calls an exercise of ‘composition’: taking the time to live together with all the sensitivities. It is also noticeable in the main assemblies, which can be extended up to six hours. Seen from afar, you may be tempted to smile, but when you experience those moments in it, you feel admiration for the energy put in to invent a different life.

I see amazing freedom in the way they accept a form of ‘poverty’. They limit the needs they have, prioritizing collective work, learning to be autonomous. In return, they are given a wealth of life; and you think, of course, of the pre-capitalist communities, or even of the Franciscan communities, but without a religious dimension.

It is eaten very well in AD, except in the absence of food, and people like to cook together. I used to sleep in a caravan. In the winter, it was extremely cold from time to time, but other places were heated. The government said it was a dangerous place. As in all places, there could be people who pose problems, but they have a mediation system: every month, twelve people are chosen to mediate.

This acumulation of experiences, partnerships, exchanges is, in depth, the most precious asset of the DDA. A land has begun to defend itself and, little by little, what we have done together has become as important as that land. Building solidarity between different people is what we really need today.

Macron wants to destroy a utopia that has worked for ten years

I was in Rolandière when it was announced that the project [to build the airport] had been cancelled. Everyone rushed to see images of this historic decision on the tiny screen of a computer. We gave back to ZAD to thank the growers who participated in the fight, in anticipation of organizing a big party.

But then the state seeks to divide the zadists. Of course, there were internal disagreements about the future. Some advocated seeking a compromise with the state, others took a radical position, pure anarchism, at the risk of impotence. Instead of moving forward with the decision of the majority, or dispersing each other in their own way, they have sought a compromise position, discussions could have been painful and time-consuming. The idea of ‘composition’ was always there. But the State did not want this experience.

What has happened in the last week [the second of April] is dramatic. How much pollution, how much gas, how much mud on all sides! The gendarmes didn't just knock him down, they fucked him up. The cabals have also inhaled tear gas and are wandering in the forest. Everything happens in a certain way, as if the State did not build its own airport, but wanted to achieve the looting of its borders. What is Emmanuel Macron afraid to use so much violence? My answer is that today, living in a different way, freely, a little outside the system, is a threat to neoliberalism.

These ‘out-of-system’ spaces must be defended. The radical left often uses the word ‘resistance’. But to resist is to accept that we have already lost and that we have before us an immense, insubordinate force. As an idea, I prefer ‘defense’, which is at the heart of the DA experience: we defend because we already have something, we resist, we love it. ZAD was not a utopia, but a community that worked for ten years. That's what the government has been trying to destroy.

What did Elisha propose to me

That same government contacted me in October last year, through Sylvain Fort – Emmanuel Macron’s advisor for ‘Discourse and Memory’. They wanted me to go to Elisha to talk about 1968.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of May 68, the President intends to participate in the national reflection that will take place throughout the year.

That's what his collaborator wrote to me. In this e-mail, the events of 68 were related to the following topics: “modernization”, “impasse” or even “possible shortages of utopias that may remain”.

It is a classic tale according to which the 68 exhausted and buried the last revolutionary illusions and, in the absence of alternatives, we should refuse to change the world. In my work as a historian, on the contrary, I have shown that the '68 invented new forms of action, of which movements such as the Notre-Dame-des-Landes movement are still nourished today. I don’t believe in the idea of impasse and so I rejected Elisha’s proposal.

Then I saw that your President had stopped talking about the fiftieth anniversary. I think he's done well. Proclaiming the legacy of the May uprising and sending the armored Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the meantime would be the last barrier to reach what 68 feared the most: cynicism.”

If you’ve read this article and are looking forward to more, we dedicated 217 to Kristin Ross. Larrun thought magazine in its entirety.