I arrived at the ZAD of Notre Dame des Landes on Friday, 13 April, the fifth day of the police operation. This morning I was informed of the statement by the prefect of Loire Atlantique. The eliminators, which began on Monday, have been terminated: The gendarmes, which had orders to evict and demolish 40 areas, have evicted and destroyed 29 of them, as reported by the Basque Department of Security. However, during the four days that I will give in this ZAD the police presence and confrontation of the Zadists (the so-called those who are here) will be constant. They will clean the roads and avoid any attempt at reconstruction. The negotiations and declarations of the prefecture, behind the tear gas and the noise of the helicopter, are far away.

Tear gas

I tried the gas on the same Friday. The itching burns my eyes and I can't breathe. Saturday also, Sunday, Monday. Gas. Mud. Gas. Grenade noise, terror, adrenaline. Gas. Helicopter, drone. Gas.

2,500 policemen have been mobilized. Tanks, bulldozer, trucks that flush water under pressure. The zadists build barricades to cut the way to the police: tires, metal sheets, wood, bicycles, gas cylinders, cars, or old car debris, of everything. The police disassemble and rebuild once. They throw stones and other objects at the police or return gas pills, behind them or curious artisans. In addition to tear gas, the police launch noisy grenades. They seem really dangerous. I've seen how the earth, the holes that are left, the blood that causes the rise.

Barricades

On Saturday I learned the atmosphere behind the barricade. Some are in front, protected by masks of all kinds and glasses. A little further back, those who resist their presence, witnesses, express the protection and protection of the former. And lemon, almax, eye drops -- to relieve the effects of lacrimogens. Here and there.

A few meters away, I am surprised by an unexpected calm. In the backdrop of this war between the state and this small world that has been out of control, there are a lot of people who work and work. This second army always has coffee ready, there is always something to eat and the nursing material is never missing. In safer areas such as La Wardine and Foisses Noires, which are not on the list of buildings to be demolished, the kitchen is in continuous movement, ZAD's klaxon radio combines information and music and when it comes to dinner people meet in a good atmosphere to make an assessment and general assembly of the day. Although the proportions cannot be idealized, in the barricade the girls cover their faces and in the kitchen the men are also dedicated to hunting.

In the afternoon a demonstration of solidarity was called in Nantes against the attempt to evict the ZAD. Multitudinary and multitudinary. Black silhouettes with masks and hood mix with men of all ages and ways of dressing. Again great incidents and spectacular demonstration of resources for repression. On the part of the protesters who choose the confrontation, who have not been seen for years in Hego Euskal Herria, which may not be seen in years. The breaking of the cobblestones with the chisel and the hammer seems to be normalized, and I would say that they do not see those who take the quieter march wrong. In the fight against the airport, and in the demand of those who have remained to live in the area with that objective, that is, in defence of the legitimacy of staying and cultivating the land, all forms of dealing with the conflict have found their place, respecting the ways of others. Legalistic strategies; direct action; assaults on police; peaceful, imaginative, artistic and extramortic initiatives. Everything blends into this unique ecosystem.

The airport will not be built

The combination of all these methods led Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to tell the Prime Minister on 17 January that the airport would not be built. Historic victory of 50 years of struggle. And so the question was born of what is going to happen to these 400 forests and acres of field that have been left in state ownership through expropriation. The people who have lived in the ZAD in recent years claim that it is up to them to give the answer, as indicated in a statement: “The conflict has been transformed and is no longer against a destructive infrastructure project, but to share the territory in which we live. We prevent this place from being covered with cement and it is up to us to take care of its future.” The French State is not prepared to accept this and, with the law in hand, the eviction of the ZAD has been the first step towards the dismantling of irregular buildings during the week of 9 April, in the framework of a police operation planned for a month.

Nanteste to La Gree

On Saturday night, after returning from Nantes, we will go to La Gree. In this space the weekly of the ZAD was printed, there was a bicycle workshop and a recording studio. Today they have made pizzas and are passing a documentary from the ZAD. But I don't want to do that. I've realized that the tiredness I've seen with so many eyes has taken me too. Although under my sleeping bag I have a couple of blankets, some clothes we have picked up in the free shop and a sterile one, the music and the conversation behind the old stable that houses us do not take my sleep.

The next day in the morning, a man, as he tied the boats in a hurry, announced the situation. When we managed to overcome French and sleep, we understood that the police are surrounded by most of the spaces of the ZAD, including the ZAD. Today's call has been made since the beginning of the week. Response to derribes: reconstruction. Just as it happened after the 2012 expulsion attempt, it is intended to carry out a massive auzolan. Le Gourbi has prioritized the construction of the wooden structure of a house, as it is a symbolic space built in that reconstruction of 2012. There it has been carried out weekly non-march: non-market. The production of the different groups of the ZAD (vegetables, cheese, bread...) is shared there at free price, that is, each one takes freely what he wants and leaves free the compensation he wants, as is always done in the ZAD.

Part of the morning we have been unable to leave La Gree. The gendarmes do not allow movement through the ZAD to hinder reconstruction, sweep roads and repair the ditches opened by the Zadists. When the Police have made the shift change, the laces have been broken and we have heard that some 10,000 people come from outside the Auzolan. Let's go to Wardine and see him. I can't tell you about the furgons in the gendarmerie on the road that we have to cross. Is it thirty? There was a tank, two trucks throwing water under pressure and men engaged in blind roboop, with racks, helmet, shield, weapons of I don't know what kind and other artifacts. I've felt inside a video game when we were walking hidden through the forest and running to walk behind all the furgons. I later learned that this was not a game. A guy who was doing that was thrown to the ground and beaten.

When we arrived in Ambazada, built last summer with the help of dozens of people arrived from Euskal Herria, we are again surprised. Cheerful, colorful atmosphere, people of all ages and shapes. A batukada over there. A guitar here. Some sitting in the meadow, others dancing. This one looks like Nafarroa Oinez. A few meters later, police cord in the whole width of a meadow. The gendarmes, serious, silent, were trying to look towards the horizon. Almost everyone is suffering the monologue of one of the protesters in front of them. A few minutes later there was a real battle. The Police has issued gas and grenades as "confestis" for four to five hours, according to the Department of Security. I looked down at the field and saw an inexhaustible gas mist. The roof of the house that you want to re-rotate and build is danced, led to the goal by the crowd. The outcome has occurred tonight, when the gendarmes have returned outside the ZAD to the hotel establishments in the neighboring localities. Victory in the Giro de Italia.

And on Monday morning the déjà-vu: Le flics sont icí. Barricades, grenades, eye drops, stones, tank. Collapsed the new non-march built the previous day. Lunch in good atmosphere. The novelty of today is the sun.

It is time to return to Euskal Herria. I find it difficult to imagine its end. The Police will demolish as many constructions as it wishes, but it will not be easy for President Emmanuel Macron to maintain a police presence that prevents the expulsion of all the Zadists and attempts to reokupate the area.