Last Tuesday morning, March 20th, 5 people with ski masks, armed with baseball bats and pepper spray entered a squat on the ZAD. They beat the people present, and took one of them, hogtied, with duct tape over his eyes and mouth. They put him in the trunk of a car and left. Further on, they beat him again, breaking an arm and a leg, before abandoning him on the sidewalk in front of the psychiatric hospital.
His "error" was to have acted concretely against a State sponsored project, in a way which wasn't aligned with the dominant strategy of the movement. That strategy being to invite the regional head of police, cops, and politicians onto the ZAD to negotiate with them.
We are long past the phase of trying to say nicely to certain groups that they are going too far, that they should put themselves into question, etc. We also find it just as problematic that there has been hardly anyone taking public position after this disgusting operation by some wannabe cops. In comparison, when some journalists invited by the ACIPA (local liberal group against the airport) got hit with a bit of compost, a bakery went on strike, the general assemblies had to change meeting place, people had their internet cut off, etc.
One part of the movement wants to win points with the State by doing the work of the police. They are giving offerings that they think the will motivate the State to give them presents in return. This repressive operation shows that no matter where repression comes from, it comes down to the same thing:
Punishing those who get in the way, threatening those who could. Taking advantage of police impunity by being part of dominant groups, better organized, and with more resources. Defending the interests of the State and privileged citizens with violence and rapports de force.
A lot of different individuals can be threatening to power, but repression is adapted to social class. People who are well connected, well liked, won't end up in the hospital- just have pressure put on them, insults, humiliation... But for someone who's more vulnerable. They are reproducing repression, even in its classist aspect. And even worse, the victim is put on trial that very evening in the general assembly of the movement.
By leaving the person in front of the mental hospital, the able-ist component is added. The psychiatric hospital is the place for the people who are bothersome. Either the people who did it didn't care about the risk he would be forcibly hospitalized, for example if he had had prior time spent in mental health facilities, or it would have made it easier to get him out of the way.
Reactionary forces in all their splendor. The crazy part is that there are still people who pretend that on the ZAD we try to organize without police or the justice system. That here is a "Commune", that here we're revolutionary.
For the legal team, this act represents what we've always fought against. We would like to make a reminder that a movement of struggle is not sheltered from relationships of inequality or oppression, even in their most violent expressions. We invite you to reflect and act, to avoid that in other struggles certain people take control to re-establish the power of dominant classes, and of the State.
signed:
-the legal team
-copains des bois