The Gendarmerie arrests 15 activists of the now banned ‘Les Soulèvements de la Terre’ (SdT)
from thefreeonline on June 29th by Guille Larios at La Directa
translation by thefreeonline
State decrees the dissolution of this organization with 110,000 affiliated people, after years of actions, demonstrations and sabotage
The Uprisings of the Earth – “Les Soulèvements de la Terre” (SdT), in French – is probably the most powerful and massive environmental movement of recent years in Europe. Its objectives are always environmental and against “harmful”, extractivist or agro-industry projects.
The State attempt to destroy StD comes in the context of the giant campaign against Macron and the Government, focused on Pension Cuts, and the new outbreak of rioting after the police murder of yet another innocent man.
Demonstrators of the Land Uprisings last March 25 in the Sainte-Soline..‘Absolutely criminal’: Protestors hospitalised during anti-reservoir rally in western France
In recent years, they have organized meetings and summits that have sometimes led to acts of sabotage by activists: against the Lafarge cement company, Monsanto’s GMO fields, hydraulic megabasins or road infrastructure such as highways and tunnels.
They operate from different fronts and combine all kinds of fighting methods. From the media, legal and institutional sphere, with campaigns, demands and denunciations, through summits, demonstrations and imaginative actions or also with direct actions and confrontation with the police.
The movement was created in 2021 and is made up of numerous environmental associations, from the rural and urban areas, trade unions, farms, students, scientists and individuals
A network with more than 110,000 members and 180 local committees that intervenes in public life, from horizontality and decentralization, considering that victories can be achieved at the local level.
see also! … “We’re Not Martyrs” A message from Serge, Who Survived Attempted Murder at the Hands of the French Police https://crimethinc.com/2023/06/21/we-are-not-martyrs-a-mes…
On Tuesday, June 20, fourteen people were arrested by the anti-terrorist division of the Gendarmerie in an investigation of an action carried out by the collective in December 2022 against the Lafarge cement company, in Bouc-Bel-Air – in the region of Provence.
The following day, June 21, the Council of Ministers dissolved the collective by decree.
At the request of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who has often chosen to describe the group’s fighting methods as ‘eco-terrorists’.
Activists have intervened in water extraction projects, cement plants or transgenic plantations
In French law, the reasons that can justify a dissolution are detailed in article L212-1 of the Internal Security Code and range from incitement to hatred to acts of terrorism.
Thus, the Government authorizes the dissolution of associations that “provoke armed demonstrations or violent acts against people or property”, a field expanded by Darmanin in his law against “separatism” in August 2021.
In his writing of beginning of the administrative dissolution procedure, the Ministry of the Interior accuses SdT of “defending and justifying the practice of eco-sabotage”.
According to the police, the climate movement is “changing”
A police note from the Central Territorial Intelligence Service, made public last November, gave an account of the investigation surrounding the SdT collective. According to the researchers, “this is a group with a lot of ingenuity, intelligence and perfectly controlled communication, and it has become an important actor in the radical ecological protest, winning the sympathy of intellectuals , associations, unions”.
They add that “the SdT have managed to embody the concept of the transversality of the struggles, with a key role in the dissemination and acceptance of more offensive modus operandi. The sabotage actions they practice are from a defensive logic of threatened common goods, and thus convince the militants to move from actions of civil disobedience to civil resistance”.
The intelligence services insist on the fact that the SdT integrates “the hard core of the ultra-left”, with Notre-Dame-des-Landes and Extinction Rebellion militants
The intelligence services insist on the fact that the SdT includes “the hard core of the ultra-left” which, according to them, makes up the movement, and especially the militants of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, “experienced and strong of the Zadist experience”. These activists would have been joined by another group of younger activists, linked to Extinction Rebellion (XR). “The revolts of the Earth have created a form of militant syncretism”, they explain, mixing “massification and radicalism”.
Intervention of the Gendarmerie in 2018 on the grounds of Notre-Dame-des-Landes |Antonio Cascio (KrasnyiBCN)
The researchers are concerned because “the climate movement is changing” and highlight the “ability to influence” and “seduction” exercised by SdT, which would have managed to raise local struggles, “gather widely” and
contribute “their know-how”, their logistical, human and financial support. “Some environmental activists, tired of awareness demonstrations, were able to satisfy their search for more virulent actions and a more impactful strategy. From the SdT, they normalize and find legitimacy in their eco-sabotage with the concept of disarmament, that is, destroying the weapons that destroy the planet”. A speech much more promising than the simple notion of “sabotage”, judge the authors of the police note.
Finally, the police highlight the collective’s ability to stage their clandestine actions and sabotage – through tutorials and videos on the internet: “They are qualified communicators, they make humorous parodies and attractive protest videos assuming both a festive and offensive component of their events”.
The illegal entity calls to become “more visible”
In the French State, the law punishes with three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros the act of participating in the maintenance or reconstitution of a dissolved association or group. This means that the logo, slogans or social media accounts of a disbanded group cannot be used. The dissolution of the SdT could also have consequences for the monitoring of environmental activists. Since the Intelligence Act of 2015, intelligence services can use special techniques to prevent actions to maintain or reconstitute disbanded groups.
In the French State, the law punishes with three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros the act of participating in the maintenance or reconstitution of a dissolved association or group
With the threat of dissolution, more than 110,000 people in solidarity signed a petition to make public their membership in the Revoltes de la Terra, blaming themselves and arguing that the movement “cannot be dissolved because it is multiple and alive”. Festive demonstrations have also been called at the gates of town halls.
The collective, for now, is focusing on the campaign in its defense and in the last few hours it has published messages and slogans indicating the following steps to follow:
“What if this dissolution was actually a ministerial call to unite to a great resistance movement? A movement supposedly forbidden but collectively unstoppable in the crosshairs of power but anchored in the territories, present in the workplaces and studies, the barns and the shed, even within the administrations. The government wants to make us disappear, but in reality we will be more visible every day”.
Bouc-Bel-Air environmentalism The Land Uprisings French State Gendarmerie Gérald Darmanin Lafarge Monsanto Provence
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