From lundimatin #389 (26/06/2023) …
We receive and transmit this international call to carry out solidarity actions all over the world against the criminalisation of Soulèvements de la Terre. Translated into seven languages [we share the English language call below] and already signed by dozens of collectives, it proposes to multiply protest action from June 28.
Against the criminalisation of Soulèvements de la Terre in France, call for solidarity actions everywhere in our territories!
In France, Macron’s government has just taken an unprecedented step in the repression of the social and environmental movements. On the 21st of June, the government decreed the disbanding of the movement (Soulèvements de la Terre/The Uprisings of the Earth), which claims over 140,000 supporters and more than 150 local groups. This disbanding was accompanied by two unprecedented waves of arrests of dozens of environmental activists across France on 5 and 20 June, notably by police officers from the Sub-Directorate for Anti-Terrorism (SDAT). Two people are in prison already, and dozens of serious injuries have been caused by the police during demonstrations in recent months.
Over the past two years in France, Soulèvements de la Terre have given a new lease of life to the ecological struggles by building a multi-faceted movement made up of farmers’ unions, ecological organisations, activists and people of all ages and from all walks of life. This has included site blockades, mass demonstrations, land occupations, law suits, and ’disarming’ criminal industries like the multinational Lafarge… Participants in The Earth Uprisings adopt a diversity of tactics and take the lead from local territorial struggles to build livable worlds and firmly halt land and water grabs by agribusiness, the concreting over of our soils, the ecocidal ravages of the chemical industry and the destruction of life.
The French government, which has imposed an anti-social pension reform by force, is now trying to dissolve this growing movement, which has already begun to forge links across Europe and beyond.
From France to Uganda, Colombia to Chiapas, the UK to Brazil, Lebanon to India or Rojava, the resistance from ecological and social movements and the worlds they are building, are provoking a violent authoritarian response, destroying lives in the name of power and profit. This authoritarian, patriarchal and neo-colonial headlong rush is leading us towards a deadly future of climate chaos, militarisation, pandemics, technological control and waves of mass displacement.
In the eyes of the French government, this repression and dissolution should mark a halt to the rise of a logical revolt to reclaim our lives, our lands and the commons. And what if this dissolution became, in spite of itself, a call to strengthen a great global resistance movement? A call to make our solidarity resonate across borders, to breathe life into the many uprisings around the world. An invitation to build new global alliances ’from below’, on the scale of our bodies and our territories, in defence of land and life against the capitalist and imperialist predations of nation states and multinationals.
Together, in the days and weeks ahead, we are calling for more acts of solidarity, to show that what is growing everywhere cannot be dissolved! We propose to continue making the Soulèvements de la Terre visible in public space in our territories around the world : in front of social centres, through inscriptions on walls, with banners and parties, rallies and direct actions, and any other actions adapted to our contexts.
For the global uprisings of the earth, and in solidarity with all those around the world who face repression, we, collectives of struggles and organisations from different countries, are calling for solidarity on Wednesday 28 June (or in the days that follow, depending on the context) in a variety of ways. Dozens of rallies against criminalisation will be held across France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Catalonia… and other territories will follow !
You can’t dissolve an uprising !
This text is open for signature by individuals, groups and organisations until July 10th. Please fill in the signature form here : https://framaforms.org/international-call-of-support-to-the-earths-uprisings-les-soulevements-de-la-terre-what-grows-back