[Caen] Autonomous procession in the antinuclear demonstration

published on nantes.indymedia the 29th feb.

Against the resumption of nuclear power and its world, let’s organize an autonomous and anti-authoritarian response

Thanks to the energy crisis and the Russian nuclear threat, the nuclear industry is on the rise. The nuclear state announces the construction of 14 new EPR (new generation EPR2) in Penly, Bugey and Gravelines, is investing massively in research, hiring and training personnel, as well as in armaments, speeding up the construction of the Bure landfill site by launching an expropriation phase, and is building a new spent nuclear fuel storage pool in La Hague.

We no longer live in the heroic times that presided over the establishment of the French nuclear program, but in the revival of an industry that nuclear propaganda presents as a lesser evil in the face of the situation. Ironically, this time it is under the green flag that we are being asked to abdicate. Disasters and catastrophes are no longer denied, they become contingent of our existences. In this era of disaster, we are called upon to accept this lesser evil and, in the event of an “accident” or “contamination”, to co-manage our lives under radiological constraints.

Faced with this major offensive by the nucleocrats, now masquerading as defenders of ecology, here and there responses are being organized. A new anti-nuclear coordination, essentially a cartel of anti-nuclear organizations and individuals, is calling for regional demonstrations, one of which will be organized in Caen on March 23. In Bure, comrades in struggle are trying to organize themselves to stand up against the looming campaign of expropriation. In the Cotentin region, a collective continues to organize against the new storage pool in La Hague. In Caen, as in Lille, Rennes, Toulouse, Narbonne, Charleville-Mézières, Montabot, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, discussions, screenings and meetings take place. Almost everywhere, by moonlight, high-voltage lines or electric charging stations are sabotaged.

We cannot resign ourselves to living in this world under radiological constraints and atomic threats, nor to confronting this relaunching plan without reacting. Nor can we resign ourselves to organizing our response regimented behind cartels of environmental organizations and parties that have been co-managing the existing for decades. The current weakness of the anti-nuclear movement is not enough to make us forget how state environmentalism, political games and forms of co-management have themselves contributed to the disarming of the anti-nuclear movement. For us, it is not a question of “uniting the anti-nuclear movement” — this movement has only ever been united in the minds of a few aficionados of the chiefdoms, but like any movement crossed by contradictions and confrontations — but of bringing to life an opposition to nuclear power that reconnects with a critique in action and in words of the society in which nuclear power is deployed and the world it participates to manufacture in return.

It is for these reasons that we believe it is important to identify some perspectives:

In Bure, works on a radioactive waste landfill site is accelerating. The opposition struggle is about to enter a new phase, with in particular works for a railway line to transport the said waste and the upcoming eviction of a resistance house in the former Luméville station. As in the Cotentin, the nuclear industry colonizes a depopulated land and its future, buys off its inhabitants, monitors and punishes its opponents. A week of anti-nuclear and anti-authoritarian talks will take place from April 17 to 23.

In the Cotentin region, while waiting for the final divergence (ignition) of the Flamanville EPR reactor, the nuclear industry has also prepared a new little gift: a brand new pool to store the spent nuclear fuel of the power plants. There are already 4 of them that receive 40 tons of waste per year. They are overflowing, we need a 5th. Local residents and anti-nuclear activists have been mobilizing against this project for several months. A demonstration, under heavy police escort, brought together some 800 people in Cherbourg in June 2022. A carnival will take place next April.

Locally, we will participate in the organization of an autonomous procession “against nuclear power and its world” in the demonstration on March 23rd, to carry a voice other than that of government environmentalism. But make no mistake, this demonstration is only one step. It is with this in mind that we will organise a screening/debate the day before (Friday 22 March), with the film The Sacrifice (2003), then an anti-nuclear assembly on the 23rd, after the demonstration: to go ahead and forge links, to collectively prolong our reflections and our desires for action.

Around the targeted sites, we can only join in our own ways the struggles that could emerge by encouraging them to get rid of all citizen illusions: nuclear power is consultation, then the cops. As in the Cotentin region, the broad pro-nuclear consensus bought with millions and infrastructure could begin to micro-crack around the power plant projects, but also the possible new routes of the necessary high-voltage lines.

Everywhere, we can only encourage or rejoice at the constitution of self-organized groups, of autonomous collective or individual initiatives to propagate this response and to organize support for the compas in struggle in Bure. The various moments of discussion to come could make it possible to forge links between all of us, without lining up behind any militant general staff.

Friday, March 22: screening of the film The Sacrifice (2003, 24 minutes)

Local Apache, 35 boulevard Poincaré, Caen, at 6:30 p.m.

Followed by a chat and a commun meal, think about bringing some food 😉

Saturday 23 March: autonomous procession “against nuclear power and its world” in the anti-nuclear demonstration 

2 p.m., meeting in front of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), boulevard Vannier, Caen.

Then around 5:30 p.m., at the squat of the Pouponnière (138 rue d’Auge): anti-nuclear assembly

Saturday and Sunday 13-14 April: Thematic weekend on the denial of democracy.

Conferences – meetings – concerts – carnival on Sunday (Cherbourg/Beaumont-Hague)

From 17 to 23 April, Spring Anti-Authoritarian Meetings Against Nuclear Power.

Bure and surroundings. More about bureburebure.info

 

 

29/02/2024