Originally published on: manif-est.info (in french)
A lot of bad things have been said about the Olympic Games – and rightly so – for a long time now. They were already crap in London and Rio, in Albertville and Beijing, they were already the place for the exaltation of nationalism in Berlin in 1936, and it’s a safe bet that we would even have been considered them bad in ancient Greece. However, the Olympic Committee is not always devoid of common sense, and knows how to recognize, appreciate and value local customs. Such is the case with the forthcoming arrival of the Olympic Flame in the south of the Meuse département.
On June 29, 2024, the “Flame Relay” will pass through our verdant countryside. One might legitimately ask why. It’s true that an event lasting less than a day, whose cost (responsibility of the département) exceeds the Department Council’s annual budget for sport, might seem surprising. And then, when you think of the Meuse, you don’t think directly of athletics or javelin throwing, let alone tennis or breakdancing (yes, it’s an Olympic sport now). Of course, the bicycle pedal was invented in Bar-le-Duc, but that’s not enough to label it a “Land of Games”.
Relay, a popular discipline in Meuse
In fact, it’s not the usual disciplines that are in vogue around here, but the Flame relay as such. Indeed, things have been burning for some years now. In this mystical land, marked by the Virgin Mary’s apparitions to Joan of Arc, the sacred fire is spreading. It appears, feeds on what it finds and dies, only to re-emerge further away, even brighter. One day it devours an ANDRA borehole, the next day a measuring tower, further a barracks under construction. The most indomitable of the four elements prowls on the Barrois plateau, the Saulx valley and as far as Commercy, where a company car – apparently badly used – was burnt to the ground last winter.
Here he is, the real meusien Flame’s Relay! He’s the one the Olympic Committee wants to highlight, without daring to admit it publicly. And that’s just recognition, because it takes courage, self-sacrifice, talent and daring to accomplish such feats, to break records for speed or precision, to overcome fears, to dodge the obstacles that stand like so many hurdles on the nocturnal path of anonymous fire-starters. These are the “values of Olympism”, that universalist philosophy we thought was full of good (capitalist and colonial) sentiments.
We will agree that it wouldn’t be so fair-play to disappoint the Committee in this final stretch. There are still seven months to show ourselves worthy of this celebration, and to multiply as many hearths of festivities as possible until the final bouquet of the June 29th. I’ve even heard that our beloved President has declared physical and athletic activity the Great National Cause of 2024, so we’re running out of options.
On your marks, get set, fire (at Andra), go!
A brief (non-exhaustive) hit list of the meusian flame’s relay
Since 2015 (at least)
Recurrent fires in the “green boxes”, boreholes and piezometers sown by ANDRA all around the laboratory in Bure.
For example here, in June 2020: https://attaque.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/03/nucleaire-sabotage-dun-forage-a-bure/ (in french) or here, in July 2022 : https://bureburebure.info/quelques-photos-suite-a-lannonce-de-la-dup/ (in french)
June 2017
Destruction and “attempted fire” at the Bindeuil hotel-restaurant. https://attaque.noblogs.org/post/2017/06/22/bure-meuse-saccage-du-restaurant-des-nucleocrates-de-landra/ (in french)
Spring 2018
Complete fire at the former gendarmerie in Montiers-sur-Saulx, which was about to be renovated and put back into service. https://www.estrepublicain.fr/edition-de-bar-le-duc/2017/12/19/montiers-sur-saulx-incendie-ancienne-gendarmerie
Year 2018
Sabotage of the high-voltage power line supplying Andra’s Bure-Saudron laboratory, setting fire to several pylons.
November 2020
The shooting range, used by the cops and hacks of the Saint Mihiel’s prison, is ravaged by flames. https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/2721
Spring 2022
Fire at a Andra’s naturalist research station in Montiers-sur-Saulx. https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/13231
September 2022
Fire in Commercy of the car belonging to the architect of the mobile police barracks to be built inside the Andra lab.
https://bureburebure.info/commercy-identifier-les-collaborateurs-du-desastre-nucleaire-et-les-attaquer/
October 2022
Fire at an “atmospheric station of excellence” in Houdelaincourt. https://lille.indymedia.org/spip.php?article35206&lang=fr
February 2023
Fire on an Andra transmission tower at Osne-le-Val, near Bure. https://bureburebure.info/cinq-ans-apres-levacuation-du-bois-lejuc-lantenne-flux-de-landra-incendiee-a-osne-le-val-pres-de-bure/
May 2023
Fire at the future Gondrecourt-le-Château gendarmerie.
https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/16685
Bonus
To get a good idea of the historical roots of this discipline in our region, here’s a quick look back, found in an archive : https://lille.indymedia.org/IMG/pdf/nuclear_or_lignite_fragments_of_the_struggle_against_this_world_s_juice_from_the_bois_lejuc_to_the_hambach_forest.page_by_page.pdf (in english)
On July 27th, 2006, as part of a week of citizen agitation in Bure (Meuse) against this nuclear waste burial laboratory belonging to ANDRA, the (french) National radioactive waste management Agency, a demonstration took place right up to the site’s well-guarded gates. There were brief clashes and an attempted fire.
