Here are some news from La Gare and the latest mobilizations on site

This article does not represent the point of view of all the opposition to Cigéo in the south of Meuse. It was thought by six people, written in pairs and reread by two other people. If we do not claim to speak in the name of the whole struggle, we assume to speak as a member of this opposition.

Recap of the past few days

A call for mobilization was launched to defend La Gare, to come within a week to derail the eviction from La Gare. We had been ordered to leave the premises of La Gare starting from April 9. It was written that it was out of the question to leave this place on the terms of the state.
If you’re interested, here is the call : https://bureburebure.info/en/faisons-derailler-lexpulsion-la-gare-prend-sa-revanche-semaine-du-13-au-19-avril/

The week was intense, in preparation, in emotions, in reflections. Then on Sunday, we set off on our way to La Gare.
There were about a hundred of us, surrounded by police vans. All around ANDRA, in the Bois Lejus, and on the roads of the wood lab, from Mandres-en-barrois to Cirfontaines, but also on major roads such as Joinville and Ligny. ANDRA and its cops are clearly afraid of us. The prefect announced 800 mobile police officers. We have observed several hundred for sure.

This Sunday, it was nice weather, the planting of potatoes, salads and aromatics from La Gare on ANDRA’s land, the barricades that bloom on the road, those that burn… It was a very joyful and beautiful moment.
The entire summary of this day with photos on the super info feed : https://bureburebure.info/en/events/event/fil-info-marche-de-la-gare-%e2%99%a5/

The context of the on-site struggle

More generally, the context in which the events of recent days have taken place is important for understanding. The pressure exerted by the State, ANDRA and the cops has been going on for years. The repression in the Bure area is well known, particularly the harassment strategies and numerous identity checks. Lately, getting organized at the station and in the surrounding areas meant being attentive to the drones, helicopters, police cars, but also to digital surveillance. Also, monstrous devices are systematically deployed during the actions, whether by the number of gendarmes or by the equipment they have. The State decides on the agenda and progress of the CIGÉO project, imposing its dates and its balance of power, which apparently has no limits.

We have little control over this, over the weapons of capitalism. Playing their game, adapting to their pace, their decisions,… It is the assurance of crushing our energy, our mental health, our connections, our lives. Deciding to leave and extend the ZAD from La Gare onto the road was a way to regain power over what had been imposed on us.

Celebrate our victories

The departure from La Gare on April 19 (or September 231, on the infinite calendar) was a chosen departure.

It was symbolic and did not concern everyone in the same way. Some stayed until the evening of the evacuation, and others continue to move in the shadows. Many people, for a variety of reasons, could not or would not consider remaining on site under the pressure of eviction and/or police evacuation. This departure allowed them to finish in style. Bringing their help, energy and love from La Gare to the barricades, inflamed a few hours later.

All day on Sunday, there were no injuries, no arrests and no police custody.

The organization of medics, anticipation and logistical improvisation in other places, the anticipation and mobilization of the legal team, the supporters who have converged, and the former ones who connect again to this place for a few days or hours ; All this allowed us to stand together and unroll a (slightly obscure) plan that was ours from start to finish.

The week of construction sites, fish markets, workshops, performances, and parties took place. Preparations for the evacuation were carried out.

The level of stress always relativizes the joy and success of moments like those we have just experienced. The fears of each other, which sometimes clash, make it difficult to emulate others. However, we have good reasons to be afraid, and we find equally great pride in taking care of one another as much as we can to hold each other together for as long as possible.
Throughout this Sunday, the efforts of the last days, months and even years have resulted in a collective dynamic that has been a great joy. Extending La Gare, even for a few hours, was another demonstration of what we are able to do collectively. And we treasure these moments in our heads and hearts, because we already know that remembering them will help us for the future.

FUN FACTS!!

– centaur* VERSUS barricade = centaur 0 – barricade 1
The cops have resigned themselves to dismantling a barricade by hand, because the centaur simply rushing into it… was stopped by the barricade 😛
Never minimize the strength of a good interlacing of tires, pallets, trunks, gas cylinders, etc… <3
.
– The cops yell at each other when they’re scared and when they struggle to move a barricade
That would make them almost human! But well, for that they would have to stop protecting a government of capitalists, stop their racist violence, stop bearing arms to humiliate other humans, … resigning would be a good first step!

– A dome about 4 meters high and 10 meters in diameter can be used by up to twenty people

– A wind turbine about ~10m high rises to about twenty people + ropes
Like what, you don’t have to be so numerous to hinder the progress of the cops.

Despite all this, the context of expropriations by ANDRA, which affected many families in the south of Meuse, remains frightening.
It has sometimes, often, been difficult to find or collectively clarify the perspectives of struggle. Despite the phenomenal number of people who crossed, lived and supported it, La Gare remains an 8-hectare site lost in the depths of the Meuse. It wasn’t necessarily a consensus, but several of us said : “La Gare, we’re going to lose it ; we don’t know exactly when, but we can decide how to lose it.”

That is why we now want to celebrate the illegal occupation that began during Infinite September, which spent a winter and ended on this day of September 231. This occupation has made a lot of things possible. This occupation is also the end of the life of a place that lasted almost twenty years.

We are going to witness its destruction by ANDRA ; this is already enraging us. But we also know that this memory will carry our anger which we will deploy against the works of Cigéo, if they really begin one day.

The struggle is not over, it is starting again

In front of us, a lot of things to come. If sometimes the prospects are dark, because we face powerful enemies & that the contradictions in our organizations sometimes seem insurmountable, we try to never forget that the fight against nuclear power is a fight against the world of nuclear power.

There is no sustainable alternative to nuclear power. It is in the political and social organization that there are answers to be found.
Some governments find it justifiable to sacrifice territories like in Congo or elsewhere, to extract the uranium and the phenomenal quantity of metals that are needed for the nuclear industry and for electrification of the world. Justifiable to subject whole peoples to the nuclear threat as in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America (it is recalled that the permanent members of the UN Security Council are the five first powers to have acquired nuclear weapons) to maintain the capitalist hegemony of the West. Justifiable to go further and further in the capitalist destruction that now leads us into a generalized ecological collapse (it is NEVER too late to stop the destruction, while recognizing that losses are gradually irreversible and of which we must mourn).

We do not accept these observations as inevitable. There are many other realities that struggle to exist and that bear witness to the possibility of living quite differently. These governments disgust us, and we have no confidence that they are providing for the people. They only know how to cajole the strongest by sacrificing the weakest. We find our power elsewhere than in domination. In solidarity, still under construction ; in the care of one-euns and others, still in transformation ; in the determination to stand up to the fascists of this world.

More locally, CIGÉO continues to move forward.
It is already behind schedule, its cost will continue to rise, and the relaunch of nuclear power has not yet been completed ; but CIGÉO is nonetheless making progress. Within a few weeks, an other public inquiry will be held in the south of Meuse, about the DAC (Declaration of Authorization to Create, currently under review by the nuclear authorities). This public inquiry will be held remotely (via video, LOL) ; probably because they know that we would not let it go smoothly. This public inquiry will be a farce, like previous ones. A farce that would be funny if the stakes weren’t so high. But it will serve as a democratic guarantee and feed into ANDRA’s social acceptability strategies in the Meuse and Haute-Marne. Their goal is to have the DAC approved before 2027. Before the presidential elections? Maybe, surely.

If the nucleocrats are afraid of political instability, we have clues to what we must continue to do : support and take part in all struggles, everywhere, as much as we can.

Here in the Meuse, there is space for many people – and of course, the possibilities for mobilization depend largely on a sufficiently large number of people being organized on site. But the struggle in the Meuse is not more important than other struggles elsewhere ; what matters are rather the links between our struggles and the solidarity we manage to build. So come to the Meuse ; and take the time to come, so that we have time to organize ourselves properly. The struggle at Bure is already present in many places ; it behooves everyone to ask the question : how to stop the nuclear disaster ?

And if the joy of settling in the Meuse catches you for a while or for a long time, know that you are already welcome <3

Dear, La Gare, goodbye,

La Gare, so we said goodbye.
We keep in mind everything you represent, all the memories, the symbols,
We will cherish in our hearts our memories and some traces, such as the ∞ ZINE that were published throughout this very long infinite September.
We said goodbye to you, but not goodbye.
Of course, the end of La Gare as a place to live is an immense pain.
But it’s not the end of our story, La Gare.
Don’t think we’ll let the work go smoothly or the Castor trains pass through you without it derailing.

We miss you a lot,
See you next time.

*The centaur is the name of a rather recent armored vehicle used by the national gendarmerie (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Véhicule_d’intervention_polyvalent_de_la_gendarmerie)
The centaur being a mythical creature, it will be noted that the army continues to use warrior imaginaries to fuel their fantasies of power, control, and destruction. The company (Sofram) that produced this vehicle is a stakeholder in this imagination. Our enemies also need imaginaries, and they use them for deadly ends. We oppose them with other imaginaries. Among the centaurs, some had reputations of wisdom. It is therefore an imperialist reduction and recovery to use the image of the centaur to name a weapon of war and repression.

22/04/2026

Memory of the struggles