Hi! Here's a call to defend "The Tanneries" squatted
social centre,
home
of the PRINT hacklab (
http://print.squat.net/), among
a number of other
political & counter-cultural initiatives. Spread
around!
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Let's defend the autonomous space "Les
Tanneries"
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- - -
Català :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-cat.txt
Deutsch :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-de.txt
Español :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-es.txt
Euskara :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-eu.txt
Français :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-fr.txt
Italiano :
http://squat.net/tanneries/documents/EADT-C-20070324-it.txt
After nearly 10 years of existence, the squatted
autonomous space "Les
Tanneries" (in Dijon, France) is being threatened by a
private medical
complex, facilitated by the city council.
We have just learnt that Dijon's city council had
started negociations
to sell our occupied social centre and its
surroundings to developpers,
and we need to act quickly. This is why we have
written the following
statement, explaining why and how we will struggle for
the very
existence of our free space.
After a first protest gathering and an occupation of
the city hall
meeting in Dijon, as well as a number of support
e-mails from around
the
world, the council has slightly backed up, saying they
will consider
putting our space aside from the building plans.
However, there's no
way
we can take that for granted; not if we don't maintain
pressure, and
prepare to act whenever we face another alert.
To all those you have been supporting us in the last
few days, we want
to say: "thanks for the amazing strenght and support
you gave us". We
still incite you all to voice your discontent to the
municipality, by
letters, telephone or e-mails:
Mairie de Dijon,
M. François Rebsamen, Phone:
(+33|0)-380-745-151
place de la Libération, E-mail:
francois.rebsamen@???
21000 Dijon, France.
We need to maintain the pressure, and take the time to
create a wider
mobilisation. Thanks again, and be ready!
* * *
Without any public consultation, but with the typical
secrecy that
typically accompanies hot topics during electoral
periods, the
"socialist" city council of Dijon is making decisions
that could lead
to
the end of the autonomous space "Les Tanneries", a
self-managed
political, social, cultural centre that was squatted
in 1997 and since
then has become an important node for anarchist
organizing and radical
activism throughout France and Europe. Needless to
say, we won't let
the
council carry out their plans!
We have known since the beginning that we would have
to maintain a
permanent vigilence, despite the no-eviction agreement
we obtained from
the council in 2002 after years of fighting. In early
March 2007, after
hearing persistant rumours about threatening projects,
we got in touch
with the council and asked for explanations. In spite
of repeated
queries by mail and telephone, we were denied any
answer. Two days ago,
we got the confirmation from a trustworthy but
unofficial source, that
the city council had sent a written proposal to the
"Générale de
Santé",
offering them the whole piece of land where our space
is located for
the
construction of a 25-acre-wide private medical complex
by 2009.
While public healthcare services are being threatened
by neo-liberal
privatising strategies in Europe, will the Dijon city
council encourage
a "two gear" health system?
Does it want to contribute to the monopoly of Générale
de Santé, the
biggest european private health transnational (1.741
billion euros of
profit in 2006, 10% of the transnational being owned
by Vivendi) by
offering them land that is close to the city centre,
almost in front of
the public hospital? The Générale de Santé would thus
seize this
great
opportunity to close its nearby hospitals rather than
renovating them.
Despite its propaganda for "participative democracy",
the city council
did not ask us or anyone else from the neighbourhood
before proposing
the deal which not only threatens us, but would also
decide upon the
future of a whole part of town.
* * *
Why support Les Tanneries loud and clear?
The council's policies are already threatening the
independant theater
"L'Eldorado", as well as the squat called "Le
Toboggan". By planning to
shut down "Les Tanneries", the council will ostensibly
confirm that the
so-called "socialist" party wants France to be a
police state without
places of resistance, experimentation and popular
culture.
"Les Tanneries" hosts a concert hall for
do-it-yourself bands and
miscellaneous performances, a housing collective and
some anarchist
affinity groups, a hacklab for developing free
software and running
alternative servers, a free-shop, a space for mecanics
and a
bike-repair
workshop, rehearsal rooms and silk-screening
facilities, a meeting
space, an organic garden, an alternative media center,
a squatters'
helpdesk, a library, diverse ecological constructions,
dozens of
collectives, associations, and local and international
networks that
use
the space to organise gigs, info-nights, actions,
skill-shares,
meetings
and projects...
While public cultural spaces run with the help of huge
grants, and
private ones thanks to businesses and sponsors,
hundreds of people come
weekly to "Les Tanneries" to create a truly
independent culture and
indulge in all kinds of activities for free or on a
"sliding-scale"
basis. To preserve its freedom, "Les Tanneries" has
always been run
without any kind of subsidees nor any employees.
In a country where self-managed structures are almost
always repressed
and therefore fragile, "Les Tanneries" is one of the
very few long
lasting projects of this kind. Hence it has become a
resourceful place
and a crucial part of an autonomous, activist and
counter-cultural
scene
in Europe.
"Les Tanneries" is about putting radical social views
into practice and
about providing tools for people to experience their
ideas. We try to
break down the borders between our "personal lives"
and the "political
world" - an attempt at organizing in formal horizontal
fashion, against
authoritarian and hierarchical structures.
We want to build things ourselves and change our own
lives by
challenging domination, racism, sexism and homophobia
- in the streets,
as much as within our own walls. Most importantly, we
want to do it
now,
rather than wait for some D-day that might not come.
However, "Les Tanneries" doesn't want to be a "nice
and friendly"
alternative that won't shove established powers too
violently, nor does
it want to be some tolerated folklorical zoo that
would prove the
democratic goodwill of council leaders. We're here to
struggle and
change the world, naturally!
Still, we don't fantasize about standing on the fringe
of society.
Contrary to the cynical mainstream political norm,
experiences such as
ours are showing it is possible to practically
challenge capitalism and
authority without electoral speeches. Throughout its
existence, "Les
Tanneries" has proved that it is not only realistic,
but also relevant
to self-organise without institutions. We also believe
that we've
demonstrated that our project is not just the
delirious utopia of a
bunch of kids who will change their minds when they
grow older.
"Les Tanneries", just like all these places standing
against the world
surrounding them, is unique in its way, and yet bound
to the history of
so many. It sprang out of the dreams, collusions and
affinities,
encounters and combativity of hundreds of people.
Carved within its
walls are the joys and angers, rages and passions,
adventures and
emotions of several generations.
* * *
# Our project can't be moved or destroyed;
# It must stay in the neighbourhood!
Whatever the new urban development plans for the
neighbourhood might
be,
we will struggle to preserve what we've been building
here for ten
years
and to ensure that the project as a whole can carry
on. It is perfectly
possible, considering how much available space there
is around "Les
Tanneries". With a real political will from the City
Hall, suitable
solutions can be found.
Thanks to everyone for their support, and thanks for
the series of
pressure actions that were done before "Les Tanneries"
got an end to
city harassment in 2002. Five years later, we're ready
to start
fighting
again to defend this space and build a new network of
resistance based
upon the contacts, experiences and complicities that
we've made over
the
years. Not only is "Les Tanneries" deeply-rooted
locally, but it is
also
part of a larger community whose affinities know no
borders. Be it
through support actions around the world, or by coming
to "Les
Tanneries" to physically defend the place against
eviction, we expect
this extended family to mobilize with us!
Let's hope leaders will keep in mind the long days and
nights of
demonstrating and rioting that paralysed the Danish
capital in the last
weeks, as well as the number of radical actions that
happened all over
Europe in support of our friends in Ungdomshuset. Just
like theirs, our
struggle is a global fight for self-organised spaces
and nodes of
subversion to carry on and extend all over Europe.
While we're very likely to call for solidarity actions
in the future,
we
want to start with a warning campaign, and incite you
to write to
Dijon's city-hall to say that you want "Les Tanneries"
to carry on
existing where it is. If you want to be informed of
support actions and
demonstrations, send us your e-mail or phone number at
tanneries@???.
We'll defend, we'll resist. Parce qu'on a la rage!
Dijon,
March 24th 2007,
Espace
autogéré des Tanneries,
http://squat.net/tanneries/
tanneries@???
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