1- what is an alternative life (def)

An alternative life is a life perceived to be outside the norm for a given culture.
Alternative lifestyles were first highlighted in the US in the 1920s with the “flapper” movement.
It was a movement where women cut their hair and skirts short as a symbol of freedom from
oppression and the old ways of living.

2- what alternative life we chose and why (ZAD de ND des Landes – bc it happened recently and
near Nantes)

Tho it’s interesting we chose another alternative living.

It’s in France and even near Nantes : The ZAD of Notre Dame des Landes
We chose it bc it happened recently and it’s local so you can associate this event
to the subject more easily

3- What is a ZAD ( def + basically anagramme zone à défendre → area to defend)

The expression ZAD is a militant neologism used in France to designate a form of

squat with a political vocation, most of the time in the open air, and generally
intended to oppose a project of development
it’s basically an anagram of the french “Zone A Défendre” but initially it was a
term that designated a “deferred development zone”.

4- Where our ZAD was located precisely (map on the diapo)

5- what was the project of the airport initially (dates, program of the project)

The project of the airport was initiated in 1966 but the french senator Michel Chauty soon
to be the mayor of Nantes said during an interview that the project was not ambitious
enough and that we needed 7000 hectares of fields to create the new Rotterdam airport of
Europe.

6- how was it going to be like (maybe find plans and describe it with the
repercussions on the people and fields)

7- Who were the « Zadistes » (definition, number and type of people)

The zadistes of ND des Landes are activists who are opposed to the
realization of the airport project and who invest the place physically.
They were between 200 and 400 people and are either peasants,
townspeople who move in the lands or anti-capitalist activist. There
are musicians, craftsmen and so on.
8-What were their reasons to stay and fight (protect the agriculture fields)
Now that the ZAD is over, they are planting again as we can see in this picture.
In fact, their idea was to protect the fields for the agriculture. Indeed, all local
farmers would had to move out if the project was maintained because their farm
would have been destroyed to create the airport and the landing runway which
needed a lot of space. Building this airport meant erasing their culture and
patrimony, that wasn’t bondable for them.

9- What were their reasons to stay and fight (protect the already endangered fauna & flora →
which are ?)

As the culture would have been destroyed the local fauna already
endangered would have no space to live anymore therefore that would
have been a real extinction of the local biodiversity. Protected animals
that weren’t in the past inventory have been found thanks to the
scientists of the ZAD such as water shrew and Blasius’ Triton.

10- How did they fought against the project

Usually people in the ZAD are very community and pacific people. In this example
we can see a group of people chanting in front of the authority. There are lot in all
sensible area harmful people but they don’t represent the whole group

11- How was life within the little society they made

Many people still want to stay in the ZAD because their experience has been a real
laboratory to create a brand new definition of collective life. For instance they have
create a “non-market” where people give what they can give to pay. They have also
created an assembly to talk about the problem within the ZAD.

12- How were the relationships between neighbors in the ZAD

There were issues between neighbors like in all societies but the assembly was here to
fix them. Plus, there were a real and strong idea of helping each other if they needed
something and be united together.

13- What were their type of dwelling

their habitat was very basic, made up of elements found on the spot such as
wooden planks, old tractor tires etc. There were also many people sleeping in
tents

14- Did they won their fight (yes 3ya) and how the victory was
taken

Despite of the missing funding, their perseverance worked because they won their fight
3 years ago and it was for them a real moment of joy and feast.

15-How did they managed to win (they fought but also negotiated with the estate)

Not only they made riot to claim their lands but they have also negotiated with the estate. In
2016, the french president even asked the people of the region if they wanted the airport or
not. It turned up the french people said yes but the Zadistes didn’t give up however.
16-How were they seen by the estate

The french estate didn’t hesitate to send them the authority because they were in opposition
to the ideology. Zadistes people are anti-capitalist and they made a lot of disturb among the
society, they fought since the 1970s so it’s obviously a calling into question of the system
itself.

17- How were they seen by the population

In reality the population didn’t really know about them, about what was really going on
inside those fields. Of course the medias were talking about them but most of the time
in a more negative way as I saw. They were really putting forward the few malicious
people of the group to generalize it to the whole movement.

18-What were the repercussions of the occupation of ND des Landes on French people

A lot of french people got involved in the conflict and it got in a big proportion. There were
these stickers that people sticks onto their car to show whether they agree or not with the
project. It was a real social statute to put a sticker.

19- What happened to the zadistes since they’ve won

Many of the zadistes left but many are still living there because this type of living
suits them, they like being all together in some sort of camp with the same ideology
and spirit of mutual aid despite the fact that they are threatened of expulsion by the
estate. Today there are still around 150 to 200 people.

20- our opinion on this type of alternative living

Thinking about it, we thought that it was good to create a community to claim and
fight for what we think is good. But those kind of living need to be well organized
and couldn’t work for a whole country, it needs to stay with a few people even tho
400 hundred was a lot and worked in Notre Dame des landes.

Tx for hearing us.