The Zad and NoTAV: Territorial Struggles and the Making of a New Political Intelligence

by Mauvaise Troupe Collective, Kristin Ross (Translator)

Vivid account and reflection on two struggles that are at the heart of the contestation of neoliberal technocracy and the state

At a time of ever more accelerated and expanded development of natural and agricultural territory, in the aim of making targeted areas more profitable and controllable, there are inhabitants who oppose these projects with a firm, unwavering NO. This is the case in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in western France and in the Italian Susa Valley, where decades-long battles have been mounted against high-speed transport infrastructure, an airport for one, and a high-speed train (TAV) between Lyon and Turin for the other.

Each of these struggles embodies, with its own distinct style, original ways of merging life with combat. And they do so to such a degree that they are redesigning today the future of their respective regions and awakening immense hope outside of their own territories.

This book recounts these two histories-in-the-making and gives voice to their protagonists. It was born of the intuition that these experiences and the hypotheses that emerge from them should circulate at the same time as the slogans and the enthusiasm, to strengthen the will to resist.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Macartney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A primary source document at best. Rather rough translation as well.

[tout · Rating 5 out of 5]

This feels essential and vital for thinking through what building other worlds/fighting this world together could look like and what working through some of the problems of doing so now looks like. How to break down the militant versus local distinction, the violent versus the good citizen, etc. Going beyond the protest to actually inhabiting and taking territory and taking it as an opening toward the multiple.

"It is true that at first sight the two operations — opposing a government and looking for the ways to function in common despite differences — do not seem to be the same. And yet, similar questions arise: first, in both cases, one must avoid the retreat into individualist and cynical comfort that justifies renouncements or that brings to an end any possibility of collective elaboration. Then, there is the problem of hegemony, and the ways of escaping it. On the one hand, the well-ensconced hegemony of economic relations and other manifestations of structural power, against which there is hardly any option except open battle. On the other, the never-really-absent temptation of a false solution to the problem of the one and the multiple, which pushes a developing strength to expel that which it cannot assimilate."

The editing could have been a little better in my opinion and sections within sections a little less fragmented. A lot of the text is interspersed with short testimonials by participants in both movements. The text flowed between history and analysis and these testimonials.

Overall, this feels hugely important to take and learn from.

If anyone has any recommended texts or documentaries for more information about the NoTAV struggle I'd be really interested as well. There are a few documentaries about the zad with English subtitles, but hopefully more are coming as well. Supposedly Godard made one?

[Subvert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally something in English about perhaps the most interesting political projects in Europe, that are relatively unknown even in other nearby European countries. Quickly read the last chapter. I loved the testimonies of lots of different individuals throughout the book.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half a story, half an exhortation. As much a circle of celebration as an investigation of socially-grounded politics. I'm not sure how much I learned here, to be honest.

[final muzak · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, although I read this a few years back, so the rating might not be entirely accurate to how I’d feel today