"In France, dam is the catalyst for a flood of young people’s anger" by Maia de la Baume | New York Times November 02, 2014
LISLE-SUR-TARN, France — The protests began a year ago in this quiet corner of southwestern France, as a small and peaceful gathering of hippies, environmental activists, and utopians of all types set up tents to oppose the construction of a nearby dam.
This is the first time I've seen any mention of it in my Boston Globe.
In August, after local authorities sent diggers and then crushing machines to level the soil and destroy trees, clashes erupted between protesters and the police, turning this vast stretch of woodland into what many here called a war zone.
More than 100 protesters, joined by a minority of violent groups, responded to tear gas and rubber bullets by throwing fire bombs. They built makeshift checkpoints, roadblocks, and two watchtowers.
Kind of like Hong Kong, huh?
Finally, last weekend, a 21-year-old student, Rémi Fraisse, was killed after being hit by a stun grenade that protesters say was thrown by a police officer.
Governments are all the goddamn same, nothing but oppressive and thuggish assholes!
On Saturday, projectile-throwing youths clashed with police on the sidelines of a demonstration honoring Fraisse.
Riot police bearing shields fired tear-gas canisters in the city Nantes to disperse the masked protesters — some of whom lit fires, chucked back the canisters, and tore down street signs to use as projectiles.
One protester’s sign decried ‘‘murderous capitalism,’’ and a spray-painted wall read: ‘‘The mood is napalm; no return to calm.’’
Fraisse’s death, which resulted in the temporary suspension of the construction work, has turned what had been a local protest into a national drama, spawning vigils and front-page news coverage while prompting criticism of President François Hollande’s government for its lack of response.
The worst French government ever, and that includes the Vichy.
But the death has also focused attention on the government’s seeming failure to engage a broad segment of France’s next generation and the increasingly violent nature of protests inspired by antiglobalization movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, that have spread across France in recent years.
Except those protests were not violent; it was the police that did the skull-cracking.
Honestly, folks, I'm sick of the $hit spin of the Jew York Times and all the other propaganda pre$$ and ma$$ media of AmeriKa. Just goddamned tired of it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Initially fueled by environmental concerns, the protests have come to embody the disenchantment and anger of young people who see few future opportunities and feel little kinship with the government.
It's a WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC in response to A$$HOLE LEADERS!!
Many of those who gathered to oppose the dam call themselves “Zadistes,” or partisans of the ZAD, the French acronym for zones à defendre, or areas to defend. They say they have come to build an independent society.
Increasingly, they are seen as environmental extremists, or “green jihadists,” as Xavier Beulin, the president of the main agriculture union, put it.
Oh, they are TERRORISTS, huh?
You know, that term is being thrown around so often and at so many it is becoming MEANINGLESS! It now applies to ANY WHO STAND AGAINST the NEW WORLD ORDER being implemented by $lavish EUSraeli $cum.
The protests here are the latest aimed at a widening number of projects the demonstrators criticize as monuments to the overweening ambitions of local politicians and their business connections.
It's called pork over here, and it is considered a good quality to bring home the bacon.
Last month, demonstrations in support of the Zadistes were held across France, including in Nantes, where more than 100 protesters went on a rampage. In the nearby town of Gaillac, several shops and a memorial to war dead were vandalized.
How do you say agent provocateur in French?
Several years ago, the movement sprang up in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near the western end of the central Loire Valley, where hundreds of young people and farmers gathered in a woodland outside Nantes to oppose government plans to build an airport. Clashes in Nantes left about a dozen protesters injured.
Fraisse’s death has been subject to investigation and prompted the government to suspend the use of stun grenades against protesters nationwide. Critics have labeled the government’s response as late and confused.
It is for at least one kid -- as the authorities basically admit guilt.
--more--"
Yeah, phoque this for now.
