Let Your Righteous Anger Burst Forth.

      At the moment, looking at our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, you would be forgiven for thinking that our world comprises of over privileged useless prats, prancing around in ridiculous attire, being cheered on by a mindless horde of adoring fans. All because our biggest social benefit family have decided to try to cement their family's privileged position by having another wedding. No mention in the babbling brook of bullshit's out pouring, of the strikes and mass demonstrations in France against this system that spawns these over privileged prancing prats.

        France is in turmoil with transport strikes, social service strikes and student strikes. Not to mention the brutal state attempt at the eviction of ZAD, which has been going on for weeks now. Groups from various sections of French society are calling and organising for a general strike. The simmering anger that has been bubbling away under the surface is starting to break through in an attempt to tear this rotten corrupt system apart. We should be supporting their efforts in any way we can, and be trying to bring to boiling point, that simmering anger that lies just below the surface in our own society. Years of a deliberate ideology of dispossessing the poor, has fuelled that anger, but anger without a target is like a blind archer behind a bow. We have to direct that anger at the root cause of our ever decreasing share of the country's wealth, that we the people create, capitalism itself.

       This from Enough is Enough:

           As we reported more and more people discuss an indefenite general strike on the French territory. In the coming week there are two major mobilizations: on May 22 and May 26. On May 22 students are mobilizing for the “Day of the Barricades”and the public services sector will go on strike.
        On May 14 there was a first meeting in Paris about the current mobilizations and a general strike. The meeting was organized in less than two weeks by Front Social and about 300 people attended. There is now a proposal for another meeting with activists of various general assemblies (railway workers, postmen, students etc.) to meet in the evening of May 22. Gaël Quirante (a union member of SUD Post 92) said during the May 14 meeting: “It is time to discuss how we go on strike, how to amplify the strike, how we generalize it, how we build a general strike. And a general strike is something different than just not working, it’s not only for those who have a job: a general strike means that at some point, with or without job, is a strike that raises the question of who decides in our lives.”

Read the full article HERE:
       
        The ongoing struggle for ZAD:

          Since the government’s decision to cancel the construction of an airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) on January 17, 2018, life on la ZAD—the Zone a Défendre (Zone To Defend) where the airport was to be built—has been a complicated series of conflicts about whether to negotiate with the government for the future of the land. Any lingering illusions that it could be possible to coexist peacefully with the authority of the state were dispelled this week, as the French government initiated what they hope will be the decisive eviction of this world-famous inspiring autonomous zone. To learn about the fifty years of struggle that led up to this moment, read our full history, “La ZAD: Another End of the World Is Possible.”

The latest from ZAD:

           The government has announced a second wave of evictions on the zad of Notre-Dame des-Landes. The operation could be launched as soon as May 15th. We have no idea how large or how long it will be. What is certain is that we cannot trust official announcements and that we will mobilise if faced with any new attempt to pick and choose, which living places on the zad they will evict.
           Despite those, from the government or unfortunately even from the movement, who try to sow divisions, label and increase tensions, we will maintain as wide as possible a common defense for all the living places, perspectives and activities that are intertwined on the zad.
         This is the line that we have wanted to hold, as much within the negotiations as with the various forms of resistance and mobilisations on site for several weeks. We thus invite everyone to be ready to react again on the zad and everywhere else from May 15th.

Read the full article HERE: 

 

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The Illusion Of Order.

Paris 2018.

        As usual, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, displays order in our land. The government has set up a hotline for the innocent people of the  "Windrush" engineered victimisation scheme, well that's that problem sort!!! All those lovely people, the leaders of the Commonwealth, are wining and dining with the Queen and agreeing that her, on lifetime benefit, son, should become leader of the Commonwealth, well that's unemployment down again. All this is laced with bits of spice and a little bit of shock here and there, but all is well here in the UK, order reigns among a happy population, after all we have a royal wedding to finance and look forward to, which will bring colour and pleasure into our simple lives. And so the illusion is re-enforced for the gullible. The misery caused by austerity, universal credit, rising homelessness, increasing child poverty, a crumbling education system, and a health service cracking at the seams, is sidelined in favour of popcorn and bubblegum "news", trivia and propaganda. Nor is there a word about the chaos just across the Channel in France. Transport strikes that are paralysing the country, the students' strikes and occupations, Air France strikes, and not forgetting the strikes and protests by civil servants, energy workers and garbage collectors, then there is ZAD, and the ongoing struggle to defend ZAD against brutal eviction. France's Economy Minister has admitted that the strikes are impacting on growth, oh dear. President Macron is not a popular man among the ordinary people, but of course, big business love him. To the uninitiated, that should give you a hint as to where his loyalties lie. 

Defence of ZAD, April 2018.

  

    On top of this welling up of hatred and disgust with the economic system in France, the powers that be, are a bit nervous about the looming 50th. anniversary of the May 1968 French uprising, which may be celebrated in a way that the political ballerinas and corporate Mafia don't like. Well here's hoping. 

Paris, May 1968.

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Trees Or Tarmac, Autonomy Or Control?

  And more on the ZAD struggle. This from Contra Info:

       A CALL FOR INTERGALACTIC SOLIDARITY ACTIONS EVERYWHERE TO END THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ZAD OF NOTRE DAME DES LANDES

We are writing with the smell of tear gas rising from our fingers. The springtime symphony of birdsong is punctuated by the explosive echo of concussion grenades. Our eyes are watering, less from the gas than the sadness; because our friends’ homes, barns and organic farms are being destroyed. Bulldozers, supported by 2500 riot police, armored vehicles, helicopters and drones, are rampaging through these forests, pastures and wetlands to crush the future we are building here on the to the zad (The zone à defendre).

We are calling on you to take solidarity actions everywhere, it could be holding demos at your local french embassy or consulate, or taking actions against any suitable symbol (corporate or otherwise) of France ! And if you are not too far away, bring your disobedient bodies to join us on the zone. If the French government evicts the zad, it will be like evicting hope.

For fifty years, this unique chequerboard landscape was the site of a relentless struggle against yet another climate wrecking infrastructure – a new airport for the nearby city of Nantes. Farmers and villagers, activists and naturalists, squatters and trade unionists wove an unbreakable ecology of struggle together and three months ago on the 17th of January, the French government announced that the airport project would be abandoned. But this incredible victory, won through a diversity of creative tactics from petitions to direct action, legal challenges to sabotage, had a dark shadow. In the same breath that declared the abandonment, came the announcement that the people occupying these 4000 acres of liberated territory, the 300 of us living and farming in 80 different collectives, would be evicted because we dared not just to be against the airport, but its WORLD as well.

Read the full article HERE:

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Autonomy Verses State Control.

     Years of occupation, in defence of the area and to prevent it becoming another tarmac and concrete jungle and now ten days of relentless state brutality to evict the occupants of ZAD, and still the battle rages. All the savage force of the state apparatus is being brought to forcibly evict a community, autonomy can't be tolerated in the psyche of the state. This land must be under their control and made available to the corporate juggernaut that is raping and plundering the planet. People will be beaten, bludgeoned, teargassed, and forcibly dragged and dumped or arrested, while the state talks of democracy. The struggle taking place in ZAD demands all our support and solidarity. This from Its Going Down:

       The first episode in a series by The Cinema Committee which looks at La ZAD, or the Zone to Defend, in France.
        In the early morning of Monday, April 9, 2018, the current invasion of the ZAD began. This land-occupation near the village of Notre-Dames-des-Landes is still under siege after nine days of tear gas, concussion grenades, drones, clubs, tanks, and attack dogs. Like the famous French children’s song, the imperial assault began on a “Lundi matin” and continued every day of the week until the following Monday when it started all over again. This is now the second week of the siege.
       In the original lyrics of the children’s song, the emperor, the empress, and the prince come to put “you” in a pinch every day of the week but luckily “you” are never there. The emperor of this little song was based on Napoleon III, the disease-ridden tyrant who ruled over France until his disastrous war with Prussia. Thanks to his idiocy and egotism, the city of Paris was surrounded by the invading army and within a year the autonomous Commune had forced the Republican government to flee the city. The current situation is much different than it was in 1871 and hopefully it ends with victory rather than bloodshed. In no uncertain terms, what is being fought for at the ZAD is the earth itself. Unlike the Paris Commune with its delusions about the citizen, the state school, money, and government, this epic battle in the hedgerows is being fought to free the land from the capitalist economy, not compromise with it.
       Our own personal time in the ZAD was far too brief and yet long enough to linger in our minds forever. Like those who’ve visited Chiapas or Rojava, the ZAD is one of the few places on the planet where capitalist time and its market relations have been abolished. Living a communal life free from economic constraints is a visceral experience that makes even the longest work-vacation seem like a sick joke. Nothing is more infectious and viral than the experience of a life worth living. It’s powerful enough that thousands of people have spent the past week fighting for it on the moorland of Notres-Dames-des-Landes where there have been over 100 serious injuries.
      On this Wednesday, April 18, three representatives of the ZAD met with the French state and reasserted their demand that the entire zone be held in common by the inhabitants. As could be expected, the state refused this demand once again and insisted that each parcel must be individually claimed by a private owner no later than April 23. Should the inhabitants of the ZAD refuse to sign their names on these individuals contracts, the French state will order another round of evictions and destroy the remaining 70 structures. This cannot be allowed to happen.
       To help spread awareness of this beautiful zone, we are releasing a series of videos that document this battle to save the ZAD. Each one is formatted as a self-contained episode and will cover the various aspects of this struggle. They are meant to be circulated across North America and will be released until the siege has been broken. This first episode covers the first two days of the eviction and weaves together footage from a variety of sources. As could be expected, the mainstream media outside of France is hardly covering this historic event and it’s up to us to disseminate news of the ZAD. We wish everyone good luck between the hedgerows and hope you all stay free. Keep up the good fight and know we are all with you across the ocean. Let’s bring the ZAD back home!

With love and affection,
-The Cinema Committee

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The Subterfuge Of Government.

        Struggle for freedom and autonomy in this society, and try to do deals with the government, you can expect to be lied to, cheated, and if they see fit, savagely bludgeoned. Any dealings with any government, will have to satisfy their need and desire for total control, hence the subterfuge, double dealing and downright lies. Freedom and governments are opposite ends of the spectrum, and are incompatible.The ZAD will have to fight a bitter fight to survive, they will need all the support and solidarity we can muster, or by stealth or brutality, the state will do its damnedest to destroy it and its ideas.
      More details HERE: https://www.unicornriot.ninja/2018/zad-battles-thousands-of-police-during-attempted-eviction-of-autonomous-zone-in-france/

THIS IS THE STATEMENT FROM THE ZAD ASSEMBLY OF USES – 3rd April 2018
         On February 10th, a few weeks after the airport project was dropped, dozens of thousands of people converged again to Notre-Dame-des-Landes to root the future of the zad. Since then, the assembly of uses(*) has laid the foundations of this project through the beginning of a dialogue with government representatives. During this transition phase, a first global collective convention has been proposed by the movement to take the fields and dwellings in charge. But the government still threaten to evict some of these dwellings. An operation mobilizing Thousands (2500 according to the press) of policemen and women are announced for Monday 9th April.
       We denounce the double-dealing of the government which announced it wants a « peaceful and reasonable » evolution of the situation while planning an eviction operation which is moreover illegal. We can’t accept that inhabitants who preserved the bocage will be evicted tomorrow. We can’t accept that dwellings and spaces of activities which have nurtured the experience of the zad and are necessary to its future will be destroyed by a new police operation. We invite those who support the avenir of the zad to organize accordingly!
*In case of evictions of habitations, we call for different types of answers on several geographical scales.*
On the zad and around :
– call to contribute to the workshops organized in april.
– call to come defend the zone.
We already decided that except in case of police intervention, the roads would stay circulating for the inhabitants, the peasants and neighbours. In case of police attack, we might block them if necessary. We call supports to act accordingly. Welcome spaces will be organized on the zone and around.
– call in case of destruction to come rebuild the zone.
Outside the zad :
– call for gatherings and occupations the very night of the evictions on city places, in front of municipalities and prefecture and police stations.
/The //A//ssembl//y//of //U//ses, Tuesday 3rd April. /
      (*) The Assemblies of Uses have been implemented in summer 2017 on the zad of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. They gather regular users of the zad – inhabitants, neighbours, peasants, people involved in activities on the zone and the different componentsof the struggle. Their goal is to think and build the collective organization of this territory according to the 6 points for the avenir of the zad (https://zad.nadir.org/IMG/pdf/6pointszad-a3-2.pdf). Yesterdaynight, this Assemblyhas decided to launch a call to face the imminent evictions on the zad.
FOLLOW THE EVICTIONS ON TWITTER @ZAD_NDDL

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We Can Learn From ZAD.

 

        All those who seek a society freed from the constraints of authoritarianism and state control, must show their appreciation of  the victory of the ZAD resistance. Also a struggle that lasted years with a successful outcome for the protesters, must have a volume of lessons we can all tap into. However our support must stay with the those Zad resisters, as no doubt the state is planning a way to discredit, disband and evict them, to reclaim the territory. 

      The establishment propaganda machine, that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media will be working in overdrive to drag them into the terrorists category. The state will be eager and willing to deal with them as such, in the eyes of the state apparatus, all those who resist its repressive control, are viewed as terrorists.

Letter of support from Rigaer94   published in Insurrection News 

Greetings to the Zad

         The media is reving up their attempts to frame the coming political decision on the future of the planned airport on the occupied area of the ZAD NDDL in a flattering light and not sign off a possible stop to the construction as a win for the Zadistes. At the same time the mediatic landscape is being prepared for a possible violent eviction.

The structures that have grown in and around the Zone à défendre of Notre-Dames-des-Landes not only offer a rarely visible somewhat independent alternative to a life driven by financial questions and dominated by capitalist forces but a small but real threat to the state-supported organizational structure. Fixed points of reference and contact like a ZAD are important in a time were we need events like the G20 to mobilize broadly and physical escalation to reach more than our own small circles. We need practical experience with alternative structures when we dream of smashing the present measures of oppression and state structures. A Zad at least can be a valid example for a local community and the problems encountered in a society based on those.

Tactics and techniques need to be shared, tested, discussed; big protests, work in affinity groups and a periodic exchange on insurrectionary praxis can only reach so far in making them accessible, being approachable in every day life is important. While we try to do that in an urban context amidst peoples daily struggle and strong gentrification, more removed projects like the ZADs offer a somewhat accesible venue for people fed up with, or not bound to cities, on the road, looking for a new base, an exchange away from their usual surrounding and simply a meeting point for struggles not focused on the urban spheres and of course a pretty good location for diverse skillsharing and practice.

When the dirty batons of the executive maggots of state & society will come down again in an attempt to reestablish their order and law in the ZAD not only is it an attack on all those longing for emancipation and autonomy but also a chance we should use to carry over the energy we found in Hamburg and show that we can take our own free spaces and furiously bash back at least when threatened more directly.

Our solidarity is with everyone in the ZAD.

Don’t let anyone drive you apart!
We will fight on your side!

Never surrender!

Love and Rage,

Rigaer 94

http://rigaer94.squat.net/

PS: Yesterday we read the government is coming back to what they blared out at the beginning of the month, the airport will not be built!
We’re with you in the fight to keep the ZAD NDDL around as a social structure, living space, playground and inspiration for a long time.
Our hearts rejoice at the small ‘victory’ for our struggles and structures and the environment. We know they won’t change their perpective and the same logic will keep throwing other monstrous projects and attacks at us. But this success after years of work also means there is more power and a lot of experience to bring to other fights. Be it NDDL, Bure,TAV, Europa City, Güz, Hambacher Forst…Lets make their fears a reality and their projects a nightmare!

——————————————————————————————————

Notes: Loudmouthed questions were thrown through traditional and social media.”Why would the Zadistes stay? Why should the state not evict them? Do they have guns? etc etc

Odoxa an enterprise linked to the populist channels BFMTV and Itelé is presenting a biased survey. What’s being presented as every second french person (or 6 out of 10) is in favour of a violent eviction of the ZAD NDDL is really 56% out of a 1006 person sample in a very biased survey on feelings of insecurity and national security.

https://paris-luttes.info/sondage-notre-dame-des-landes-9312?lang=fr

https://paris-luttes.info/notre-dame-des-landes-l-opinion-9308?lang=fr

https://paris-luttes.info/bfmtv-le-mirage-du-proprietariat?lang=fr

Journal du Dimanche ran a news article entitled “NDDL secret photos from the ZAD” with stolen out of context photos constructing a mythical weapons stach, trenches and tunnels, others relayed an SCRT (french press service) snippe that picked up JdD wording, stating that the presence of weapons is proven.

Libération article with some explanations http://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2017/12/19/le-journal-du-dimanche-a-t-il-invente-une-cache-d-armes-dans-la-zad-de-notre-dame-des-landes_1617693

twitter thread by photo owner debunking fake news article on firearms at NDDL https://twitter.com/ValKphotos/status/942791427691614208

Here’s a critical media overview and analysis, on NDDL eviction propaganda

http://www.telerama.fr/television/a-notre-dame-des-landes,-le-vietnam-des-pauvres-menace-la-france-dune-guerilla,n5402676.php#oYiQ4JALDIy4AGSB.01

documents that were supposedly for a briefing for the president have been leaked, at least the first 3 pages are available https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRb4fzlW4AAaCR5.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRb4fzoW4AADc_X.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRb4fzqX0AA3DJv.jpg

These make it sound like the media’s made up articles might have come from this supposedly restricted police document

https://www.pressreader.com/france/le-figaro/20180105/281509341572743 http://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/apres-notre-dame-des-landes-dautres-sites-menaces-par-les-zadistes-92172

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Again, Direct Action And Solidarity Win.

 

          Once again direct action and solidarity wins the day. The ZAD occupation has been running for years. The project to build a massive new airport in 5,000 hectres of wetlands and small hamlets was first raised in the 1970's, the protests grew larger and took on a more direct action approach during the 2000's, and the area has been occupied since. The protesters have determinedly held their ground and increased their presence, despite heavy and at times brutal, military and police opposition. It has now been announced that the massive destructive project has been cancelled. 

         However the struggle goes on, with the locals and protesters laying out their demands of what is to happen to this extensive piece of land that the state grab for the airport.

This report from Freedom News UK:

         In a communique the famous horizontal community Zone à Defendre (ZAD) has declared a “historic victory” and called for “expropriated peasants and inhabitants to be able to fully recover their rights as soon as possible.”
         The entirety of the land area devoted to the airport project — 1,650 hectares of land declared as being of public utility in 2008 — currently belongs to the State, with the exception of three roads crossing it. the ZAD has argued that this land should be kept in public hands and, rather than turned into an airport, put into forms of public lease for the benefit of the community and wildlife.
         Responding to reports that the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project is now officially dead, reps for the ten-year environmental occupation campaign wrote:

         This afternoon, the government has just announced the abandonment of the project.
        We note that the declaration of public utility [key to enabling large projects to function and compulsory purchases to happen] will not officially be extended. The project will definitely be null and void on February 8th.
     This is a historic victory against a destructive development project. This has been possible thanks to a long movement as determined as it is varied.
          First of all, we would like to warmly welcome all those who have mobilised against this airport project over the past 50 years.
        Regarding the future of the ZAD, the whole movement reaffirms today:
         The need for expropriated peasants and inhabitants to be able to fully recover their rights as soon as possible.
The refusal of any expulsion of those who have come to live in recent years in the grove to defend it and who wish to continue to live there and take care of it.
        A long-term commitment to take care of the ZAD lands by the movement in all its diversity — peasants, naturalists, local residents, associations, old and new inhabitants.
To implement it, we will need a period of freezing the institutional redistribution of land. In the future, this territory must be able to remain an area of ​​social, environmental and agricultural experimentation.
       With regard to the issue of the reopening of the D281 road, closed by the public authorities in 2013, the movement undertakes to answer this question itself. Police presence or intervention would only make the situation worse.
       We also wish, on this memorable day, to send a strong message of solidarity to other struggles against major destructive projects and for the defense of threatened territories.
         We call to converge widely on February 10th in the grove to celebrate the abandonment of the airport and to continue building the future of the ZAD.
      Acipa, Coordination of Opponents, COPAIn 44, Naturalists in struggle, the inhabitants of the ZAD.

A new e-book on the struggle,
 Defending The ZAD, can be read HERE:

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The Question, Trees Or Tarmac, Life Or Profit?

 

      Developers are greedy, they will gobble up green land, from the small, Glasgow's North Kelvin Meadow, to the large, ZAD. The North Kelvin Meadow is not a massive space, but in the context of our city it is large enough to be very important to the well being of our citizens. Zad, on the other hand is extremely large, it is massive. A whole swath of green land will become a matrix of motorways, airport runways, warehouses, docks and the concrete infrastructure to support all this tarmac development. The people of France have been fighting this monster destruction of nature for 40 years, and the fight still goes on, and the support for the protester is growing all the time.

       Both these projects, and thousands of similar projects across the planet are all linked, it is the plunder by capital, they are happening, not for the good of the people, but for the benefit of the corporate world's coffers, profit is the only motive, and it reaps the destruction of the planet. 

her yer ZAD her yer direnis!
Posted by Sadik Celik on Sunday, 21 February 2016

The ZAD - to the developers it is the Zone d’Aménagement Différé’, the differed development zone and for us it’s a Zone À Défendre: a zone to be defended. Either way, it’s a part of the countryside close to Nantes in France, which according to the decision-makers should make way for an international aiport.

Their construction project "Grand Ouest" is an economic platform of international importance stretching from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire, which will form a singular, huge metropolis. Fulfilling this project means taking over the sky, the sea and the land in replacing the current airport in Nantes with a new one at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, but also enlarging the port at Saint-Nazaire and constructing new roads and highways...

Our goals, in coming to live here on the proposed site of the airport, are many: to live on a protest site, where we can be close to those who’ve been opposing the project for 40 years and to have the power to act when construction happens; to make use of abandoned spaces to learn to live together, to cultivate the land and to be more autonomous from the capitalist system.

Most texts and infos are published in french and everything is not always translated, sorry. So if you want to be sure wether there’s new info, have a look on the french website. Also, if you want to help translating, you can get in touch with us !

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Planet, Or A Concrete And Tarmac Market Place?

         Zad is a huge development that will devastate a vast tract of land around Nantes. It involves building a large airport, and the roads and hotel infrastructure that goes with such a project, it also involves enlarging the port at Saint-Nazaire with all the maze of warehouses, roads and motorways that would be require. This project is massive and will evict people and cause devastation to a vast tract of the environment. It is another example of the march of destructive capitalism, of the concrete and tarmac tsunami that is turning our planet into a concrete and tarmac market place for the corporations.

Afternoon/evening of support to the ZAD of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes
Film, snacks, literature, discussion, pizza, bar, concert. Notre Dame of struggles, 15 Rue Abélard, Lille, Metro: Porte d’Arras

January 9th 2016 from 3pm at La Ferblanterie

Excerpt: For a few months the government has announced its wish, to resume airport works involving the eviction of its inhabitants; destruction of the grove, its cultures and protected species. This is why, following a ZAD call-out to re-establish support committees throughout France, around forty people gathered in Lille on November 25th 2015 to sketch out a new committee.
 

Program of festivity:

3pm: Film screening of “The battle of black water”.
A film tracing a struggle against a dam project in Couvin, Belgium, notably posing the question of political violence, the compositions during a fight, and finding inventiveness.

4:30pm: Snacks

5:30pm: “Building the ZAD” short film to introduce the discussion after.
It was made by people from the ZAD that in particular shows the different experiences of food and political autonomy.

6pm: Discussion with the presence of people from the ZAD of NDDL

7:30-8pm: Pizza party! / Bar
Read interviews of people struggling on the ZAD or at Notav made ​​by the “Bad Troops” collective.

9pm: Concert:
Comète Normale, Free Jazz
Guest
Party

Liberated price except the bar beer
http://comitezadlille.noblogs.org

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