Social Movement Appreciation Project
In our rapidly destabilising world, it's clear that nothing will get better without large numbers of people working together. But social movements remain mysterious and under-studied creatures: the Social Movement Appreciation Project aims to shine a warm and loving light on today's many efforts at collective agency and system transformation.
Social Movement Appreciation Project
Soulèvements de la Terre and the Battle of Sainte-Soline
Soulèvements could lay a claim to be the hottest eco-action group not just in France but all of Europe. Their approach of bundling local environmental struggles into bigger efforts has paid off in several actions with numbers in the tens of thousands, and pointed a way out of the climate movement's traditional confinement in the urban middle classes. Their sense of buzz and energy is such that Europe's other big powerhouse - Ende Gelande - has consciously sought to to emulate the French example.
I sat down with Barbara for an introduction to this movement (whose name translates as 'uprising of the earth')
We cover:
Soulèvements' origins in a 2020 meeting of farmers, anarchists and ecologists at the legendary Notre-Dame-des-Landes occupation.
That occupation's significance to French movement history
The importance of the French peasant movement
Soulèvements' core strategy
The specific issue of megabassines
The Battle of Sainte-Soline and its consequences for the wider movement
Editor's note: Barbara says 'impeach' a few times - she's really meaning to say 'prevent' (and is using the French 'empêche')
Highlights:
"There's hundreds of little fights in France that fight against a project - and that project is is linked to the bigger project that we don't want"
End music: De l'eau, le feu ('From the Water, the Fire'), sung at a workshop at Les Résistantes. The song was written to commemorate the Battle of Sainte-Soline and the broader struggle against mega-bassines: its lyrics vividly describe scenes of ecotage and confrontation with the police.
https://www.lesglottesrebelles.com/de-leau-le-feu/
For more on the Battle of Sainte-Soline, check out this breathtaking documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMJK2YZEa4M
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