1 00:00:00,260 --> 00:00:02,608 Greetings Troublemakers ... welcome to Trouble. 2 00:00:02,608 --> 00:00:04,538 My name is not important. 3 00:00:05,018 --> 00:00:08,215 From the endless turf battles found within the animal kingdom, 4 00:00:08,215 --> 00:00:10,721 to the mechanized carnage of modern warfare... 5 00:00:10,721 --> 00:00:15,755 the drive to control territory is a potent and recurring source of conflict. 6 00:00:16,515 --> 00:00:21,375 Yet within the artificial borders that fortify the so-called “developed world”, 7 00:00:21,375 --> 00:00:25,452 this type of conflict, like all others, is carefully managed. 8 00:00:25,452 --> 00:00:28,219 Which is not to say it doesn’t exist. 9 00:00:28,219 --> 00:00:32,227 People quarrel with their neighbours all the time, even in suburbia 10 00:00:32,227 --> 00:00:34,808 … and in places like Chicago’s South Side, 11 00:00:34,808 --> 00:00:38,563 young men routinely get shot fighting over street corners. 12 00:00:38,563 --> 00:00:40,298 As groups and individuals, 13 00:00:40,298 --> 00:00:44,578 we face differing types and levels of conflict in our everyday lives 14 00:00:44,578 --> 00:00:46,110 ... but at the end of the day, 15 00:00:46,110 --> 00:00:50,227 the ultimate manager and mediator of these conflicts is the state. 16 00:00:50,227 --> 00:00:53,657 Through their police, courts and prison systems, 17 00:00:53,657 --> 00:00:56,840 states enforce laws that reproduce power dynamics, 18 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:00,236 restrict our choices, and regulate our behaviour. 19 00:01:00,236 --> 00:01:02,738 The allocation of resources is determined 20 00:01:02,738 --> 00:01:05,567 by the logic of the so-called “free market”, 21 00:01:05,567 --> 00:01:08,955 whereby ownership over land is given official sanction 22 00:01:08,955 --> 00:01:12,413 by the state-backed illusion of private property. 23 00:01:12,413 --> 00:01:14,884 The key to the state’s control over our lives 24 00:01:14,884 --> 00:01:19,526 lies in its ability to regulate all conflict within a given physical area. 25 00:01:19,526 --> 00:01:23,521 It follows, then, that those of us seeking to steal back the power 26 00:01:23,521 --> 00:01:28,524 to resolve conflicts on our own terms must first draw a firm line in the sand, 27 00:01:28,524 --> 00:01:33,583 and deny access to the state and its sophisticated apparatus of social control. 28 00:01:33,583 --> 00:01:36,343 In order to meaningfully assert collective autonomy, 29 00:01:36,343 --> 00:01:39,051 we must be capable of defending territory. 30 00:01:39,051 --> 00:01:42,728 Over the next thirty minutes, we will explore three autonomous zones 31 00:01:42,728 --> 00:01:46,504 serving as living embodiments of defiance to state rule: 32 00:01:46,504 --> 00:01:51,336 the ZAD, or Zone to Defend, in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, 33 00:01:51,336 --> 00:01:56,369 the Unist’ot’en Camp located on the Wet’suet’en territories of so-called BC, 34 00:01:56,369 --> 00:02:00,294 and the autonomous spaces movement in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 35 00:02:00,294 --> 00:02:03,203 Along the way, we will speak with a number of individuals 36 00:02:03,203 --> 00:02:05,057 who are flaunting state authority, 37 00:02:05,057 --> 00:02:07,884 asserting control over the spaces they inhabit 38 00:02:07,884 --> 00:02:09,985 ... and making a whole lot of trouble. 39 00:02:48,293 --> 00:02:50,946 The ZAD has many realities. 40 00:02:51,836 --> 00:02:55,635 But mostly it’s kind of a community where people try to 41 00:02:55,635 --> 00:03:00,277 experiment other ways to live their social and political life. 42 00:03:00,727 --> 00:03:06,091 In the end of the 1960s, somebody came up with an airport project 43 00:03:06,091 --> 00:03:10,370 for this area, Notre-Dame-des-Landes. 44 00:03:10,370 --> 00:03:16,263 And during all those years, the bocage itself is put under the status of ZAD 45 00:03:16,263 --> 00:03:19,090 – which basically means Postponed Planning Zone, 46 00:03:19,090 --> 00:03:22,317 which was transformed one day into Zone to be Defended. 47 00:03:22,317 --> 00:03:26,355 So there was a big resistance with lots of different forms of action, 48 00:03:26,355 --> 00:03:33,908 including sabotage, black bloc demonstrations, quite offensive defense. 49 00:03:47,268 --> 00:03:51,020 Occupying land is quite similar to a political squat, 50 00:03:51,020 --> 00:03:54,856 but with a strong dimension regarding the environment 51 00:03:54,856 --> 00:03:56,953 and the territory we live in. 52 00:03:57,543 --> 00:03:58,571 During all those years, 53 00:03:58,571 --> 00:04:02,362 we did not simply organize politically against the airport, 54 00:04:02,362 --> 00:04:04,979 but we also made connections locally. 55 00:04:05,699 --> 00:04:07,235 We took care of the land. 56 00:04:07,235 --> 00:04:09,133 Some of us settled for good. 57 00:04:09,133 --> 00:04:13,010 And we thought out the future of the ZAD together. 58 00:04:13,010 --> 00:04:18,363 So it’s been ten years now that structures have been created on the ZAD 59 00:04:18,363 --> 00:04:21,842 to figure out how to live as autonomously as possible. 60 00:04:21,842 --> 00:04:27,000 It necessarily means that we have to be able to answer our basic needs. 61 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,753 Like be fed, sleep under a roof, have access to medicine. 62 00:04:30,753 --> 00:04:35,005 It’s a place that has become a place where you can live for free. 63 00:04:35,005 --> 00:04:37,072 You can build your house, your cabin... 64 00:04:37,072 --> 00:04:41,613 The occupation movement was created at a time when some of the peasants 65 00:04:41,613 --> 00:04:45,203 had called for illegal occupation themselves. 66 00:04:45,203 --> 00:04:50,450 When squatters came in 2007 they were close to anarchist 67 00:04:50,450 --> 00:04:53,354 and/or antiauthoritarian ideas. 68 00:04:53,354 --> 00:04:57,838 Trying to work together and allowing for a diversity of tactics, 69 00:04:57,838 --> 00:04:59,817 and knowing that that is our strength. 70 00:04:59,817 --> 00:05:03,405 We’re fighting against this state and this project. 71 00:05:03,405 --> 00:05:04,526 Also we come here.... 72 00:05:04,526 --> 00:05:07,690 we fight against things, but we also try to create things together. 73 00:05:07,690 --> 00:05:11,980 And making things available and trying to share. 74 00:05:11,980 --> 00:05:16,370 That everybody has possibilities and access to a place to live 75 00:05:16,370 --> 00:05:19,443 ... to water and food. 76 00:05:25,413 --> 00:05:29,940 So there’s a kind of hegemonic ideology. 77 00:05:29,940 --> 00:05:34,825 Diversity of tactics has been much more of a theory for the past few months. 78 00:05:34,825 --> 00:05:39,224 Certain ideas that become ways of judging people, 79 00:05:39,224 --> 00:05:41,734 of excluding people from discussions. 80 00:05:41,734 --> 00:05:45,432 So yeah there’s some kind of really well-organized, 81 00:05:45,432 --> 00:05:50,852 sort of communist ideas that have taken a lot of place in the past few years 82 00:05:50,852 --> 00:05:54,476 that will have a kind of discourse about 83 00:05:54,476 --> 00:05:59,045 “you have to go to our meetings, and if you don’t agree you might have to leave, 84 00:05:59,045 --> 00:06:04,923 or shut up... or maybe later on we’ll come beat you up with baseball bats.” 85 00:06:04,923 --> 00:06:08,362 Some people who used sabotage as a tactic have been pressured 86 00:06:08,362 --> 00:06:13,726 and even attacked for having dug holes in the concrete 87 00:06:13,726 --> 00:06:16,591 of one of the roads which crosses the ZAD. 88 00:06:16,591 --> 00:06:21,048 And someone especially was put in the trunk and taken out of there, 89 00:06:21,048 --> 00:06:25,389 molested and left almost naked in front of a psychiatric hospital. 90 00:06:25,389 --> 00:06:29,139 And it’s been some years that contesting this hegemonic power 91 00:06:29,139 --> 00:06:32,293 of the dominant group has been much more difficult. 92 00:06:32,293 --> 00:06:34,301 They tend to concentrate wealth. 93 00:06:34,301 --> 00:06:38,139 To concentrate strategic discussions regarding the movement. 94 00:06:38,139 --> 00:06:39,882 Bonds with local farmers 95 00:06:39,882 --> 00:06:44,450 and people governing other institutions of the movement. 96 00:06:44,450 --> 00:06:48,231 And they of course, deny it when it comes to critique. 97 00:06:48,231 --> 00:06:51,870 We provoked a number of discussions on the place that their reading group, 98 00:06:51,870 --> 00:06:54,741 called the CMDO, has been held among us. 99 00:07:05,261 --> 00:07:09,753 But they never recognized, publicly, their group as a group of power. 100 00:07:09,753 --> 00:07:14,639 And thus, never wanted to share that power with other groups or individuals. 101 00:07:14,639 --> 00:07:19,976 It was mainly this group of persons which pushed towards 102 00:07:19,976 --> 00:07:22,800 the negotiations during the evictions. 103 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:24,963 Well as you can see all around us it’s pitch black. 104 00:07:24,963 --> 00:07:29,381 People were not expecting the expulsions to happen until 6am this morning, 105 00:07:29,381 --> 00:07:30,695 local time here in France. 106 00:07:30,695 --> 00:07:34,292 Tiny groups of people chose their means of actions. 107 00:07:34,292 --> 00:07:37,356 When the police attack, making barricades, 108 00:07:37,356 --> 00:07:41,156 going to harass the police in any form, or any way 109 00:07:41,156 --> 00:07:46,318 ... to throwing back their own grenades or other forms of explosives, 110 00:07:46,318 --> 00:07:48,280 or molotov cocktails. 111 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:51,653 From sabotage attempts ... especially on the tanks. 112 00:07:51,653 --> 00:07:54,350 We really wanted to see one burn. 113 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:57,992 Digging holes to prevent the tanks from going further. 114 00:07:59,142 --> 00:08:02,361 And of course, erecting barricades and defending them. 115 00:08:28,819 --> 00:08:32,607 Deep in the central interior forests of so-called British Columbia 116 00:08:32,607 --> 00:08:35,971 lies the unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en nation. 117 00:08:35,971 --> 00:08:39,566 Never surrendered to the settler-colonial Canadian state, 118 00:08:39,566 --> 00:08:44,652 the gateway to these remote territories is the headwaters of the Wedzinkwah River, 119 00:08:44,652 --> 00:08:49,095 which lies under the stewardship and protection of the Unist’ot’en clan, 120 00:08:49,095 --> 00:08:53,013 one of the five house groups that make up the Wet’suwet’en nation. 121 00:08:53,013 --> 00:08:56,042 For the past decade, the Unist’ot’en have been physically blocking 122 00:08:56,042 --> 00:08:59,636 the construction of three major oil and fracked gas pipelines 123 00:08:59,636 --> 00:09:03,270 slated to pass through their territories en route to refineries 124 00:09:03,270 --> 00:09:05,395 and tankers on the Pacific coast. 125 00:09:05,395 --> 00:09:08,442 Ground zero in this stand has been the Unis’to’ten Camp, 126 00:09:08,442 --> 00:09:12,242 constructed in 2010 as a permanent resistance community, 127 00:09:12,242 --> 00:09:16,075 located smack dab in the path of the originally proposed route 128 00:09:16,075 --> 00:09:20,638 of the Northern Gateway, Pacific Trails, and Coastal Gaslink pipelines. 129 00:09:20,638 --> 00:09:24,350 The Unist’ot’en have also established a checkpoint system, 130 00:09:24,350 --> 00:09:27,706 with access to the territories conditional on completing 131 00:09:27,706 --> 00:09:30,905 a Free Prior and Informed Consent Protocol. 132 00:09:30,905 --> 00:09:33,189 This system grants the Unis’tot’en authority 133 00:09:33,189 --> 00:09:35,499 over who gains access to their territory, 134 00:09:35,499 --> 00:09:39,327 which has allowed them to keep representatives of the extractive industry 135 00:09:39,327 --> 00:09:41,704 and Canadian state at bay. 136 00:09:58,532 --> 00:10:02,503 This territory is unceded Unist’ot’en territory, 137 00:10:02,503 --> 00:10:05,169 which is part of the Wet’suwet’en territory. 138 00:10:05,169 --> 00:10:09,467 Knedebease is the hereditary chief that manages this territory, 139 00:10:09,467 --> 00:10:15,158 and I am a member of that house group, so we manage these territories. 140 00:10:15,158 --> 00:10:20,281 And in my view, it is not Canada. It’s not BC. 141 00:10:20,281 --> 00:10:22,534 This has always been Wet’suwet’en territory 142 00:10:22,534 --> 00:10:25,771 because we’ve never ceded or surrendered it to anybody. 143 00:10:25,771 --> 00:10:27,341 Doesn’t belong to the crown. 144 00:10:27,341 --> 00:10:29,553 Doesn’t belong to the federal government. 145 00:10:29,553 --> 00:10:31,333 Doesn’t belong to the provincial government. 146 00:10:31,333 --> 00:10:34,617 It belongs to Unist’ot’en. To my people. 147 00:10:36,566 --> 00:10:38,238 We started travelling through the territories 148 00:10:38,238 --> 00:10:40,020 back here a lot more frequently. 149 00:10:40,020 --> 00:10:42,723 And the reason why we started spending a lot of time back here 150 00:10:42,723 --> 00:10:44,741 is because there were some proposed pipelines that were 151 00:10:44,741 --> 00:10:47,974 being proposed by industry and by government, 152 00:10:47,974 --> 00:10:51,503 to begin doing some preliminary work back here to stop them. 153 00:10:51,503 --> 00:10:55,406 You guys can’t be doing any work in here, because we’ve already told them no. 154 00:10:55,406 --> 00:10:57,381 That they can’t access our territory. 155 00:10:58,151 --> 00:11:02,103 Once we found out that industry was trying to force their way in, 156 00:11:02,103 --> 00:11:08,225 we put our cabin directly in the path of the initial proposal for Enbridge, 157 00:11:08,225 --> 00:11:11,390 for the bitumen pipeline that was proposed to come through here. 158 00:11:11,390 --> 00:11:15,379 So the log cabin sits right en route of their GPS points 159 00:11:15,379 --> 00:11:19,209 of where Enbridge initially had planned to put their pipelines through here. 160 00:11:19,209 --> 00:11:23,894 At the same time, there was Coastal Gaslink and Pacific Trails Pipeline 161 00:11:23,894 --> 00:11:27,618 that wanted also to put pipelines through our territory. 162 00:11:27,618 --> 00:11:29,293 To me that’s not self-sustaining. 163 00:11:29,293 --> 00:11:31,689 When it’s really quick, it’s boom and bust. 164 00:11:31,689 --> 00:11:35,841 And they’ll come, and then they’ll be gone and they’ll leave their mess behind. 165 00:11:38,990 --> 00:11:41,935 As you see on the sign behind it says checkpoint. 166 00:11:41,935 --> 00:11:46,293 So whenever industry, or just anybody comes through here 167 00:11:46,293 --> 00:11:49,973 you go through protocol, which you ask a series of six questions: 168 00:11:49,973 --> 00:11:51,668 Who are you? Where are you from? 169 00:11:51,668 --> 00:11:53,886 How long do you plan to stay if we let you in? 170 00:11:53,886 --> 00:11:57,513 And do you work for industry or government that’s destroying our lands? 171 00:11:57,513 --> 00:11:59,853 And how will your visit benefit Unist’ot’en? 172 00:12:01,183 --> 00:12:03,685 And one of the key questions that they could not answer, 173 00:12:03,685 --> 00:12:07,159 truthfully and honestly, was the question where we ask 174 00:12:07,159 --> 00:12:10,041 “how will your visit benefit the people of this land?”. 175 00:12:10,953 --> 00:12:14,375 Uhh.. I really don’t think there is any benefit. 176 00:12:14,375 --> 00:12:17,304 And the reason why we turn them back 177 00:12:17,304 --> 00:12:20,719 is because they could not pass simple protocol questions. 178 00:12:21,309 --> 00:12:25,893 The RCMP was created by the government to keep our people off our land. 179 00:12:25,893 --> 00:12:30,052 So, they are part of the government, so they too don’t pass protocol. 180 00:12:30,252 --> 00:12:33,602 We don’t trust police, because we’re suspicious that your forces 181 00:12:33,602 --> 00:12:37,365 would in to scope out our layout so that if there is an injunction, 182 00:12:37,365 --> 00:12:40,192 you guys would be better prepared about how you’re gonna deal with us. 183 00:12:43,382 --> 00:12:48,506 The camp serves as a beacon for other people who are struggling with these ideas. 184 00:12:48,506 --> 00:12:51,040 That they might not be able to stop a project 185 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:52,605 from coming through their territories. 186 00:12:52,605 --> 00:12:53,763 And you know, 187 00:12:53,763 --> 00:12:57,294 for anybody to stand up to something like that is quite a daunting task. 188 00:12:57,294 --> 00:13:00,641 But a lot of people who have studied us over the years, 189 00:13:00,641 --> 00:13:02,909 and learned from the resistance that we’ve taken 190 00:13:02,909 --> 00:13:06,750 ... they’ve taken those lessons and have started their own actions. 191 00:13:06,750 --> 00:13:10,742 And there’s an incredible amount of economic and logistical disruption 192 00:13:10,742 --> 00:13:13,580 that arise from that type of activity. 193 00:13:13,580 --> 00:13:16,515 We are here today in solidarity with the Unist’ot’en camp. 194 00:13:16,515 --> 00:13:20,026 We wish to share the Unist’ot’en hereditary chief’s clear statement 195 00:13:20,026 --> 00:13:22,702 that they do not consent to having pipelines built 196 00:13:22,702 --> 00:13:24,994 on their unceded traditional territory. 197 00:13:30,534 --> 00:13:35,511 This colonization has always been about the taking of Indigenous lands. 198 00:13:44,249 --> 00:13:47,394 We always said if we heal our people, then we’ll heal our land. 199 00:13:47,394 --> 00:13:52,407 The healing center idea came when we realized that 200 00:13:52,407 --> 00:13:55,597 “why aren’t our own people coming out here to visit us?” 201 00:13:55,597 --> 00:13:58,862 And even though some do come, there’s not a high number of our own people. 202 00:13:58,862 --> 00:14:02,388 And we realized that a lot of our people are still struggling 203 00:14:02,388 --> 00:14:04,246 because of colonization. 204 00:14:04,246 --> 00:14:06,264 From the Residential School era. 205 00:14:06,264 --> 00:14:09,202 From the public school system ... lotta racism. 206 00:14:09,502 --> 00:14:13,277 We realized that a lot of our people are struggling because of trauma. 207 00:14:13,277 --> 00:14:16,193 And we realized that we needed a healing facility 208 00:14:16,193 --> 00:14:21,034 that incorporated all the whole wellness thing that we were talking about. 209 00:14:21,034 --> 00:14:23,517 And we wanna put our culture back into our people. 210 00:14:23,517 --> 00:14:25,998 So that they will be strong and they will stand up. 211 00:14:26,708 --> 00:14:28,583 When people come out to a space like this, 212 00:14:28,583 --> 00:14:32,092 what they experience is land that's actually beginning to go 213 00:14:32,092 --> 00:14:33,354 through the healing process. 214 00:14:33,589 --> 00:14:37,190 This land back here that we’re walking through and passing through, 215 00:14:37,190 --> 00:14:40,139 is land that was devastated from logging already. 216 00:14:40,139 --> 00:14:42,390 And it’s in a process of healing. 217 00:14:42,390 --> 00:14:45,985 It actually has berry bushes, so we’re surrounded by berry bushes here. 218 00:14:45,985 --> 00:14:49,010 There are grizzly bear tracks a half a kilometer from here. 219 00:14:49,010 --> 00:14:50,922 So when people come up to spend time here, 220 00:14:50,922 --> 00:14:55,469 they begin to learn about the importance of connecting themselves 221 00:14:55,469 --> 00:14:59,217 to the planet that is in need of healing. 222 00:15:04,340 --> 00:15:07,687 While defending territory from state incursions is hard enough 223 00:15:07,687 --> 00:15:10,147 in rural, or remote natural terrains, 224 00:15:10,147 --> 00:15:13,925 those seeking to establish autonomous spaces in urban environments 225 00:15:13,925 --> 00:15:16,070 face an additional set of challenges. 226 00:15:17,270 --> 00:15:20,144 Cities are sites of concentrated state power. 227 00:15:20,144 --> 00:15:23,257 Not only are they strongholds of surveillance and repression, 228 00:15:23,257 --> 00:15:26,275 but they are also areas where the logic of state control 229 00:15:26,275 --> 00:15:30,716 is thoroughly integrated into everyday social relations. 230 00:15:30,716 --> 00:15:35,153 This opens the door to recuperation, a process whereby state power 231 00:15:35,153 --> 00:15:39,346 constantly shifts and adapts itself in order to preemptively cut off 232 00:15:39,346 --> 00:15:43,539 and assimilate potential threats to its authority and legitimacy. 233 00:15:43,539 --> 00:15:46,843 This is the balancing act faced by urban squatter movements 234 00:15:46,843 --> 00:15:50,971 in cities around the world, whose participants must constantly navigate 235 00:15:50,971 --> 00:15:54,206 the twin minefields of eviction and legalization. 236 00:15:54,996 --> 00:15:58,279 This means simultaneously avoiding the social isolation 237 00:15:58,279 --> 00:16:02,513 that would make full-scale repression possible, while also combating 238 00:16:02,513 --> 00:16:06,185 state and real estate developers’ attempts to transform these spaces 239 00:16:06,185 --> 00:16:09,617 into nothing more than edgy tourist destinations. 240 00:16:14,321 --> 00:16:18,111 One of the really important functions of the urban occupation 241 00:16:18,111 --> 00:16:20,502 is that it becomes a source of inspiration. 242 00:16:23,802 --> 00:16:29,811 Despite being surrounded by hostile forces - in the form of state, police, capital - 243 00:16:29,811 --> 00:16:33,338 that it is possible to have a space in which you can experiment 244 00:16:33,338 --> 00:16:35,112 with different forms of existing. 245 00:16:35,112 --> 00:16:36,557 With different forms of living. 246 00:16:36,557 --> 00:16:39,124 With different forms of relating to one another. 247 00:16:40,461 --> 00:16:45,679 We could speak about three distinct phases of squatting experiments in Ljubljana. 248 00:16:45,679 --> 00:16:48,020 First one is early 90s. 249 00:16:48,020 --> 00:16:51,090 This is the time of the destruction of Yugoslavia. 250 00:16:51,090 --> 00:16:54,876 It’s a time of massive changes in Slovenian society. 251 00:16:54,876 --> 00:16:57,994 This movement had a clear continuity with 252 00:16:57,994 --> 00:17:03,325 alternative cultural movements of the 80s that was heavily influenced 253 00:17:03,325 --> 00:17:06,669 by progressive currents such as feminism, LGBT movement, 254 00:17:06,669 --> 00:17:10,525 anti-militarist tendencies, ecological movements. 255 00:17:10,525 --> 00:17:14,855 This movement found its highest expression in the squatting 256 00:17:14,855 --> 00:17:18,042 of Metelkova military barracks in 1993. 257 00:17:21,682 --> 00:17:26,411 The second wave of squatting can be traced to the late 90s. 258 00:17:26,411 --> 00:17:31,826 In around 98 and 99, several different initiatives and individuals 259 00:17:31,826 --> 00:17:35,056 were squatting different spaces in the city of Ljubljana 260 00:17:35,056 --> 00:17:38,005 and were all evicted from those squats. 261 00:17:38,005 --> 00:17:41,114 And in the middle of this wave of repression over the movement, 262 00:17:41,114 --> 00:17:44,947 the community of Metelkova decided to give one empty space 263 00:17:44,947 --> 00:17:48,544 in the Autonomous Cultural Center to the anarchist infoshop. 264 00:17:49,714 --> 00:17:53,700 The third wave of squatting in Ljubljana is symbolized 265 00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:59,105 by the squatting of ROG Factory, which is maybe the biggest squat in Ljubljana. 266 00:17:59,105 --> 00:18:04,405 It was squatted in 2006 by a new precarious generation 267 00:18:04,405 --> 00:18:08,849 of younger people that later came to be identified 268 00:18:08,849 --> 00:18:11,060 as the generation without future. 269 00:18:12,667 --> 00:18:15,507 It has always been understood by us that the front 270 00:18:15,507 --> 00:18:18,858 between the two different squats is the same front. 271 00:18:18,858 --> 00:18:22,444 Because if one of us is attacked, or evicted for instance, 272 00:18:22,444 --> 00:18:26,154 that will mean a huge attack on the ability of the other 273 00:18:26,154 --> 00:18:30,260 to actually be part of any kind of political process in the city. 274 00:18:31,250 --> 00:18:35,823 The relationship of the state has been slightly different in its expression. 275 00:18:35,823 --> 00:18:39,968 So for instance, when it comes to ROG they have had constant attempts 276 00:18:39,968 --> 00:18:44,082 of the city to either evict them or attack them in different ways. 277 00:18:44,082 --> 00:18:47,143 And just two years ago there was the most serious attempt 278 00:18:47,143 --> 00:18:50,251 to tear down several buildings in that area. 279 00:18:50,251 --> 00:18:54,245 That attempt was stopped by a broader political mobilization. 280 00:19:01,665 --> 00:19:04,416 The nature of an urban occupation is that it is faced 281 00:19:04,416 --> 00:19:08,337 with different kinds of factors that perhaps escape rural occupations. 282 00:19:08,337 --> 00:19:13,325 Our squats are part of the neoliberal capitalist society 283 00:19:13,325 --> 00:19:17,803 that is progressing further and further towards social devastation. 284 00:19:17,803 --> 00:19:22,121 Every time we are faced with the processes that are destroying our cities, 285 00:19:22,121 --> 00:19:24,100 we always have to question our position 286 00:19:24,100 --> 00:19:26,251 and our changing position within those processes. 287 00:19:26,941 --> 00:19:32,078 Metelkova and ROG both generate quite wide public support. 288 00:19:32,078 --> 00:19:36,407 So this forced the public authorities to be cautious. 289 00:19:37,427 --> 00:19:41,893 And even though there are several softer attempts to push Metelkova 290 00:19:41,893 --> 00:19:46,092 into the state of legalization, we haven’t in the last decade 291 00:19:46,092 --> 00:19:48,591 really been faced with an attempt of eviction. 292 00:19:49,404 --> 00:19:53,258 That of course brings a different set of questions for all of us 293 00:19:53,258 --> 00:19:54,852 who are part of Metelkova squat. 294 00:19:54,852 --> 00:19:58,544 And that is, in such moments, where the city is actually trying to sell you 295 00:19:58,544 --> 00:20:02,552 as one of its premium tourist destinations ... how do you maintain yourself 296 00:20:02,552 --> 00:20:05,862 as a space that can still produce radical social movements 297 00:20:05,862 --> 00:20:07,599 and interventions in the city? 298 00:20:07,599 --> 00:20:10,663 That of course comes with every question of recuperation. 299 00:20:10,663 --> 00:20:14,591 How do we still manage to keep our practices DIY? 300 00:20:14,591 --> 00:20:17,093 How do we still manage to stay ungovernable, 301 00:20:17,093 --> 00:20:21,331 which is basically the only way not to become a squatting museum, 302 00:20:21,331 --> 00:20:24,599 or a sort of caricature of what a squat should be? 303 00:20:26,829 --> 00:20:32,106 Many people and many activities that are cleaned from the city center 304 00:20:32,106 --> 00:20:37,057 because of the demands of the tourist industry... we all end up in squats 305 00:20:37,057 --> 00:20:41,992 with different trajectories and different positions that we occupy 306 00:20:41,992 --> 00:20:44,738 in the current social-economic order. 307 00:20:45,978 --> 00:20:51,230 This naturally leads to tensions. Some more serious than others. 308 00:20:51,230 --> 00:20:57,076 And the consequence also can be seen in what recently happened to club Jalla Jalla 309 00:20:57,076 --> 00:20:59,378 - it was destroyed in a fire. 310 00:21:00,538 --> 00:21:04,673 As a community this was immediately recognized as an effect 311 00:21:04,673 --> 00:21:10,362 of the general state in which the whole city is being pushed. 312 00:21:10,362 --> 00:21:15,481 And our focus is not only to rebuild Jalla Jalla the club, 313 00:21:15,481 --> 00:21:21,790 but also to rebuild and reclaim our collective capacity to resist 314 00:21:21,790 --> 00:21:27,114 the processes of devastation that are everywhere destroying 315 00:21:27,114 --> 00:21:30,742 the conditions of living for so many people in this town. 316 00:21:41,957 --> 00:21:46,233 Establishing and effectively securing an autonomous space isn’t something 317 00:21:46,233 --> 00:21:47,807 that happens overnight. 318 00:21:48,377 --> 00:21:52,689 States cannot afford to let challenges to their legitimacy go unanswered, 319 00:21:52,689 --> 00:21:55,923 lest they serve as examples for others to follow. 320 00:21:56,483 --> 00:22:01,080 For this reason, any political attempt to reject state authority over a territory 321 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,155 is likely to provoke a serious reaction. 322 00:22:04,825 --> 00:22:07,589 It is therefore crucially important that those involved 323 00:22:07,589 --> 00:22:11,293 anticipate the state’s response, and are in a strong enough position 324 00:22:11,293 --> 00:22:13,369 to weather the inevitable storm. 325 00:22:13,369 --> 00:22:16,823 Autonomous territories allow for the building of dual power. 326 00:22:16,823 --> 00:22:20,244 They are alternative focal points of legitimacy that can 327 00:22:20,244 --> 00:22:23,642 effectively challenge the state’s monopoly on authority. 328 00:22:24,052 --> 00:22:28,763 Indigenous Nations draw this legitimacy from spiritual and cultural practices 329 00:22:28,763 --> 00:22:34,014 rooted in generations of deep connection to the lands claimed by their colonizers. 330 00:22:34,874 --> 00:22:38,839 For those of us more alienated from the lands and spaces we occupy, 331 00:22:38,839 --> 00:22:42,846 the process of asserting autonomy must begin with navigating the tensions 332 00:22:42,846 --> 00:22:46,395 and contradictions that exist in dominant society, 333 00:22:46,395 --> 00:22:48,635 cultivating strong bonds of solidarity, 334 00:22:48,635 --> 00:22:50,987 and fuelling antagonism towards the state. 335 00:22:54,948 --> 00:22:57,936 We’d rather not pass lessons to anyone. 336 00:22:57,936 --> 00:23:02,859 If people get inspired from what they’ve done here, it will always be a pleasure 337 00:23:02,859 --> 00:23:07,097 to share experiences and knowledge of those years spent here. 338 00:23:07,896 --> 00:23:11,537 I think it has been proven several times that building the infrastructure 339 00:23:11,537 --> 00:23:15,448 for the movement and of the movement really becomes crucial in moments 340 00:23:15,448 --> 00:23:19,764 of high and demanding political mobilization in the society. 341 00:23:19,764 --> 00:23:23,560 To have the kind of spaces that enable you to maintain 342 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,417 the historical memory of movements, 343 00:23:25,417 --> 00:23:29,171 that enable us to find different kinds of accomplices 344 00:23:29,171 --> 00:23:32,509 in our struggles for a different kind of world. 345 00:23:35,087 --> 00:23:39,047 With the help of allies all around the world 346 00:23:39,047 --> 00:23:43,857 ... we’ve garnered lots of support through Indigenous, non-Indigenous, professionals, 347 00:23:43,857 --> 00:23:45,474 ... everyday citizens. 348 00:23:45,837 --> 00:23:51,077 A lot of people do support what we’re doing and have vocalized it to us. 349 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:52,523 We have come here to be with you, 350 00:23:52,523 --> 00:23:55,325 to make sure you understand you’re doing the right thing. 351 00:23:55,752 --> 00:23:58,998 There’s always people who come here also who have connections, 352 00:23:58,998 --> 00:24:03,159 or who have been to other places where people are struggling 353 00:24:03,159 --> 00:24:05,823 and bring us information. 354 00:24:05,823 --> 00:24:09,650 And so that creates solidarity between different struggles. 355 00:24:09,650 --> 00:24:13,957 You need to ensure that the Indigenous people 356 00:24:13,957 --> 00:24:16,070 who have always lived on those lands, 357 00:24:16,070 --> 00:24:19,837 since millennia, are involved in that struggle. 358 00:24:19,837 --> 00:24:21,394 They have long stories. 359 00:24:21,394 --> 00:24:25,714 Ancient, ancient stories that talk about how and why they have responsibilities. 360 00:24:28,607 --> 00:24:31,983 The mere fact that a squat exists as a potential 361 00:24:31,983 --> 00:24:36,702 of development of autonomous ideas, of politically radical ideas, 362 00:24:36,702 --> 00:24:41,447 is of course already a threat to the state, a threat to capital’s interests. 363 00:24:41,447 --> 00:24:43,115 And therefore we will never be safe, 364 00:24:43,115 --> 00:24:45,877 no matter how many selfies tourists make here. 365 00:24:45,877 --> 00:24:49,818 If it is possible that in a city that is so increasingly gentrified, 366 00:24:49,818 --> 00:24:53,196 so penetrated with different capitalist forces 367 00:24:53,196 --> 00:24:57,717 – if it is able to have a space where experimentation with our freedom 368 00:24:57,717 --> 00:25:00,786 is possible, then it kind of gives us hope 369 00:25:00,786 --> 00:25:04,336 that other kinds of political projects are also possible. 370 00:25:04,336 --> 00:25:08,533 And what we would really love to see is more of these kinds of inspirations 371 00:25:08,533 --> 00:25:12,127 around the world, around different cities, around different communities. 372 00:25:23,908 --> 00:25:28,996 As for our inspiration, we take as much inspiration as possible 373 00:25:28,996 --> 00:25:31,249 from as many struggles as possible. 374 00:25:31,249 --> 00:25:36,339 The Zapatistas movement, even though we’re far far from what they achieved. 375 00:25:36,339 --> 00:25:39,815 The Landless Peasant Movement, especially in South America, 376 00:25:39,815 --> 00:25:43,266 or Reclaim the Field network all over Europe. 377 00:25:43,266 --> 00:25:47,845 Or occupied neighbourhoods, like in Exarchia in Greece. 378 00:25:47,845 --> 00:25:51,195 Or people protecting seeds like in India. 379 00:25:51,195 --> 00:25:53,775 Rojava is, of course, an insight 380 00:25:53,775 --> 00:25:56,489 – especially regarding feminist self-defence. 381 00:25:56,489 --> 00:26:00,882 Some of us are also really close to the Italian struggle 382 00:26:00,882 --> 00:26:04,235 against the train line crossing the Val di Susa. 383 00:26:04,235 --> 00:26:08,793 The most important thing is that we have to ask ourselves “what are our needs?” 384 00:26:08,793 --> 00:26:12,311 And then find ways through which we can express them. 385 00:26:15,651 --> 00:26:17,926 We’re absolutely going to win this fight. 386 00:26:17,926 --> 00:26:22,783 Y’know, this is a fight that belongs to not only us, but all of our unborn. 387 00:26:22,783 --> 00:26:25,145 This is a fight that belongs to all of our ancestors 388 00:26:25,145 --> 00:26:29,674 who died fighting for these spaces, and protecting them. 389 00:26:29,674 --> 00:26:31,748 So this is a fight that doesn’t belong to us. 390 00:26:31,748 --> 00:26:33,536 We’re not selfish people. 391 00:26:33,536 --> 00:26:37,810 This fight belongs to all of our Wet’suwet’en people 392 00:26:37,810 --> 00:26:39,469 – past, present and future. 393 00:26:43,061 --> 00:26:46,580 Some of us went to fight the world of the airport. 394 00:26:46,580 --> 00:26:50,780 And the airport was a pretext to fight the system behind it. 395 00:26:50,780 --> 00:26:52,422 I’d say for me, the ZAD, 396 00:26:52,422 --> 00:26:57,484 it helps me burn the social and structural boundaries in my head 397 00:26:57,484 --> 00:27:00,652 ... and then almost everything became possible. 398 00:27:19,969 --> 00:27:23,890 We live in a historical moment in which the global neoliberal order, 399 00:27:23,890 --> 00:27:28,372 wracked by overlapping social, economic and ecological crises, 400 00:27:28,372 --> 00:27:31,479 is rapidly unraveling before our very eyes. 401 00:27:32,569 --> 00:27:35,063 Yet far from being a cause for celebration, 402 00:27:35,063 --> 00:27:40,284 the dark new reality rising to take its place promises to be even worse. 403 00:27:40,284 --> 00:27:43,830 New and resurgent forms of state power are being constructed 404 00:27:43,830 --> 00:27:46,817 on foundations of hyper-nationalist reaction, 405 00:27:46,817 --> 00:27:50,845 armed with sophisticated new tools of surveillance and repression. 406 00:27:51,595 --> 00:27:55,299 A proliferation of civil wars, surging levels of inequality 407 00:27:55,299 --> 00:27:59,429 and climate change-fuelled catastrophes are provoking historical levels 408 00:27:59,429 --> 00:28:01,377 of forced human migration. 409 00:28:01,737 --> 00:28:04,081 But while things look undoubtedly bleak, 410 00:28:04,081 --> 00:28:07,684 the rapid transformations currently underway have the potential 411 00:28:07,684 --> 00:28:11,233 to uncover new cracks in the facade of state power. 412 00:28:11,933 --> 00:28:16,341 Revolutionaries must be ready to take advantage of any and all opportunities 413 00:28:16,341 --> 00:28:19,159 that these shifting new dynamics may produce, 414 00:28:19,159 --> 00:28:22,527 establishing a decentralized network of autonomous zones 415 00:28:22,527 --> 00:28:27,212 that can sustain projects of mutual aid, respond to emergent threats, 416 00:28:27,212 --> 00:28:29,946 and coordinate solidarity across borders. 417 00:28:29,946 --> 00:28:30,833 So at this point, 418 00:28:30,833 --> 00:28:34,467 we’d like to remind you that Trouble is intended to be watched in groups, 419 00:28:34,467 --> 00:28:39,017 and to be used as a resource to promote discussion and collective organizing. 420 00:28:39,017 --> 00:28:42,150 Are you interested in offering sustained material support 421 00:28:42,150 --> 00:28:44,007 for existing autonomous spaces, 422 00:28:44,007 --> 00:28:47,861 or figuring out what steps would be involved in launching your own? 423 00:28:47,861 --> 00:28:50,185 Consider getting together with some comrades, 424 00:28:50,185 --> 00:28:54,627 organizing a screening of this film, and discussing where to get started. 425 00:28:54,627 --> 00:28:57,936 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, 426 00:28:57,936 --> 00:29:01,650 infoshop, community center, or even just at home with friends? 427 00:29:01,650 --> 00:29:03,132 Become a Trouble-Maker! 428 00:29:03,132 --> 00:29:06,562 For 10 bucks a month, we’ll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show, 429 00:29:06,562 --> 00:29:09,228 and a screening kit featuring additional resources 430 00:29:09,228 --> 00:29:12,261 and some questions you can use to get a discussion going. 431 00:29:12,261 --> 00:29:15,483 If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! 432 00:29:15,483 --> 00:29:20,261 You can stream and/or download all our content for free off our website: 433 00:29:22,622 --> 00:29:26,704 If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics, or just want to get in touch, 434 00:29:26,704 --> 00:29:28,281 drop us a line at: 435 00:29:30,633 --> 00:29:32,468 This episode would not have been possible 436 00:29:32,468 --> 00:29:36,955 without the generous support of Komunal, Group Groix and Michael. 437 00:29:36,955 --> 00:29:39,163 Now get out there …. and make some trouble!