On campaign
On campaign against Vinci
Despite the current crisis, the capitalist system is expanding and searches to increase its power over our lives. Resourcefulness, the smallest scrap of autonomy, the smallest scrap of know-how, the last fragments of collective living are integrated into the « free-market » or made illegal. Capitalism adapts itself to all political contexts and can at times be ultra-violent and predatory or act as consultant and ecologically responsible, depending on its needs to maintain the profit margin of a few.
Amongst the tools at its diposition, the most effectivally used is the control of spaces. For a long time, the uprooting of populations has been a means of making them dependant on consumer society and submissive to the labour market. At the same time, the land on which they had survived is re-orientated to the logic of capital. Each space has to have an economic direction from the industrial zone to the fields of cereal, passing by the mountainous regions and their wood covered slopes. As each region become specialised, a network of high speed transport is imposed and the control of all the means of communication garuntees the coherence of the totality. Multiplication of large scale projects interconnect the centers of activity : high tension power links, high speed train lines, highways, ring roads, underground trains, boulevards, tunnels, power stations, hydro-electric dams, oil refineries, wind farms, shopping centers, sports stadiums and urbanization of the countryside.
To achieve such projects, the reciepe has already been found, the public private partnership (PPP), which allows the alliance of democratic legitimacy, total geographic control, public finance, state police enforcement, local government know-how and the unscrupulousness of the omnipresent multinationals. The former proposes to take charge of entire projects from the initial construction stage upto and including the commercial management thereafter. The multinationals such as Eiffage, Vinci and Bouygues share a monumental cake which is continuously renewed. Huge pharaonic projects serve as a shop window display for their image and trademark, increase shareholder confidence and market profit. But it is the mass of interventions on environment (urban development, district renovation, round about, commercial areas, video-surveillance…) which are their daily business. Under the pretext of services rendered to the community, these partners increase every day the colonisation of our lives. Everything is done so that nothing escapes them, so that daily, every gesture is made profitable and controlable.They anounce loud and clear without shame that « Eurovia develops your frame of life ».
In 2000, Vinci became the largest construction/consession group in the world afer having being sold by Vivendi to shareholders. In 2009, Vinci participated in over 240 000 building contracts in more than a hundred countries. With a growth of 5% in 2010, its turnover reached €33.4 billion and contracts awarded rose by 15%.
Vinci is one of the favourite collaborators of the public sector and also of the private sector. One project (ITER) is an international experiment in nuclear fusion located in Cadarache, south France, along with Areva, its partner on the uranium mines in Niger and elsewhere, despite large oppostion to this megalomanic absurdity, Vinci continues to construct the disaster…
The High Speed Train Line South Europe Atlantic is a project opposed and disputed in the regions affected. Numerous collectives and communities organised protests to say stop to these large destructive projects and to coordinate actions across Europe.
At Notre Dame des Landes in France, the project to build an international airport as part of the expansion of the metropolis Nantes/St. Nazaire has been opposed for over 40 years. Today, Vinci has been awarded the contract to build the first so-called eco-friendly airport. Vinci and its public partners intend to carry out the project in so-called respect of a democratic process : for example a public enquiry surrounded by a multitude of gendarmes and riot police. Faced with this hypocracy the land set aside for this project is occupied and the combat intensifies.
The highway which is being constructed by Vinci between Moscow and St.Petersburg is destroying amongst others the Khimki Forest, the last remaining forest near Moscow. Soaked in corruption, this project of urban expansion is imposed on the inhabitants and advances only because of police violence and repression against the opponents to the project. The resistance camp installed in the forest was targeted with violent attacks by facist militias. The beatings, torture, threats, criminal charges and murders are some of the means of repression put in place by the capital in order to defend its own interest under the pretext of public works.
A campaign against Vinci ?
Because the machine that dominates us is widespread and omnipresent, it appears difficult to imagine how to emancipate ourselves. One of the strategies available would be to converge forces against one of the cogs to shake the foundations of the whole. As grand actor of this world, Vinci is everywhere. If certain of its tentacles are made visible by a few projects, others continue in the shadows, relying on the isolation of and acceptation by individuals.
Creating solidarity between people fighting Vinci (employees, people displaced, irradiated, repressed opponents…) could permit local issues to be highlighted by identifying Vinci as public enemy and refine long term concrete strategies.
Postering, flyering, banners, tags, discussions, demonstrations, film screenings, actions, free toll roads, free car parks, blockades, occupations, slow downs, sabotage on works sites, are practices which could participate in overturning the existing balance of power. Many actions against Vinci have already taken place, let’s organise locally to intensify this campaign in a determined and enduring way.
Because it is on our resignation that they construct their business, let’s share our anger and go on the offensive to give strength.
To exchange information : stopvinci.noblogs.org
Vinci Concessions : car parks, highways, tunnels, bridges, undergrounds, trains, airports, public facilities (campuses, stadiums, hospitals…)
Vinci Constructions : nuclear power plants (80% of the facilities in Fance), hydraulic infrastructure (canals, dams…), waste management (incinerators, sewage treatment works…), oil and gas pipelines and storage facilities, prisons , offices, prestigious housing.
Vinci Energy : wind farms, photovoltaiques, transport of energy produced, communication technology and urban management (high frequency radio, C.C.T.V, street and public lighting)
Eurovia : road infrastructure, rail infrastructure, quarries.
