Open letter of the parents of the "Tarnac 5"
nn - 28.11.2008 02:21
an open letter to all, from some of the parents of the Tarnac 5:
When all the media come together in a cacophony of lies to slander a
handful of young people currently languishing in jail it is very difficult
to find the right tone with which to call an end to this racket and make
room for a little truth.
Many journalists bent over backwards to confirm the statements of the
Minister of the Interior, even while the raids were still taking place.
Those arrested were assumed to be guilty from the outset.
No one could miss the sensationalist reality cop show that our children
have been forced to star in throughout the last week. The anguish, fear,
and tears have submerged us and continue to do so. But probably what has
hurt us the most, destroyed us the most, is the flood of lies that have
been let loose. Today it was our children, tomorrow it could be yours. We
are still stunned, but we are no longer paralyzed. The various facts which
follow are an attempt to reestablish the truth and to silence the public
condemnation.
Our children have evidently benefitted from special treatment, enclosed in
shadows for 108 hours, for some without any charges, and to justify this
we are told that they must be very special people, the kind that one
doesn't find on any street corner. But at the same time we are reminded
that they are actually very normal, for everyday they become more
numerous, and take up positions at every one of your street corners.
The police reproach our children for being too organized, for attempting
to provide locally for their basic needs, for reopening a village grocery
store which had closed down, for cultivating abandoned lands, for
organizing the distribution of food for old people in their area. Is it an
evil to self-organize for basic needs? Here, when we have heard wind of
crisis? Our children have been categorized as radicals. Radical, in the
dictionary, means: taking up the problem at its root. In Tarnac our
children planted carrots without bosses or leaders. Because they naively
think that life, intelligence and decisions are more joyous when they are
collective.
We are concerned to learn from the Minster of the Interior that simply
reading the book The Coming Insurrection by the Invisible Committee can
make someone a terrorist. As a result of the free publicity the Minister
has given the book through speaking of it in the media she risks soon
counting 25,000 of them on her territory. For those who take the time to
read it, this book is not a terrorist catechism, but a political essay
which attempts to open new perspectives, and one of last year's best
selling social science books according to the Nouvel Observateur and
Libération.
Our children are accused of going to a demonstration at Vichy on November
3rd. Some among us are the children, the grand children, of those deported
by the Vichy regime. That our own children have taken the decision to go
and physically oppose the functioning of a summit on immigration in this
city of such symbolic significance, this fills us with pride, but also
with hope and courage.
Let us return to the suspicions leveled against our children. Contrary to
what has been said, and what we might think, the sabotage of railway lines
did not terrorize the population or put anyone in danger. It simply caused
the population to lose or kill time. What did terrorize the government was
not the fact that it had to reimburse a thousand or so train tickets, but
that an idea of politics, which was also an idea of action, ceaselessly
reproduced itself. Sabotage, whether one employs it or rejects it, has
never been an arm of terror, but always an arm of social change. There was
a time when the CGT [France’s main trade union] called for it.
Bankers are responsible for the biggest economic crisis of the last 80
years. This will not fail to cause millions of people to starve. And we
continue to cordially greet our bankers in the street. Our children are
only suspected of causing the delay of a few trains, and for that they
face 20 years in prison.
The most impressive police operation in the last week was not bursting
open doors in balaclavas on a sleeping nine-month-old baby, but rather
convincing people that the desire to change such a perfect world could
only emanate from the heads of the mentally deranged, of powerful
assassins.
When doors slam we feel fear that it is the balaclavas returning.
When they open we dream of seeing our children return.
the parents of Bertrand, Mathieu, Elsa, Aria and Yldune
PS : we salute and offer our thanks to the inhabitants of Tarnac who
prefer to believe what they live than what they see on TV.
DROP THE CHARGE OF CRIMINAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF TERRORIST
ACTIVITY AND IMMEDIATELY RELEASE ALL THE INDICTED
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