Colombelles: arson attack on Effiscience technology campus
Indymedia Lille, June 2025
On a weekend marked by the widening scope of warfare in the Middle East, and by the Paris Air Show, we have decided to disrupt activity at the Effiscience technology innovation cluster in Colombelles, which brings together a number of companies from the military-industrial complex on the same “campus”: Safran Data Systems, Sotraban, NXP semiconductors, Telit Wireless Solution, Nucleopolis, CLARA, Probent Technology, Atos & Bull technologies, Eff’Innov Technologies…
On the night of June 22/23, we set fire to two fiber optic cabinets located on the rue du Bocage at the site. The flames were beginning to rise when we left. We can imagine that internet connection will be difficult in the area tomorrow morning.
The spectacular images of bombardments thousands of kilometers away should not make us forget that it is here, in research and production centers, that weapons are manufactured. It’s one thing to be outraged by massacres; it’s quite another to take action, which is made necessary by the brutality of events and the desire to radically transform the social foundations on which wars, borders and genocides are founded.
It’s also a question of highlighting the economic reality of war, a vast battle between states or proto-states for the monopolization of resources and territories, a source of enrichment for capital, and a magnificent pretext for the race to technological innovation and the development of industry. For us, the fight against war is inseparable from the fight against capitalism as a whole.
The epitome of brutal relations and the hierarchical organization of societies, war and its networks must also be fought for the social order they perpetuate. Military war is one of the best ways for leaders to direct the anger that exists within their own “ranks” towards the figure of a dehumanized enemy, with the help of nationalist or religious narratives.
Consequently, we need to put an end to a persistent illusion: that we need to obey leaders in order to wage war on war. For the masterminds behind military and authoritarian strategies, the bottom line is always to command crowds of people, agreeing to go into battle without knowing the whole strategy that others have thought up for us. And now we’re soldiers being taken to mass graves to pull off some tactical strike (be it a military diversion or a strike against communications). For us, this idea is fundamentally problematic, and the histories of “revolutions” show that these leaders always end up betraying the revolution of the anonymous crowds in favor of their position of power. Those who play the state’s game always end up becoming its puppets.
In contrast to this trend, what we need is intransigence with everything that makes militarism what it is. This ambition implies a radical critique of hierarchy and political representation.
Having said that, we have to accept the leap into the unknown. The solution will not come from people “above us”, and in such a perspective, we have to accept that we must first rely on ourselves to put an end to wars. In this sense, our action aims to show that the war industry is at hand, silent but not invisible. It’s up to us to put it under the spotlight… and under fire!
Solidarity with those under the bombs,
Solidarity with those in exile,
War against all wars and all states!
Some irrecuperables (Des irrécupérables)