In June, a chapter of local history came to a close: following six months of mobilization and political, media, and judicial struggle, the residents of the Trachel neighborhood in Nice won their fight. Their buildings and Colonel Jean-Pierre Square, one of the green lungs of the city, would not be destroyed, and the alternative project proposed by the collective “I love 42bis” was adopted by the Metropolis. This victory could stand on its own. But the leaders of the collective wanted to go further.
Laurent Rodrigues, a resident of 42 bis rue Trachel and the initiator of the neighborhood defense collective, hoped that this experience, and the lesson of this victory of “David against Goliath,” would benefit all the residents of Nice. He conceived several projects, one of which has just come to life: https://www.la-fourmie-annonce.fr, a local website for mutual assistance, solidarity, and networking.
Its principle is directly inspired by the “42 bis” experience: unity is strength, and unity begins with your neighbor. While the purpose of the web is to enable communication with the entire planet, the mission of La Fourmie Annonce is to encourage the residents of Nice to communicate with each other.
This site is obviously open to contributions from associations with a similar vocation to strengthen the social network, in the concrete sense of the term. It allows everyone to make themselves known and to know others, to pool information and services, to share experiences and expertise, to enrich and strengthen our actions, and to build a supportive cross-sectional base in an environment increasingly subjected to vertical pressure.
