Paperless but not hopeless government's actions are purely electoral! They have one eye on the 1998 elections, and all they are doing is accepting the logic of the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen
"I want to keep the picture of these men and women, and the lesson in dignity which they have given us." [EDJ, 29 August]
* France On 23 August the police broke down the door of the St Bernard church in Paris, and used tear gas to expel several hundred anti-racists, and arrest some 270 African immigrants, including ten hunger strikers. Jean Dupont
Most were legal residents of France for many years, before an administrative loophole or missed deadline stripped them of their legal status. Since many of them are the partners of legal residents, or parents of French citizens. they cannot be expelled from France as easily as more recent migrants.
The last thing most immigrants in this situation want is to draw attention to themselves, and begin a confrontation with the state. But this group reasoned that enough was enough, and that only exposing their kafkaesque situation, and appealing for a humanitarian solution, would force the state to regularise their situation and reform the absurd laws which continue to strip longterm residents of their legal status.
The mass media has tended to present these men and women as illegal immigrants, rather than the victims of illogical acts by the French state. As they tramped from one temporary home to another (from the St. Antoine Church, via the LCR Paris office, the SUD HQ, to the St. Bernard Church), gathering supporters as the weeks went on, the Catholic hierarchy washed its hands of them. And some "respectable" leaders of the 1980s antiracist movement tried to split the movement from "the radicals," proposing themselves as intermediaries for a pre-selected group of "justified" applicants for residence status. Manipulation?
Refusing to believe that African immigrants could organise themselves, the media looked everywhere for proof of the manipulation of the "paperless" (sans papiers) by naive Priests, and the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).
In fact, the LCR was scrupulous in respecting and promoting the auto-organisation of the paperless protesters, and their genuine leadership of the solidarity movement. Despite occasional differences over tactics, and doubts over the possibility of "negotiations in growth of xenophobia. It has also provoked an unprecedented wave of solidarity, and the re-emergence of an anti-racist and immigrant rights milieu which goes beyond the traditional circles of far left militants.
The anti-racist movement in support of these paperless Africans has become another expression of revolt against the authoritarian and unpopular regime of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppé. Juppé the axe-man
Since the police intervention on 23 August, the state has continued its strategy of division and intimidation. They have let it be known that the "dossier will be regularised" by awarding residence permits to a number of those concerned. 40% is the magic figure - enough to demonstrate humanitarian concern, without surrendering to the mob.
But all this is just public relations anyway. Only 50 of the 270 applicants have been promised residence permits. Others have been imprisoned because of their "irregular" status. And the threat of expulsion from France still hangs over their heads.
Different factions of the right are competing to present themselves as the firmest opponents of immigrant rights. Some deputies support [yet another] reform of the electoral law, to allow the National Front
While the right hardens up, the left seems to be wallowing in its old mess. Socialist leader L. Jospin has resuscitated his party's scandalous "refusal of illegal immigration" and called for a hard line against asylum seekers who are refused refugee status. Rather than fighting against xenophobic tendencies in the electorate, Jospin panders and stimulates them. Whatever Jospin thinks the Socialist Party can win from this, the main result of his current "opposition" strategy will be a strengthening of the far
None of this is particularly new. Successive Socialist Party governments made their own contribution to France's restrictions on the rights of immigrants and refugees.
The endless discourse on the dangers of immigration has contaminated many people, particularly those who have seen their own
Actress Emmanuelle Béart was one of many personalities good faith" to which the Africans hoped the who stayed in the church until the very end. "I was flabbergasted... and outraged that these people, all of whom had
This honest approach enabled the LCR to lived legally, normally in France, with their families, for five, ten establish a relationship of trust with the
African protesters, their supporters in the or more years... had maliciously been labelled as "secret movement' and the numerous personalities immigrants. No-one is fooled. The motivation behind the who came forward to show their solidarity when the state threatened a "muscular
There is another reason why the LCR was right. The direct testimony of the paperless themselves has exposed the true nature of the discriminatory laws which support the
European Marches against unemployment, job insecurity and social exclusion