On the expulsion of the Roma in France
The government is increasing repression and inciting racism. Workers must respond with solidarity and class struggle!
(«Proletarian»; Nr. 6; October 2010)
The repressive actions, the
security obsessed and xenophobic declarations of the government this summer in
no way constituted an unexpected “drift” and which moreover call into question
“republican principles” are rather part of the policy followed by any
conventional bourgeois government, right or left, where social tensions are are
increasing or at risk of increasing. In these moments, the designation of a
class of people as scapegoats serves to defend the privileges of the
ruling class, and more generally to protect the existing social and economic
system, by diverting the discontent on an easy target which is accused of all
evils: the ‘Gypsies’ today, yesterday, the Jews (and ‘Gypsies’ too!). But the
bourgeois also always seek to find scapegoats among the exploited classes to
paralyze the struggles by causing divisions between the workers. The
division maintained with full knowledge between French and foreign workers, the
constant recourse to repression, sometimes open and bloody, sometimes limited to
pressure and police brutality have always been and remain a constant of
French capitalism.
Proving they were among the most brutal exploiters, the French capitalists have built their power and wealth in the blood of French proletarians and immigrants and the disinherited populations from Africa and Asia. The Third Republic that some would propose as an antidote to Sarkozy and which erected itself on the massacre of the Communards, has not hesitated to engage in two world wars and several colonial wars to defend the interests of major and minor French capitalists. The Fourth and Fifth Republics that followed did not deviate from this sinister tradition. Without outlining the history of all the colonial massacres, just remember the massacre of hundreds of Algerian workers in Paris in 1961, dozens of protesters in Guadeloupe in 1967 under a Gaullist government, or French responsibility in the genocide that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in Rwanda in 1994 under a Mitterrand - Balladur coalition government. Today French soldiers participate in the Afghan war while in Africa others continue to ensure the defense of neo-colonial interests including clandestine “anti-terrorist” actions (as in Mauritania).
Those who, while affirming their respect for “public order”, protest against the threats that repressive government policy would carry to “social cohesion” and “civil peace”, would like to forget that this society is divided into opposing classes and that the bourgeois ruling class carries out a permanent class struggle against the working class, and that the public order is that of capitalism, robber, plunderer and murderer. The steady increase of repressive measures, to which the Left has contributed when it was in government, ever more frequent recourse to a real “kangaroo court” style of expeditive justice against the protesters (as in the trial of the youths detained in Villiers-le-Bel), the massive deployment of heavily armed police forces (including with helicopters and armored vehicles!) to “restore order” in proletarian neighborhoods are part of the real civil strife that is inseparable from capitalism. This also includes the raids, detentions and deportations of undocumented workers and their families, and more generally all the economic and social attacks against workers, whatever their nationality.
Faced with this anti-proletarian policy, which in the final analysis is explained by the needs of capitalism, it is futile to call for respect of the misleading phrases found in Constitutions or on the front of city halls, under capitalism there can be no equality or brotherhood between the classes and the only freedom that exists is that which is reserved for the bourgeoisie: the freedom to oppress, to exploit and to crush in order to enrich itself. The soft and sweet discourses of the reformists are deceptions: in response to xenophobia and state repression, workers have no other solution but solidarity with their class brothers and the oppressed masses and open struggle against capitalism.
•-No to repressive measures, discrimination and deportations against the Roma and all the economic Travellers!
•-Release of youths convicted as examples after the riots in Villiers-le-Bel, Grenoble and other places! Immediate regularization of undocumented workers!
•-No to immigration control!
•-Withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan and Africa!
•-Down with racism and xenophobia, Down with imperialism, Long live the international struggle of the proletariat!
Aug. 28, 2010