PARIS, January 9 — About 6,000 people marched here today in the cold and snow demanding “across-the-board ‘legalization’ and the abolition of the ministry of shame,” that is, the Ministry of Immigration and National Identity. Simultaneously, there were calls for greater unity among the organizations defending undocumented workers, 6,000 of whom have been on strike since October 12.
The march included 14 undocumented-worker collectives from the Paris region, plus the CSP 59 collective from Lille in northern France. The latter group chanted, “We have marched from Lille to Paris to remind Mr. Sarkozy [France’s president] that it’s because of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the multi-nationals that we left our countries.” (The chant rhymes in French.) Other chants were: “I’m here, I’m staying, I won’t leave!” and, “We are in danger, we aren’t dangerous!”
Massed anti-riot police stopped the marchers from reaching the French presidential palace.
“We’ve been trying to achieve unity around the rue Baudelique [see below], but it hasn’t been easy to organize,” said Djibril Diany, a spokesman for the CSP 75 collective. “Since [the 1996 occupation of the church of] Saint Bernard, the undocumented workers’ movement has not been unified. But unity is very important so that we can be strong and solid against the government.”
The “rue Baudelique” is a complex of empty buildings in Paris which has been occupied since last July by thousands of undocumented workers led by the CSP 75. They’ve renamed the complex the “Ministry of Legalization of All Undocumented Workers.” Roland Diagne, a CSP 59 spokesman, said: “Today, Paris is the center of the struggle, which has taken on two forms: the strikes of undocumented workers and the Ministry of Legalization. These two forms overlap and they have to come together. We need the broadest possible united front of resistance to the government.”
Continuing its attacks on the undocumented workers’ movement, the French government has gone to court to force the village of Billière (population 25) in southwestern France to blot out a fresco, “The wall of the deportees,” that’s painted on their community center. It’s dedicated to the memory of deported undocumented workers and their children. In 2009, France deported 29,000 undocumented immigrants.
Today’s demonstration proclaimed an aim to protest “laws that create undocumented workers.” It’s clear, however, that demonstrations and strikes cannot end such laws, because capitalism needs the super-profits it makes by super-exploiting undocumented workers. Only communist revolution, which will smash all borders and the capitalists who create them, will emancipate these and all workers. cks.D `_ =MsoNormal>“We work under difficult conditions and we can’t even manage to feed our children,” declared one worker. “The oil money is shared by the [government] and their zealous servants, while the worker is condemned to live a hell on earth.”
Another said, “Despite the repression, we aren’t going to stop demonstrating if the authorities do not announce concrete measures to improve our purchasing power.”
Steel Goes Out; Port Paralyzed
On January 12, 7,200 workers at Arcelor-Mittal, the giant multi-national outfit, began an “unlimited strike” to prevent the company from closing its El-Hidjar plant near Annaba and force it to renovate to keep it open. The next morning, the steelworks, the depots and warehouses, and port installations were totally paralyzed. Two days later a massive march of steelworkers went from company offices to the guard post at the steelworks.
This uprising of basic industrial workers in Algeria is a model for all industrial workers to follow. But the bosses still hold state power and will use this apparatus, helped by their lieutenants “leading” the unions, to attempt to either crush or divert these militant workers from their just demands. What is needed is communist leadership to head the workers’ movement in the direction of revolution, to destroy the bosses’ state power and establish workers’ power, the only answer to the continuing hell created by capitalism. :12` ; o d `c :"Cambria","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'>(Continued next issue; stay tuned)
