PARIS, June 6 — Striking undocumented workers, most of African origin, battled riot cops as they continued occupying Bastille Square to pressure the government to reopen negotiations on the “legalization” of all undocumented workers. Talks have been at a standstill since May 20.

On May 27, the strikers — at times as many as 2,000 — began occupying the stairway to the Opera building in Bastille Square. Riot police refused to allow supporters to bring in food and water. After sleeping on the steps, the strikers would fold their sleeping bags and help municipal workers to clean the area.

At 7 a.m. on June 3, a horde of riot police massed at the foot of the stairs; then more gendarmes arrived from the top of the stairs and began tear-gassing the strikers. A violent fight broke out; a dozen strikers were injured and over 40 were arrested.

At 8 a.m., over 500 strikers, driven from the stairs, regrouped on the other side of the Square, where the police encircled them. However, when a growing number of Parisians arrived to support the strikers, the police withdrew three hours later, except for a line blocking access to the stairway. The undocumented strikers spent the night in Bastille Square.

Yesterday, Fofana Mo, a Senegalese, declared “There are French people in Africa, so why can’t we come here? Is there gold in France? Are there diamonds? Is there oil? They come to take our wealth and we don’t have the right to live here!”

NICE, FRANCE, May 31 — Nearly 1,000 undocumented workers demonstrated yesterday at the opening of the France-Africa summit to condemn the participation of the neo-colonial rulers of Africa in their exploitation here in France. The 100 undocumented workers who marched from Paris to Nice were among the protesters. (See CHALLENGE, May 26.) A second demonstration of 600 undocumented workers was held today.

In a statement, the marchers said: “The warmth of the welcome accorded by the inhabitants of the towns and villages along the march contrasted favorably with the nauseating debate on ‘national identity’ launched by the French government. The majority of people thus demonstrated that they have not fallen into the trap of racism and xenophobia.” J

LONDON, ENGLAND, May 5 — A thousand teachers and students marched side by side through central London today to protest severe cuts to the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) higher- and further-education sectors. Chanting “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts” they marched past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey to a rally addressed by teacher and student unions.

Management at several U.K. universities have already backed down in the past few weeks and called off compulsory redundancies (layoffs) following decisive action by the unions.

Many more universities and further-education colleges are trying to lay off hundreds of teaching staff, claiming tight budgets and government cuts leave them no alternative. The University and College Union (UCU) that represents these workers has examined the figures put forward by one university and says that poor financial decisions by bosses are behind the proposed job cuts. Management has refused to consider alternatives to the layoffs.

Students are standing alongside their teachers in protest of larger classes and fewer teachers for the same fees. They know that cuts in teaching jobs translate into cuts in their education. Students have set up their own campaign to fight cuts at the University of Westminster and occupied the vice-chancellor’s office in a two-day sit-in earlier this spring.J

Wells Fargo, an official sponsor of Juneteenth in most cities, systematically sold racist subprime mortgages to black workers. “Subprime loans” became well known in 2007. Tens of thousands of workers were duped by banks to buy a house at low interest rates while never being told that the rates would skyrocket.

A New York Times study found that black households that made more than $68,000 a year were five times as likely to receive a subprime loan as whites with similar or lower incomes. For Wells Fargo borrowers, this disparity was even greater with whites in that income group holding two percent of the subprime loans compared to 16.1 percent for blacks. Mortgage lenders at Wells Fargo
often referred to these subprime loans as “ghetto loans,” referring to the black working class they targeted. Wells Fargo specifically targeted black churches, hoping church leaders could help convince their congregation to take out thse loans. J