PARIS, March 25 — Today a well-coordinated united, multi-racial action of militant trade unionists and undocumented immigrant strikers enabled the latter to occupy the former Galeries Lafayette warehouses here for six hours.
At 1 p.m. a “commando” team of 20 trade union activists walked quickly up the Rue Blanche. At the signal “Let’s go!” they ran to the renovation site and quickly broke open the gate. Then 63 undocumented workers invaded the site under the stunned eyes of the construction workers inside. The latter then left as the 63 undocumented workers settled in.
At 7 p.m., the police, without any court order, evicted the occupiers. The 63 workers marched out, chanting slogans from the construction site to the subway station.
The aim of the action was two-fold. First, it united the undocumented strikers, who work in small groups for many different subcontractors, allowing them to form a “critical mass” and realize their strength when unified into a larger force.
Secondly, it aimed at putting pressure on Bouygues Construction — which is renovating the warehouses — and is one of the big companies that employs undocumented workers and is blocking the across-the-board “legalization” of all undocumented workers. Worldwide, Bouygues Construction employs 52,600 workers and netted over one-third of a billion dollars profit in 2008.
It also exposes the international and racist super-exploitation of the mostly North African undocumented workers since the U.S.-based Carlyle group owns the warehouses. (Former president George H.W. Bush is one of its principal directors.) Carlyle invests in buyouts, growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance on six continents. Since 1987, it has invested $59.6 billion of equity in 952 transactions for a total purchase price of approximately $233 billion.
While capitalist bosses set up national borders and use them to divide workers and super-exploit immigrants, they have no hesitation to cross these borders themselves in their drive for maximum profits. Still another reason for workers to unite worldwide to destroy this thieving system and replace it with one run by and for the working class — communism.