France: 6,000 Undocumented Strikers Press Ahead

PARIS, April 17 — Striking undocumented workers and their supporters rallied outside city hall here today as their strike entered its seventh month. Most of the 6,000 strikers are from Africa and work in construction, the restaurant trade and as guards.

They’re demanding general “legalization” according to “improved and simplified criteria that are the same everywhere in France.” Presently, “legalization” is decided arbitrarily and on a case-by-case basis by the 100 French prefectures. Estimates of the number of undocumented workers in France run from 200,000 to 400,000.

On April 1, Immigration Minister Eric Besson said he had no intention of easing “legalization” criteria: five years in France, one year of steady employment at a company promising to employ the worker for an additional year, and in a sector where there is “a shortage of native-born workers.”

Ruling Party’s Electoral Defeat
Leads to More Repression

The ruling UMP party and the government were defeated in the March 21 regional elections when the fascist National Front reappeared as a political force. It seems neither the debate on “national identity” nor the immigration minister’s inflexible anti-immigrant and anti-undocumented worker policy was enough to persuade the far right to vote for the UMP party.

Now it appears President Sarkozy’s regime has reacted by veering to the right, hardening its position and increasing repression of immigrants.

On March 24, the workers at the oldest Paris sit-down strike were evicted. Following the March 31 Council of Ministers [Cabinet] meeting, the occupants of the FAF-SAB premises were evicted the next day, and simultaneously the immigration minister announced no change in the anti-immigrant policy.

Strikers’ Victories

Nevertheless, the undocumented workers’ movement has been able to score victories. On March 8, 60 CGT trade unionists accompanied undocumented workers to the STN cleaning company in Aulnay-sous-Bois and forced the boss to promise hiring 28 striking undocumented workers. (This “promise-to-hire” is one precondition for “legalization.”)

On March 17, the Bagatelle restaurant was forced to issue eight promises-to-hire to its striking workers. On March 25, one of the Bouygues construction company’s renovation sites was occupied by undocumented workers and CGT union activists.

On April 1, hundreds of activists opposed the eviction of the undocumented strikers from the FAF-SAB premises for the whole day. Ultimately, the workers were evicted, but the struggle showed the strength of workers’ support for the strikers.

An April 6 editorial in Le Monde, the French “newspaper of record,” called on the government to abandon its policy as “sad and sordid.”

On April 12, a Paris appeals court recognized the right to strike and the right to sit in of the striking undocumented workers employed by Synergie, a temporary work agency.

Trade Union United Front Is Broken

On April 6, the Solidaires trade union confederation announced that it would encourage undocumented strikers to file “individual legalization” requests at the prefecture, without waiting for a new ministerial circular. This was the first break in the united front of 11 associations and trade union organizations supporting the strike.

On April 7 the organizations of the striking undocumented workers discussed the decision and remained unconvinced of its wisdom.

The government can react in two ways to this disunity:

(1) It can “legalize” a certain number of undocumented strikers on a case-by-case basis, the better to refuse all further demands, no new ministerial circular having been issued; or,

(2) It can refuse the requests for “legalization” and deport the undocumented strikers who filed the requests.

In either case, the six-month strike will have been in vain, since the undocumented workers will remain insecure.

The April 9 meeting of the committees of support for the undocumented strikers failed to re-establish unity and asked the 11 trade union organizations and associations for more material help, more means of communication and more initiatives in the struggle, all of which would help win across-the-board, not case-by-case “legalization.”

Presently, the undocumented strikers are torn between uncertainty and the possibility of victory. The strike has gone on too long for some, and some are discouraged. Many strikers have lost their jobs and their housing, unable to pay their rent. They expected a tough fight, but thought they would win mass “legalization” by the end of 2009.

Need for Communist Class
Consciousness

Another important factor in this strike is the development of revolutionary class consciousness. This means winning the strikers and their supporters to see the big picture, that the strike — as historic as it certainly is — is only one battle in a much greater fight: the struggle of the working class to overthrow capitalism and establish communism, a system in which the workers run society by and for themselves. Winning workers to this perspective guarantees that, however many battles we may lose, we will be on the road to winning the class war. J