French gov’t attacks immigrants

The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy is attacking the country’s large and diverse immigrant and foreign communities, which it calls the sources of delinquency and crime, with expulsions and deportations, loss and denial of French citizenship, and new laws imprisoning parents for the crimes their children commit, as well as increased police violence. According to many French political analysts, the Sarkozy administration is using this approach to repair its public standing, which has been battered by the worldwide recession, growing unemployment and the anger of France’s combative unions.

Much of what the Sarkozy government is practicing in France has been proposed by the Tea Party in the United States. The Front National, a fascist party that has played a significant role in French politics since its founding in 1972, has also pushed for these measures.

President Sarkozy has openly expressed his admiration for the U.S., telling the Washington Post, “I don’t see why my country doesn’t take inspiration from its great ally.” (April 19, 2007) While it is questionable whether the Tea Party pays much attention to what is happening in France, it is very likely that the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy’s party, and the Front National are emboldened by the Tea Party and reactionary U.S. laws such as Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070.

The camps of the “traveling people,” mainly Roma, who have been singled out in the past week for deportation, are called “illegal encampments for illicit traffics and activities.” (www.gouvernement.fr/gouvernement/brice-hortefeux)

According to French television network TV5, there have been a few demonstrations by French “travelers” who were sharing camps with the Roma. Their campers and belongings were also trashed by the French cops.

The Roma that the French government is targeting are in large part Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. They have been allowed to go to France or any other EU country since 2007, when these two countries joined the EU. TV5 has made a point of showing the one or two planes that leave France every afternoon, taking families back to unemployment and to houses that barely meet the definition of shacks. The Roma interviewed say they left “voluntarily,” taking $350 in compensation, because otherwise the French cops would make things “hard.”

France is trying to present these deportations as voluntary because mass expulsions of EU citizens from one EU state to another are against EU rules. According to the French news weekly Nouvel Observateur, the EU Parliament has condemned France’s expulsions, saying they “risk stirring up racism and xenophobia in Europe.” (Aug. 20) This sentiment was shared by religious groups and most political parties not allied to the UMP. Only Italy, which expelled a number of Roma last year, has given France some diplomatic support.

The Council of Europe estimates that there are about 12 million Roma in Europe and they make up 5 percent of the population of some countries. They were a more significant part of Europe’s ethnic mix before the Nazis unleashed genocide against them in World War II.

African women attacked

Another struggle in France has centered on police brutality against African women at public housing units in Courneuve, a working-class suburb north of Paris. Authorities there had decided to tear down the units and carried out some evictions in early July. A group of women from the West African country of Ivory Coast rejected the move and set up a camp outside the building, supported by a group called Right to Housing (DAL in French).

On July 21, cops attacked the camp. DAL took video footage of the cops dragging women by their heels over the asphalt. In one horrific case a woman was dragged face down, while she attempted to protect the baby in her arms. (www.droitaulogement.org/Revue-de-Presse-du-DAL.html)

This video caused an uproar — while many called for investigations into police conduct, the UMP condemned the group for interfering with the cops doing their duty.