New migrant worker strike wave in Paris
This article first appeared on the French New Anticapitalist Party's website on 22 October. Translated for Workers' Liberty by Ed Maltby.
A new wave of undocumented migrant workers' strikes, bigger than that of April 2008, began on the 12th of October. Strikers are determined to get papers for all. To win that, solidarity from all workers is necessary.
“Colonised yesterday; exploited today; tomorrow, regularised”
That is the slogan of the thousands of undocumented migrant workers who are taking part in the new strike wave, initiated by the CGT, CFDT, SUD, FSU and UNSA unions and supported by associations such as the Ligue des droits de l’homme [human rights league], Cimade, RESF [a campaign to defend undocumented migrant school students and their family], Femmes Égalité, Autremonde, and Droits devant!!, etc. Since the 12 of October the movement has steadily grown, from 1,000 on the first day to 3,000 a week later. There has been a qualitative and quantitative leap from the strike wave of April 2008, which involved 600 workers and won 2,000 regularisations.
After several days, over 700 “isolated” workers, i.e. workers employed by unscrupulous employment agencies, invaded the Synergie and Adecco agency offices in Paris, 400 occupied the bosses' canteen, and 380 occupied the offices of a national federation of construction employers. More than 30 workplaces are occupied. On the picket lines which “isolated” workers have organised, workers of all trades are coming to participate - butchers, bakers, gardeners, etc. At Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), the migrant workers have occupied a tax office in order to denounce the complicity of the state which pockets the taxes and social security contributions of undocumented migrant workers without giving them access to the basic rights of citizens. It is without a doubt the biggest movement of precarious workers ever organised in France.
Undocumented migrant workers are catapulting the inhuman working conditions and exploitation suffered by hundreds of thousands of people into broad daylight. They are highlighting the way capitalism puts workers in the most precarious situations in order to create maximum profit. They are at the heart of the system, employed by both public and private sector bodies, to renovate the Paris Metro or the tram tracks, in 19th Century working conditions. In the security sector, of 150,000 workers, 15,000 have no papers.
This exemplary movement perfectly illustrates the contradictions of capitalism. In order to maintain its profits, this system has for years implemented a policy of the outsourcing and casualisation of labour. This logic is pushed to its extreme with undocumented migrant workers. They suffer a growing state and police repression as Fortress Europe develops - a racist Europe, which lauds the free circulation of capital and allows thousands of people to die every year in the Mediterranean. There have been far more deaths at Gibraltar than at the Berlin Wall, which fell 20 years ago, but has been rebuilt across southern Europe. This situation also gives rise to resistance and revolt!
The striking workers and their supporters oppose the government's immigration policy. The unions want Besson to formally put an end to the treatment of migrants on a case by case basis by the local prefectures. This is a first step, but the only real solution, to put an end to hyperexploitation, is papers for all. That is an advance that migrant workers cannot win alone. They need the broadest support.
The CGT's strategy has evolved positively since the April 2008 strikes. From the outset, the movement has been larger and the CGT has been favourable to the setting up of support committees, even if the CGT leaders do not want to be overtaken by events and lose “control”. On different sites, solidarity committees have been set up. In this way the occupation of the Paris tramway was able to continue for a week. The organisations and associations of the 19th and 20th arrondissements brought tents and duvets to the strikers from day one, and the “Chorba for all” organisation supplied food. Without this, it would have been difficult to resist the pressure of the police and the bosses. At Vigneux-sur-Seine (Essonne region), a collection of money was organised, and at Boissy-Saint- Léger, the CGT organised a solidarity barbecue. We must spread these initiatives.
The workplace occupations put the bosses and government in a difficult situation on the question of immigration. It is possible to win victories and regularisations. This strike wave must create a general consciousness that immigration is not a problem. The left must rally around the migrant workers and take up in its turn the old slogan, “French workers; migrant workers; same bosses; same fight!” Migrant workers are opening the way.
Antoine Boulangé
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Latest report from the NPA; with interviews
Originally published on www.npa2009.org on Sunday 1st November. Translated by Ed Maltby for Workers' Liberty
Since the 12th of October, on the initiative of a collective formed by the CGT, the CFDT, the FSU, UNSA [trade union federations], RESF, la Cimade, the Ligue des Droits de l'homme, Femmes Égalité, Autre Monde, Droits Devant !!, an unprecedented social movement has developed, which has seen workplace occupations and involving 4,000 undocumented migrant workers on strike, of whom many are “isolated workers”. It demonstrates that the undocumented migrant workers are determined to defend the rights which are denied them by the globalised economy.
The exploitation of a precarious and vulnerable workforce of undocumented migrant workers is made possible by a hypocritical and racist government, which encourages bosses to break employment law and accuses immigration of being the cause of the economic crisis so that it does not have to face up to the real economic criminals. As the striking migrant worker Gary Diabate from Vitry-sur-Seine puts it, “our struggle concerns all workers. The rights of French workers are also under attack because of the race to the bottom which the employment of undocumented migrant workers creates. Migrant workers have no minimum wage. That makes it easier for bosses to attack the wages of French workers.”
Despite the police repression against the striking workplaces, and attempts to deport and intimidate strikers, their determination remains intact. The government is doing all it can to weaken and divide the movement. It has violently repressed a CNT member in Porte-de-Charenton. It has cleared out the migrant workers who occupied the Synergie temping agency offices in Paris. The strikers just went to other sites. Every day a new site is occupied; there were 30 occupations at the start of the strike wave, and currently 40 workplaces are occupied in the Paris region.
The undocumented migrant workers at Vitry, who chose to occupy a tax office, want to highlight the complicity of the state which knowingly takes the taxes and social insurance contributions of these workers but gives them no right to claim help.
It is up to us to give a voice to and to lead the mobilisation of the broadest possible fight against a disgusting politics. In the unions, associations and on the left, the broadest support must be built, and it must be explained that “their” fight is everyone's fight. The solidarity of our class will be decisive in stopping this shameful policy.
Migrant workers speak:
Badiaga, Camara, Doukouré, Dramé, Gakou, Kouyaté, Siby, Sylla, delegates from the Seni strikers, industrial cleaners at Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne), members of the CGT.
We, the delegates representing the Seni, we demand the regularisation of all undocumented migrant workers, as soon as possible. We are not here to destroy, we are fighting for our rights. We have worked without papers and without social security, for so many years... It is time! 180 of us went on strike last week, and now there are 263 of us.
How do you explani this expansion?
The struggle was started by those who are currently contracted with Seni, but we have among us comrades who were employed in the past for short contracts. On our picket line, there are some comrades who are not presently employed by Seni. Some have been sacked, some as long as five years ago. Some of us are in the process of being regularised. The prefectures have not given any response for over 6 months. The are preventing us from delivering our dossiers, and especially the prefectures of Val-de-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis. Management said that they had sent our dossiers off dossiers and even showed us documentation to prove it. Nevertheless, the comrades went to the prefecture and heard that the dossiers had not been sent. In fact, the management and the prefectures are stringing us along. We want the management to stop all these delays. While we wait, we will stay out. We are determined.
The movement is demanding a general change in the laws on regularisation
If such a change is won, we want it to be in our favour, so that the law recognises the undocumented migrant workers who work and live here, and pay their taxes. Without discrimination, even against those who have not worked for a year. We want papers for all workers, even those who work illegally.
What do you want the support committees to do?
We want them to help us shift the situation forward. By signing petitions, by collecting solidarity money, by participating in our demonstrations. Some of us are parents of schoolchildren: we are counting on the support of the RESF network, who can mobilise other parents of schoolchildren, and their teachers.
Why is regularisation a trade union demand?
Yesterday, with the CGT, we created a union for workers at Seni, with or without papers. We have elected our representatives. The major struggle is currently around papers. From there, we want to concentrate on the right to housing, wage demands, the recognition of retirement rights, the respect of our statutory rest period, the right to sick leave, the recognition of work accidents... All things which the bosses deny to migrant workers. We want everyone to be able to live with dignity in this, the land of human rights.
Sadio Dianka is 41 years old. He came from Mali in 2000 and works in construction. He is knowingly employed on borrowed papers by Suburbaine, the business responsible for the construction of the Paris tramway.
“As soon as the movement started I got involved and I will stick it out to the end. Since I have been on strike, I have no longer been afraid, and I am fighting for my rights and my future. The presence of trade unions and supporters gives us courage. Even if we are kicked out of here, we are determined to go occupy someplace else! The bosses need us. There is one who called five temping agencies without finding any labour to take on. But is, strikers, we refuse to work in precarious conditions, like we did before. Now, we have had enough, we want to be regularised.
It is important to make contact with strike pickets, it is through unity that we will be stronger. We must also discuss with our comrades in the Ministry of Regularisation, who are leading a different form of struggle for the same thing, to live here in respect and dignity. We must all help each other.
Mamadou P left Dogon to come live in France. Along with over 2,000 other undocumented migrant workers, he has been occupying the offices of the CPAM health insurance agency on the rue Baudelique in Paris, since the 17th of July 2009.
“I worked various jobs in Mali, as a teacher and football coach. My situation became difficult, so I decided to try my luck in France. But here I only have the right to work horrible jobs which do not meet my aspirations. Currently, I work in a restaurant for a boss who is certainly suspicious of my situation. That made me join the struggle, and join a collective of undocumented migrants. At the end of my working day, I study to pass my brevet, and, hopefully, my baccalaureat. Then I go to the Ministry of Regularisation of all immigrants. It is a hard fight, which is going on a long time, and we must strain ourselves to keep going. The presence of supporters is very important. I am in solidarity with striking workers. We all have the same goal, and I think that the methods of struggle must all converge if we want to see a positive outcome to this movement.
Develop the Support Committees: the example of the 19th District in Paris.
The new wave of strikes and occupations has sparked a very strong mobilisation around the striking workplaces in the 19th district: TFN, a cleaning company, and Suburbaine, which is building tram-lines. Militants from political organisations (NPA, Alternative Libertaire, Parti de gauche), unions (CGT, Solidaires, CNT), associations (MRAP, an anti-racist group and the League for the Rights of Man) and community groups (Quartier solidaire Belleville), engaged in the struggle for the regularisation of all undocumented migrants, have regrouped under a single support committee. The handing out of leaflets, sticking up of posters, collections, petitions, letters to representatives, all means are being used to make the population of the district aware, and to respond to the material needs of the strikers.
“It is through the construction of an organisation that we can build and co-ordinate the mobilisation”, says Francoir Charpentier of the NPA. “We regret the absence of the ground of other political forces, but we are aiming to enlarge the collective, by regularly inviting those organisations who are hesitating to join us. We will launch bigger initiatives in November. Relations with strikers are very warm and we spend our evenings drinking African tea.
Marie-Au', of Alternative Libertaire, finds it effective to integrate into a pre-existing solidarity network: “Despite the weak media coverage, people from the local area come to discuss with us and learn about what is going on: that creates links and visibility. It is a very tough struggle: we must maintain a broad and united solidarity committee.”