100,000 demonstrate in France against racism

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PARIS—A hundred thousand people demonstrated here on Jan. 25 against racism, for equal rights, and in support of immigrants. This was a great success for the antiracist movement for several reasons:

1) This demonstration was organized by a very broad united front of antiracist organizations, trade unions, and immigrant groups. Also involved were a range of political parties, notably, the Communist Party, the Revolutionary Communist League (French section of the Fourth International), the Revolutionary Communist Youth (the Fourth Internationalist youth organization), the Greens, and Lutte Ouvrière.

The Socialist Party called for participating in the demonstration. But it did not sign the common platform, because the latter criticized the Mitterrand government for its policy toward the immigrants and applicants for asylum who are fighting today to get a secure legal status in the country.

In fact, many of the slogans raised in the demonstration attacked the government's policy and called for an end to discrimination against immigrants, and an end to deportations.

Government's rightward shift Another central theme of the demonstration was denunciation of Jean Marie Le Pen, the rightist politician who is waging a ferocious campaign against the immigrants. The demonstrators not only condemned Le Pen, but demanded a policy that would block the growth of this antiimmigrant current.

In fact, Le Pen's National Front feeds off unemployment (one of its slogans is, "Three million unemployed equals three million immigrants"), poverty, and the corruption that is now coming to light.

Since this far-right party started to score successes, other political parties started to borrow from its arsenal. For example, Jacques Chirac, former premier and leader of one of the main conservative parties, the Rally for the Republic, has talked about the unbearable "smell" of the immigrants.

Giscard d'Estaing, former president of France and leader of the other big conservative party, the Union for French Democracy, has decried the "invasion" of France by foreigners.

For their part, the leaders of the big left parties have been making more and more concessions to the racists. Edith Cresson, premier and Socialist Party leader, said that she was ready to deport "clandestine" immigrants, in chartered airplanes if need be.

The Communist Party has issued a scandalous leaflet that denounced "clandestine" immigrants and called for still more severe police checks.

Immigrants mobilize

Facing such exclusion and discrimination, the immigrants themselves have begun to react. In the working-class suburbs and satellite towns of the big cities, for a year, young people whose parents are North African or Black African immigrants have been building mobilizations—sometimes very violent ones—against police repression and all the discrimination they face in their daily lives.

The great majority of these young people have little or no hope for finding jobs, and drugs are widespread in their neighborhoods. Virtual uprisings have taken place in Vaulx en Velin (near Lyon) and in Sartrouville and Mantes La Jolie (near Paris).

Another very active element are the candidates for asylum. They are refugees who have fled from dictatorships and repression. They come primarily from Turkish Kurdistan, Haiti, as well as from Zaire and other Black African countries. As has happened in other European countries, for some years the French government has been making the asylum laws more restrictive.

There are now tens of thousands of persons whose appeal for asylum has been rejected. These "rejectees" came up out of the underground a year ago, and have been holding more and more mobilizations— massive hunger strikes and demonstrations.

For example, 15,000 applicants for asylum marched through Paris last May 25. The government has been forced to retreat a bit and grant legal status to 7000 people.

On the other hand, the minister of the interior wants to get a law passed which would permit authorities to hold applicants for asylum for 30 days without any court oversight or guarantees. Such a law has been passed by the National Assembly, but it has to be reviewed by the Constitutional Council.

In the Jan. 25 demonstration, representatives of the asylum seekers marched in the front rows, and there were many slogans condemning the repressive laws, as well as the minister of the interior. took a very critical stance toward the government, which he accused of taking certain steps inspired by the National Front. He said that it was hypocritical on the government's part to claim to be fighting Le Pen and at the same time applying some of his racist ideas.

The Socialist Party and the government tried to divert the action into being just a demonstration against Le Pen. The "Socialists" wanted to allay discontent with their own policies and present themselves as a rampart against Le Pen.

This attempt failed. One reason was that the organizers denounced this maneuver. Likewise, the demonstrators were very firm against the extreme right, denounced the government's policy, and firmly committed to continue the fight for equal rights, including the right to vote for foreigners residing in France.

Other demonstrations planned It should be stressed that the demonstration was very militant and included a lot of youth and immigrants. At the conclusion of this demonstration, the organizations that initiated it announced the formation of an Ongoing United Front Collective (CUP), which will organize the struggle against racism and for equality, especially the right of asylum.

There is thus a perspective for more big demonstrations for equal rights. One possibility is to demonstrate on May Day, along with the unions. New opportunities, therefore, are opening up for fighting for the unity of the French and immigrant workers against all forms of discrimination.

On the same day as the demonstration in Paris, 100,000 people in Milan, Italy, demonstrated against racism. So, a mobilization is beginning to build against the wave of racist campaigns sweeping Europe. Revolutionists are playing their full role in this.

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