for Jean-Marie Le Pen's fascist National Front in France shocked people throughout Europe.
Socialist and Communist Parties themselves.
looks at the bitter lessons of Mitterrand's government.
Iramigrants aren't allowed to work in France.
Nevertheless Francois Mitterrand was elected President of France on 1981 thousands of immigrants were on the streets celebrating the victor! of the Socialists and Com munists. Under a government of the left, blacks in expected • 10 get their rights. It took only a few months to dash their hopes.
In France there are 4.5 million immigrant workers and their families. That is eight ber cent the population. There ale further 300,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants — many of them employed in the underworld slave trade of small sweatshops.
The majority of black workers in come the former French Canner colonies North and West Africa.
Nearly 70 per cent have livTHE ELEVEN per cent vote in the Euro-elections But Le Pen's victories weren't prepared simply through the austerity policies pursued by Francois ed in France for more than ten vears. Despite this verv few are entitled to French citizenship even among the generation who were born there.
Many black workers have to renew their residence permit every This places them We Constant re o deportation as the permit Is not issuca uniess lne applicant has a job at that ment among blacks is exhigh. Under SLEingent laws passed in the 1930s the right to vote and ine right to organise are also denied to immigrant workers.
Small wonder that this section the French population had such high hopes in government which claimed to represent the oppressed. Before winning the elections of 1981 the Socialist party/Com munist party election plat form had promised OU migrants the right to vote, the right to organise, the abolition of the stringent laws on deportation, amnesty for illegal immigrants and the introducLOH ten year automatically renewable resident permit.
Shortly after it came to power the government duly granted amnesty for 100,000 illegal immigrants and the most stringent laws were abolished. The right organise was established through the abolition of a decree of 1939.
In October, controls were introduced supposedto protect immigrants froin so called siave trade employers. was where the honeymoon Cucu To this day immigrants do not have the right vote. Nor do they have the ten-year residence OCTOIL. although Mitterand claims he has 'not forgotten' this promise. But in reality not only have these I Unuse been forgotten but they have been totally reversed By the time of the municipal elections in March 1983 the Socialist Communist Parties had been instrumental in whipping massive late campaign against im migrants. Jastor Defcampaigning Marseilles, , boasted that as Socialist Party Minister of the Interior he had expelled more wing. In Vitry tar the right wing.
Communist controlled local authority bulldozed a block residences oc'cupied _by immigrants. Pierre Mauroy, the Prime Minister, accused striking WOrKers Renault Citroen of being taken over by Islamic fundamentalists.
All this served to create an aimosphere for the introduction in August 1983 the Dufoix decrees. Border controls were step. ped up to stop illegal immgrants wives children from entering the country Massive raids were carried out in the small factories workshops to flush out -not the unscrupulou employers but the il immigrant workers who were then promptly deported 7,000 were expelled in 1983 alone Under the decrees, , immigrants were also offere and a promise of training, to return home tries who had nothing for them.
The government were carrying out vendetta against the immigrant population. Many imforefront ot fight against the government's austerity measures attacking immigrants the government was trying to cover up for their policies of creating mass unemployment By expelling immigrants they pretend they were trying to do something about the problem Georgina Dufoix, the Secretary of State responsible explained this openly, 'We against unemployment'. She stated: 'Our measures (the anti-immgrant decrees ed) are visible and effective The campaign by the so-called government of the left has allowed an atmosphere of xenophobia and racism to be whipped up to the advantage of the extreme Marie Le Pen.
the immigrant population are not taking this lying down. Amongs young second and third generation imin particular, feeling is running very high. In December they organised a march acruss mrance to orotest a these racist with them when they arrived in Paris and the main trad unions (CFT and CFDT) were forced to back then even though they sup ported government policy Mitterrand himself wa forced to the mar chers and listen to their demands. The tions set up to support the march are continuing and are begining to coordinate nationally By organising together against racist policies, , the immigrant population are showing they • can fight to turn the tide against this reactionary government can draw in other workers to defeat all its right wing policies.
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Mitterrand's socialist government. They were also directly aided by the racist policies pursued by the JUDE ARKWRIGHT, reporting from Paris,
marched licies 100,000