Last Friday, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, went to Calais to announce the coming dismantling of the “jungle”. And on Monday, a snail operation is organized by shopkeepers and truck drivers to demand a rapid break up of the camp.
There are probably close to 10,000 migrants trying to survive in the camp in unhygienic conditions. They come from Afghanistan, Sudan and other countries, hoping to cross the Channel. But if the living conditions in the camp are getting worse by the day, it is primarily because the police are harassing its inhabitants. Half of the camp was dismantled in March by bulldozers. The prefecture wanted to target some small shops during the summer, grocery stores or makeshift eateries on the camp. A court opposed it. It is not surprising that the Calais camp got more populated in recent months, after the multiplication of police operations against the camps in Paris! And if the police dislodged the Calais migrants, those would have no choice but set up another, even more precarious camp elsewhere.
This world really is upside down. Our leaders multiply wars, support dictators around the world and cause misery all over the planet. But those who try to escape these situations become accused and persecuted. The European policy of the barbed wire, closed borders and police repression has caused thousands of deaths every year. The real criminals are our rulers.
Politicians keep repeating that welcoming migrants and refugees would be expensive; that’s a lie. 10,000 migrants in Calais, this is such a tiny number compared to the populations of France or Britain.
It is instead the borders enforcement that’s expensive. Not only in fences, cameras, guards, etc. But above all it costs us money by promoting division between workers of different nationalities or origins. The capitalists want to pit the exploited against each other. We would lose everything if we played that game. Long live solidarity between workers and working classes of all countries!
Back to the class struggle: Against the Work law and its supporters, all together on September 15th!
Last spring, hundreds of thousands of youth and workers have mobilized against the Work law, an employer’s manifesto to attack workers’ rights on all fronts. The law was passed in August, but does that mean the end of the fight? That we should resign? No. To give in on these attacks is giving them carte blanche to take a hundred times more from us.
This September, we must choose sides. For they have chosen theirs. When you see Fillon, Juppé, Sarkozy wiggle at the MEDEF conference so an audience of bosses can determine which one will serve them best. When you learn that, following the whining of local employers, two Le Havre dockers were arrested at their homes, for acts dating back… to the June 14th demonstration! And for which they had already been released in July. Anger rises.
That is why we must seize the day of action and mobilization of September 15th called by the inter-union committee against the Work Law. Moreover, some are already mobilizing: on August 31st, dockworkers blocked the port of Le Havre to secure the release of their comrades; on September 6th, SFR employees, threatened by 5,000 layoffs, plan to go on strike; and already several hospital departments are on strike against the implementation of their version of the Work Act… A riposte we must build together.