French Communist Partj leads racist attack

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"On Wednesday (Christmas Eve) at 4.10 p.m. about 50 people led by the mayor. including council workers. arrived in front of the hostel with a bulldozer. About 15 of them stormed inside. They tied up the caretaker, M. Berthaud, took him to the office, threatened him to get the keys. Another group .. cut the electric cables ... Another group broke the water pipes, and gas pipes. Others pulled up the phone lines whilst outside the bulldozer was blocking up the exits."

So reported Michel Micheletti, representative of ADEF. (which is the French Association for the development of hostels).

Was this a fascist attack on the hostel-where 320 wörkers from Mali were just about to move in?

Not at all. The attack was led by Paul Mercieca, the Communist Party mayor of Vitry -a working class suburb on the outskirts of Paris.

The mayor denies belatedly. having organised the attack but his actions have been upheld by the CP paper Humanite.

• The French CP has in fact been in the foretront of calls for more immigration controls and has raised these in such a way as to encourage the racists.

So. for example, they link areas of high immigration with increase in crime.

The strength of the mass movement in Poland has forced the bureaucracy to recognise the independent trade union Solidarity.

This concession came as a Mali workers repair damage They have completely accepted the idea put by the capitalist class that immigrants are somehow responsible for the crisis and it can be resolved by stopping immigration. They have demanded that this and other hostels be sited in more middle class areas.

Since October 1980 the CP has backed the demands put forward by Pierre Thomas, the CP mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois.

Halt immigration

These include the immediate cessation of all immigration into his area and the Paris region, to facilitate a better "sharing out" of immigrants.

This is put forward as an "answer" to the government's policy of putting hostels in CP-controlled areas and rarely in done by Stalinist raid those run by the right wing parties (Saint-Maur, where the Malians have moved from, is controlled by the right wing).

It is to be remembered that the immigrants brought into France have often not been allowed to bring families but have been shipped in for a couple of years to live in government-controlled hostels, in a certain workplace.

These workers do not have a vote, as they do not have French nationality.

The CP, like true parliamentarians, are not interested in those who cannot vote for them.

Apparently 43% of those of voting age in Aulnay do not have a vote.

The Socialist Party has called under certain circumstances for immigrants to have a vote in municipal elections. But the CP has opposed this call!

Other racist demands supported by the CP are the immediate stopping of providing accommodation for the families of immigrants; of complete consultation with representatives of residents and the municipality before siting a hostel.

Slogan A major outcry has arisen as a result of the raid. The slogan "PCF-raciste" has appeared in the Paris Metro.

The organisation of jews, Renouveau juif, has denounced:

"The collusion which exists today in France between the CP, the extreme right and the government which is multiplying controls and the arbitrary expulsions of immigrants."

Text of adopted by national Li: meeting in December.

The neo-fascists have course been delighted with developments.

The Party of New Force has recalled that they have put forward for several years the call for a threshold of 10% of immigrants per district.

The CP is pushing this same position. It was recently reiterated by George Marchais, the CP general secretary.

In an attempt to turn the heat off their action, the CP has called for a demonstration on 10 January outside the town hall in Saint-Maur, where the Mali workers were transferred from.

They call on the council to accept th sibility and rehouse grants (!).

statement on the Trotskyis • Interson Committe = at its Paris at the end of of the Saint-Maur eir responthe immiFrench CP leader Márchais The SP in the council of Vitry backs up this demand.

The reason for the growing sharpness over immigration and the increasing racist attacks is the deepening crisis of French capitalism-made even worse by the problem of oil supplies since the Iran/Iraq war.

Unemployment is growing fast, and the need for the capitalist class to find scapegoats becomes more acute.

They have attempted to whip up racial hatred even though the number of immigrants in France has decreased since 1977.

They have now found reliable allies in the CP.

• It is important for those workers in Britain sympathetic to the Communist Party to study what the Stalinists do in capitalist countries where they do hold positions of power. party must base itself on defence of the nationalised property relations in Poland and the deformed workers' states, and the development of the independent strength of the working class to capture politic-