Layoff plans and job insecurity are spreading, pressure at work is increasing and the cost of living keeps going up. And what are politicians talking about? Immigration and immigrants, always presented as a danger, if not as potential criminals! It’s the same revolting lies, over and over again.
It's certainly easier to flatter racist and xenophobic prejudice than to bring Michelin, Auchan or Arcelor to account for putting workers on the dole. When so many French billionaires don't even pay the taxes they should, politicians find it very useful to create a diversion!
No hospital, factory or construction site can function without foreign women and men; there are millions of them, who work hard for a pittance. And no government can deprive the employers of the manpower they need. In fact, all this anti-immigrant demagogy only aims at hiding the bosses' domination, at hiding their responsibility and at dividing workers.
Retailleau, the Minister of the Interior, is at the head of this anti-immigrant crusade. After tightening the conditions for regularizing undocumented immigrants, restricting access to visas and putting an end to birthright citizenship in Mayotte, his obsession is now Algeria and Algerians.
The crisis between France and Algeria broke out when Macron recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Since then, one provocation has led to another. On one side, Algeria has imprisoned the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal; on the other, Retailleau deported an Algerian “influencer” without trial, only to see him be immediately sent back to France.
Now Retailleau, backed by PM Bayrou, is shamelessly exploiting the attack perpetrated in Mulhouse (by an Algerian schizophrenic who had been ordered to leave the French territory) to issue an ultimatum to the Algerian government.
France is giving Algeria four to six weeks to readmit several hundred people, described as ‘’dangerous’’ by Retailleau, failing which the 1968 agreement (1) would be terminated.
Algerians and Franco-Algerians are once again victims of the hateful and racist competition between the right and the far right. Victims, once again, of all those who never accepted the independence of Algeria and who dream up all sorts of things.
For example, the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement is presented as a privilege for Algerians and a suction pump for immigration. But where is the privilege when entry to France is subject, as it is for all non-European foreigners, to obtaining a visa? What favor is there, when red tape is everywhere and the number of visas issued has plummeted?
The ruckus surrounding this agreement only serves to fuel the tension between France and Algeria. And for Retailleau, who claims to be the leader of the crusade against immigration and Islamism, that's what matters.
All this is poison for workers on both sides of the Mediterranean. On both sides, it's in the interest of the ruling class to pursue this nationalist escalation in order to deceive workers.
In France, this new offensive against Algeria serves to flatter racist prejudice. Of course French leaders dare not show off when confronted with Trump! But against Algiers, they can always try.
For Algerian President Tebboune, it's also an opportunity to keep up appearances. Faced with general discontent, the regime is repressing political opponents, young people and workers fighting to improve their daily lives. What better way to divert attention than by playing on national pride?
We must leave these hatemongers to their own tactics! Whether you live on one side of the Mediterranean or the other, the fate of working women and men is exploitation, low wages, increasingly harsh living conditions and the sound of army boots.
Whatever our origins, our convictions and the country we live in, belonging to the working class means being at the wrong end of the stick, because it's always held by the richest: the capitalists and their political henchmen. It's only together, by closing ranks and showing solidarity, whatever our nationality, that we’ll be able to defend our interests as workers, to make ourselves respected and to put an end to the imperialist order and its stupid borders!
Nathalie Arthaud
1: The 1968 Agreement between France and Algeria stipulates the conditions of movement, employment and residence of Algerian nationals and their families in France. It was negotiated following Algeria’s independence and has been revised several times since. The right and far right are calling to terminate the agreement and using it to push anti-immigration ideas and racist sentiment.