(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #245 - Roma: EU
citizens? (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
Although theoretically have the same rights as any European citizen, Roma are victims of a
racism that nobody bothers to conceal. They are therefore faced with a multitude of social
problems. ---- Since January 2014, the Romanian and Bulgarian people living in slums are
European citizens of law. For nearly a year, they have on paper the same rights as English
or Spanish: freedom of movement without a visa in the European Union, the possibility of
staying in France subject to relatively restrictive conditions, access to common law for
housing, social rights, etc. The Roma in these countries are of course benefit from these
rights. ---- Stop the evictions ---- Yet we do not know where to start if it is necessary
to describe the jungle xenophobic logic which intertwine to drive every day a little more
in the galley the inhabitants and residents of slums. There is first the Caf that put a
delirious time to let the benefits to which families are entitled. There was also the
prefectures who continue to refuse residence permits (even when they are obliged to
deliver them), police harassment, the permanent suspicion of fraud stemming from the
recent talk about "social tourism".
And there especially the evictions of places that are linked together in the Paris region
for two months, despite attempts to have them canceled through mobilizations and legal
action: in La Courneuve on September 8 in Nanterre on October 24 and Bobigny, where on 21
October the slum of Egg was bulldozed (shortly after that of Madness was made deportable
by court: this will probably be the next). Each time, the resettlement proposals within
the joke: they concern a minority of residents and inhabitants, and are often written down
for a period of a few days to tens of kilometers from their places of life in squalid
hotels unsuited to the needs of families.
Strengthen solidarity
Supports are always there, but not enough, often isolated and local prisoners logic
without links are forged between the different groups of compounds jumble citizenists
associations, volunteer humanitarian ambition, and some libertarians. Because of the
remoteness, precarious situations, differences (or differences) points of view, the
actions follow without mobilizing more than a few people at each expulsion. This is why it
is difficult to hear a critical voice without dispossessing the people concerned, the same
time that obviates the urgency of material situations.
It is not difficult to argue that these evictions only aggravate the galley: the steps are
interrupted, the school followed made it impossible, health deteriorates, work absences
multiply...
Above all, what we must oppose us is the construction of a racialized "Rroma problem"
through maintaining them in a situation of misery which can then claim them accountable.
There is not a Rroma problem, but a multitude of social problems that plague them: poor
housing, state racism, austerity and destruction of public services, the labor market for
those saturated which do not work. The source of these evils, the withdrawal of a
capitalism in crisis, a social contract that works no longer a state that promotes fear of
others, rather than assuming its failure.
Clem (anti-racism commission AL)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Rroms-Des-citoyens-europeens
