Nos camarades du Socialist Worker Party (Grande-Bretagne) ont publié, dans leur journal Socialist Worker, une série de brèves sur l'expulsion des migrantEs de Calais. Nous avons répondu à une interview de Dave Sewell sur la manifestation du 22 octobre à Saint-Brévin.

Anti-racists a ‘pleasant surprise’ as Nazis target French villages

Fascist rallies, racist violence and pro-refugee welcome parties and counter-demonstrations have rocked small-town France as the refugees from Calais arrive.

A coach brought 47 migrants from Calais to the seaside village of Saint-Brevin-Les-Pins in western France on Tuesday of last week.

Hamid made his way all the way from Afghanistan hoping to join relatives in Manchester.

Fellow Afghan Nasir speaks no French but does speak good English. This could have helped him build a life in Britain.

Instead they are in an out-of-season holiday camp. Its windows had been shot at amid a racist campaign to turn them away.

The town had seen a series of hundreds-strong demonstrations both for and against refugees—and it is just one among numerous examples.

Sandra Cormier, a teacher in the nearby city of Nantes and an activist in the New Anticapitalist Party, joined the largest pro-refugee demonstration there.

“About 400 people, mostly locals, joined a rally called by a local resident’s collective set up to welcome migrants”, she told Socialist Worker.

Quiet

“That was a pleasant surprise—you wouldn’t necessarily expect such a committee to exist in such a small, quiet town.”

The racist campaign smeared the migrants as fraudsters, terrorists and criminals.

And it stirred up resentment over real economic insecurity that has nothing to do with immigration.

The clash is part of a broader political crisis in France. Wildcat marches by cops won new cash, equipment and repressive powers last week.

The campaign against gay marriage returned to the streets last month.

Sandra said, “Between the state of emergency, Islamophobia and cops marching there is a toxic atmosphere.

“In a dire situation there is a positive side, and that’s that people haven’t let them have their way.

“There are places where everything has passed smoothly, where the only campaigns are to improve the migrants’ conditions.

“Wherever racists have organised, they have faced opposition. And that’s a fight that will have to continue.”