France, Alternative Libertaire AL #232 - Roma: The fight does not happen in a day (fr)

Statements made by politicians worthy of the worst time in history, public policy 
evictions catastrophic for the people: it is urgent that Roma organize collectively to 
resist with the help of solidarity associations. ---- After Valls said that "these people 
do not want to integrate" to a slum where a person died in the fire at the camp, this is a 
centrist mayor regret that Hitler did not finish the job and UMP mayor that would support 
the murder of a Roma by a fellow angry! Roma will clearly be hostages municipal elections 
happen. This obliges us to increased vigilance and solidarity. ---- During the summer 
dozens of slums were crushed. The prefect of the 93 claims to have expelled half of Roma 
living in the department without specifying that they are still there, a few kilometers 
away, in more difficult conditions, with families who have lost the support networks, with 
children who have lost their school, patients who have lost the continuity of care. As 
with the associations involved in supporting Roma: just with public money wasted in legal 
fees, police and destruction could immediately stabilize these families in emergency 
facilities with the minimum necessary dignity.

A deportation policy doomed to failure

Like all waves of immigration, Roma eventually find a place in our country. Others have 
known slums : Algerian, Moroccan, Italian, Portuguese. Africans have been stifling 
over-occupied homes unhealthy. And all eventually find their place and install, including 
those who originally thought to remain only a few years before returning "home ". 
Deportation policy is doomed to failure and will only delay the integration policy that 
will one day lead. Meanwhile, the policy of the French government of Sarkozy to Hollande 
consequences as the explosion of birth of children with disabilities ( not followed 
pregnancies), the explosion of infectious diseases and severe conditions ( poor sanitation 
and lack of care pathways ) the explosion of illiteracy ( enrollments in crumbs ). The 
human and social costs of this blindness is exponential !

After centuries of virtual slavery and decades of Stalinist repression, the Roma do not 
have a strong political tradition. And slum regularly crushed leave little time to create 
that solidarity and trusts essential to the emergence of collective struggles of the Roma 
themselves. Yet this is what some associations work who refuse to be confined to the 
charity. In Ile-de- France, two events were held in Paris in the first half. In the second 
we saw Roma capture the sound and an event code.

The solidarity essential for the emergence of autonomous struggles

Late August in Bobigny, families and their supporters have stood collectively to 
expulsion, blocking the avenue at the entrance of the slum " egg cups " in a face to face 
with the police noon. Then they crossed the police cordon to take refuge in the hall of 
the Town Hall where they spent the night calling for a collective alternative 
accommodation. At the end of next day, the mayor announced that the families could return 
to the field and finally agreed to "recognize" this slum ( an "official" field and " 
insertion area " already exist on the town ). As punishment, the prefecture refuses to 
caravans confiscated.

This collective victory, aided by a history of the land for many years and the total 
enrollment of children on the site, leading to the establishment of delegates and positive 
decisions on self site (cleaning, etc.. ). It also shows that it is through the struggles 
going on the path of integration.

Jean -Yves (AL 93)