WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #342 - Anti-racism, Anti-Gypsyism: Lubrizol, a look back at a textbook case (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Anti-Gypsyism is one of the blind spots in anti-racism. The management

of the protection and evacuation of the "Traveller" populations around
the Lubrizol factory in 2019 is a blatant example, and unfortunately not
isolated. A look back at systemic racism in action. ---- Four years ago,
on September 26, 2019, the Lubrizol factory in the city of Rouen
experienced a large-scale fire. It is estimated that more than 9,500
tonnes of potentially toxic products were consumed, contaminating the
air, water and earth. The sky turns black, some residents stop drinking
tap water and confine themselves to their homes.
The prefecture therefore advises people to avoid "non-essential travel"
in the Rouen area, not to expose themselves unnecessarily to fumes and
to stay indoors as much as possible.

Schools and nurseries close in 13 municipalities the same day or the
next day, parents come to pick up their children. Teachers use their
right of withdrawal even after reopening a few days later. We are
suspicious and we wonder about the health consequences that the fire
will have.

A reception area is not a "residential zone"
But here it is: in this more than anxiety-provoking context, the public
authorities do not see, "forget", to plan the evacuation of around
twenty families living in the Petit-Quevilly Traveler reception area,
located 500 meters from the factory. The residents themselves will ask
the police for information, the area is not considered a residential
area, no information is transmitted to them.

Worse: they are refused the right to evacuate with their vehicles. The
manager of the reception area will advise them to confine themselves to
their caravans, which do not however constitute an airtight habitat in
the face of toxic fumes, by giving them a few masks. He won't come back
until 4 days later to collect the rent.

A column from October 1st published in Libération - signed in particular
by residents of these areas formed as a collective - received
significant media coverage at that time to highlight their situation and
call for the immediate implementation of measures to protect them.
protection.

Reception areas located in risk areas
She denounces the inaction of local authorities and points out that "the
departmental plan for welcoming Travelers in Seine-Maritime included in
2012 that "certain reception areas will, however, have to give rise to
relocations[...]because they are are built in risk areas (Seveso,
floods, landslides, etc.)".

Also this forum allows us to place the situation of the inhabitants of
the Petit-Quevilly reception area in a context of more global and
systemic discrimination of people assimilated to the administrative
category of "Gens du Voyage".

Even if the affair is spectacular, it is not "surprising" for those who
know the situation of Travelers in France. It was a gateway for Wiliam
Acker to make this discrimination known, in his book Where are the
"travelers"?. Faced with the media asking him for sources when he spoke
about the discrimination that Travelers experience, particularly through
the location of the reception areas - which are welcoming in name only -
William Acker listed all the reception areas of France and highlighted
the obvious discrimination against Travelers.

Municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants are required to create
reception areas (Besson 1 law of 1990) and Travelers are not authorized
to settle outside of these areas. This is a first discrimination since
many municipalities in France do not have one and are not required to
build one. Municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants represent
only 6% of French municipalities. This means that households are far
from being able to settle anywhere. Problem: the law is not respected.
The areas are overcrowded, departmental plans are only 70% respected and
sanctions for non-compliance with the law almost never come.

Overpopulation, pollution, discrimination
51% of these areas are polluted. Close to recycling centers, close to
wastewater treatment plants, railway lines, SEVESCO sites, often parking
lots, these areas are not suitable for human habitation. "If you are
looking for the reception area, look towards the recycling center" can
be read as jokes between residents of these areas and noted in papers on
the issue. William Acker uses the term environmental racism to designate
this discrimination.

Often outside of towns, away from the rest of the homes to be the
subject of as little dispute as possible and for inexpensive land. There
are problems of overpopulation and multiple displacements of people
driven from the places where they settle, sometimes living there for
decades, endangering access to employment, health or children's
education. Furthermore, since caravans are not considered homes, the
social rights attached to housing differ, even though they pay rent and
charges.

On the question of Travelers, who are sometimes called Gypsies,
sometimes Manouches, Gypsies, Sinti and a whole bunch of terms whose
meaning and the different realities they cover are little understood,
there are entrenched myths , spread on social networks like the fear of
child theft recently on Tiktok, which leads to violence and stigma.

Fifteen years of life expectancy less
We have mainly spoken here about the question of reception areas, but we
cannot fail to mention the administrative creation of "Gens du voyage"
which replaces that of "nomads" and the anthropometric notebooks of 1912
which made it possible with the arrival of the Vichy regime the
effective and methodical deportation of Travelers, Fairgrounds, Roma...
which intersects with an obvious racial dimension.

Samudaripen (genocide in Romani) is little recognized today while the
victims of dispossession during the war and now their descendants are
still awaiting reparation. Finally, we can also note that Travelers
statistically have a life expectancy 15 years lower than the rest of the
population.

This article cannot be exhaustive and skims over the subject, four years
after the fire at the Lubrizol factory. To go further, Streetpress
articles are available as well as from Libération around the fire,
Acker's book Where are the "travelers"?, Barvalo from Mucem in
Marseille, the France Culture documentary series on anti-Gypsyism , the
work of associations like the ANGVC or anti-racist collectives like La
Voix des Rroms, there is no shortage of resources.

A demonstration was organized on Tuesday September 26 in Rouen starting
from the Parlais de Justice, an opportunity to continue to speak about
it loud and clear.

Ram (UCL Lyon) of the Anti-Racist Commission

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Antitsiganisme-Lubrizol-le-retour-sur-un-cas-d-ecole
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