By Sam Wainwright
PARIS — Fortunately, every time the neo-fascist National Front (FN) organises a public gathering, it is a met by an even bigger demonstration organised by France's vibrant anti-racist movement. Even more heartening is the active participation of young people in these demonstrations, always at the front and defiantly dancing to the North African music blaring from a nearby truck.
Green Left Weekly spoke to Mathieu, an activist in the national office of JCR-RED, a socialist youth organisation, about racism, young people and politics in France.
With rising unemployment and cuts to social services, some people blame their insecurity on those even more vulnerable than themselves: migrants. In France, the FN has about 20% support among voters. However, young people are not so easily sucked into this scapegoating.
Mathieu explained, "Among young people there is a strong resistance to racist ideas, which are not only put forward by the right and extreme right but in the policies of the traditional 'left' such as the Socialist Party [PS]. There are a lot of things drawing young people into political action, but the fight against racism and fascism is especially important."
Young people are confronted by racism in a number of ways. First, the conservative government has introduced legislation attacking the rights of young "foreigners". One such measure, the Pasqua Law, overturns a tradition of guaranteeing that all children born on French soil to foreign parents automatically have a right to French citizenship. The new law requires such people to make an application between the ages of 16 and 18, or lose their right.
This could leave thousands who have grown up in France without the same rights as others. Another new law says that university students who do not have citizenship and who fail an exam are no longer allowed to continue to study. These racist laws have brought hundreds of thousands of people out onto the street in opposition, and their repeal is a major demand of the anti-racist movement.
Fortress Europe
Explaining some of the context for the attacks on migrants' rights, Mathieu said, "It's the racist dimension to the 'European project', a putting in place of systematically policed immigration controls, the construction of a 'Fortress Europe' — a wealthy island surrounded by poverty. This is something young people can see, and it enables us to explain the need for solidarity with struggles outside 'our' borders."
On the streets is where many young people are confronted by racism. Everybody in France is issued with an identity card which they have to carry and show to police on demand. "Harassment by police is one of the everyday aspects of racism. There's been a big increase in totally unnecessary checks and searches of young people in the working-class suburbs.
"In the last few years there have been physical attacks on young migrants as well, some fatal, and some carried out by the police themselves." Examples include a young African killed by police in a police station in 1993, two young migrants killed by FN supporters at the time of one of their public rallies in 1994 and, most recently, a young man from the Comoro Islands killed by FN supporters in Marseille.
The JCR-RED has thrown itself into the movement to defend the "sans papiers" (people without documents) — migrants lacking the official documents for permanent residence, who have in some cases been expelled even after over a decade of life and work in the country.
Education
However, it is not just in the form of racism that young people are bearing the brunt of the government's conservative policies. It has also attacked the education system and the rights of young workers. Mathieu explained the context:
"Official unemployment is around 11%; in reality it is a lot higher, and of course among young people it's higher still. Most students finish high school, so more and more are going on to university to avoid unemployment. The problem they find is that there is a shortage of places, and even with tertiary qualifications, job prospects are poor."
The government's "solution" has been to try to cut university places and young workers' wages. When it first introduced these measures in 1993, it met enormous protests that mobilised millions of people onto the streets. The government proposed that young workers with tertiary qualifications be paid only 80% of the "adult" wage. Opposition to this measure was particularly fierce and the movement against it so great that the government was forced to back down.
"The youth wage proposal was part of a five-year unemployment plan which also proposed to cut back the retirement rights and benefits of older workers and restrict access to technical colleges. The movement was victorious because it brought together and involved the diverse sectors being affected.
"University students were very successfully mobilised because of the dynamic student organisations built in earlier campaigns back in 1986, which continue to play a central role in university life. The movement also had the support of the trade unions and resonated with their campaign against privatisation and budget cutbacks. Most importantly, the mobilisations were very big and long running."
Women's rights
As part of its efforts to smooth the way for cuts to wages and social spending, French capitalism is also trying to re-create a conservative moral atmosphere. The recent visit by the pope was exploited by conservative forces to this end. The visit especially inspired the anger of many people because the Chirac-Juppé government spent public money on it.
In this context, campaigning for women's rights is especially important. Women's rights, the campaign against racism and fascism and the defence of education form the core of JCR-RED's activities.
"There are two main aspects of the campaign for women's rights that are mobilising young people, especially young women. First is the right to choose abortion and freedom of sexuality. Second is continuing inequality when it comes to entry into tertiary education and the work force."
Secondary school students played a very big role in the movements of young people in the early 1990s. Does JCR-RED seek to involve them in its campaigns today?
Mathieu said, "It is harder for them to organise in an ongoing manner than it is for university students. They have less free time, they haven't got the same organisations, and they are not brought together on big campuses. But despite all that, it's a very important area of work for us because they are often a real base for the movements and are often more prepared to get involved than university students."
Although young people are prepared to get out on the street and fight for their rights, many of them are disillusioned with politics and political parties, including the so-called left parties. France experienced over a decade of conservative Socialist Party government in the 1980s.
Fight back
However, Mathieu said, JCR-RED points out that "There is a need to organise and fight back together. We have to create organisations that do this, that is the only way to win. That is why we want people to join JCR-RED and why we work to build a whole range of other organisations as well — unions, anti-racist groups, feminist groups and so on.
"It's important to understand that the attacks on young people, women, workers and migrants are part of the same process, all flowing from the way society is structured, from the pro-big business policies put in place in Europe and worldwide.
"It's very easy to see in France that there is a direct link between the movement towards European economic union and the public sector cutbacks, especially in education. We are told that we need a British-style user pays education system."
JCR-RED promotes the idea of a radically different society. "For us the alternative is one that satisfies the social and democratic rights of its people, a Europe with freedom of movement, an end to poverty and real democratisation.
"We can't have illusions in the way in which people will be able to create that sort of Europe, that sort of world. The current system just can't satisfy people's needs. You can see that this system will not accept the possibility of reforming it. We had 15 years of 'reformist' PS government; it wasn't a period of gradual improvement, but a series of setbacks for working people."
JCR-RED works closely with the Ligue communiste revolutionnaire, France's most influential far left party. Mathieu explained why this was an important dimension to his organisation's work:
"We understand that all the problems being faced by young people can't be solved by young people alone. Young activists have to link up and struggle with the workers movement as a whole. That's why it's important that our organisation is in political solidarity with a party that is active in and a part of the broader workers and social movements, and that seeks to find an overall strategy to overcome society's problems.
"Furthermore, the problems we face are global, so it's not just a matter of working with other organisations in France but with others around the world."