Wednesday 18 May 2011

BESIDES, WE’RE FROM HERE

AGAINST RACISM

AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT IMMIGRATION POLICIES

FOR THE REGULARISATION OF UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS

         After the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy at the 2007 presidential election, the Ministry for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Solidarity Development was created, the first time in the history of the French Republic. Since then, tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, men, women and children, have been targeted, arrested and deported, including to countries in war, such as Afghanistan. This immigration policy is unacceptable and it violates the elementary humanitarian principles and the international agreements France has ratified. Besides this, there are the disastrous consequences of the “debate” about national identity and thepersecution of the Roma.

         We want this situation, which is undermining fundamental rights, threatening the right to seek asylum and ruining the lives of the targeted foreigners in France, TO STOP. This is why in May 2011, on the anniversary of the creation of the Ministry for Immigration, we are calling for a unified national demonstration. There will be demonstrations happening on the same day all over France, including a demonstration in Calais.

         We demand an immediate stop to the government's repressive policies against undocumented migrants and the Roma and the regularization of undocumented migrants.


NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION

SATURDAY THE 28TH OF MAY

DEMONSTRATION IN CALAIS

Start at 2.30pm at the crossroads of Rue de Moscou and Rue Lamy.



Do we want a National Front mayor in Calais at the next elections?

Does anyone have better housing, because the migrants are sleeping outdoors?


20 years of deportations and destruction:

Is that a solution?

How long will there be border control between France and England?

Are we going to let the government ignore human rights in our name?


LET’S REACT!

A call out by:
AC! Côte d'OpaleAttacBoulonnais, La Belle Etoile (Calais), Europe Ecologie Les Verts, FSU 59-62, GDALE-CGA (Lille), Louis Lecoin nonviolent group of Dunkirk, La Marmite aux Idées (Calais), Ligue des droits de l’homme 62 (Dunkirk), MRAP Nord Pas Calais (with the Dunkirk group), the NPA, the PCF, Salam,Solidaires 59-62, SUD Education 59-62, Terre d’Errance

To sign the national call-out, go to http://dailleurnoussommesdici.org/


WITH OR WITHOUT PAPERS, WE HAVE RIGHTS!

For the past 10 years, undocumented migrants have wandered the streets of Calais, stuck between France and England, both of which didn’t want them. Too often people walk passed them, indifferent or too preoccupied with their everyway worries. Even worse, some use the migrant issue to stir up racism and fear amongst people. This way everyone keeps to themselves, thinking that nothing can change. Let’s not stay in this game of “divide and rule”! Defending the rights of the undocumented migrants means also defending our rights and valuing our solidarity.

A migrant is not an intruder, as they might like to have us believe, but rather someone who is searching for protection in Europe, because in his/her country, his/her life is threatened by war, conflict, famine and poverty. Isn’t it only normal to want to live better? We are trying to the same thing. Yet migrants are tracked down and persecuted daily on the streets of Calais, by the police and the authorities.

This is why it’s time to unite the different struggles and, of the documented or the undocumented (of people with or without papers), and tooprotect our most elementary rights:

*Lets reclaim the right to a decent housing, as well as the right to live in dignified conditions. Migrants often sleep outside, in the summer as well as in the winter, as the state doesn’t fulfil its obligation to house asylum seekers. On the other hand, there are also many “native” inhabitants of Calais, who live in precarious conditions, with respect to their housing and work. A simple question for the sceptics: does anyone have better housing, or a better salary, because the undocumented migrants sleep outdoors and get deported?

*Lets demand an end to the police violence and reclaim the right to peace. Every day the police harasses migrants without mercy, they arrest them for not having done anything wrong. But this omnipresence of police is weighing on the French residents of Calais too, especially in the neighbourhoods where the police and the authorities use only force to respond to the primarily social and economic problems. A baton has never been a solution.

*Lets reclaim the right to freedom of movement and condemn the systematic identity controls. There is freedom of movement for goods and capital, so why couldn’t we have freedom of movement for people? Every year 26 000 migrants are deported from France, while the country proclaims itself to be the cradle of human rights and while big companies make huge profit that only benefits a small minority.

Without a united struggle, the situation in Calais is going to get worse and worse, both for “native” Calaisians and for the migrants. We have to act collectively.

DEMONSTRATION ON SATURDAY THE 28TH OF MAY IN CALAIS

Start at 2.30pm at the crossroads of Rue de Moscou and Rue Lamy
The “d’ailleur nous sommesd’ici” collective is open to everybody, we need to organize the struggled together and united. Contact: dailleurs.dici@laposte.net

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