Over 100,000 people demonstrated across France this past weekend to protest the intensification of anti-Roma discrimination and persecution on behalf of the French state. Over 8,000 Roma have been deported to Bulgaria and Romania since the beginning of this year. Apart from mass deportations, Sarkozy has also announced plans to demolish illegal Roma camps, as well as revoking the French nationality of immigrants convicted for a long list of misdemeanor crimes.

The concept of revoking nationality sparks associations for many of the collaborationist regime during the Nazi occupation, a time when 15,000 French citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish descent, were stripped of their nationality as a first step towards later deportation to Nazi death camps.

The Federation Anarchiste has thus launched a campaign to draw attention to the increasing legalized discrimination and persecution of Romas. Although the choice of historical parallel can be seen as more than controversial (although in all honesty, at least in France, it doesnt seem to be), it does seem to be an effective way to draw attention to the plight of these thousands of people and the systematic persecution which they are currently enduring.



(You can view the text in a readable size here )

On a final note, the mass demonstrations on Saturday also drew such unpleasant company as the French Socialist Party, a party who when ruling during the 90s was just as effective and vicious in its campaigns of deportations and persecution of immigrants. Many a demonstration was spent fighting against their bloc (or their youth section) to get them out of the demo (because how can you show yourself at anti-racist demonstrations when your party is deporting people??!!), which was not easy and cost us many injuries, as security was provided to them by…off duty Socialist Party affiliated police officers!

The Federation Anarchiste and the platformist Alternative Libertaire at the demonstration…



And btw…general strike today!