Algeria: PST Congress
The Socialist Workers Party (Parti socialiste des travailleurs - PST) brought together more than 600 delegates for an extraordinary congress on 5 March.
The only Algerian party to send a high-level delegation was the Berber Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD). Representatives of the Association for Women's Emancipation (AEF) and the trade union federation's National Federation of Retired Workers (FNTR-UGTA) also received a warm welcome.
France's Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) sent a representative, and there were written messages from a number of organisations in Europe and the Americas. 4 International Viewpoint #299 to the Mafia, suspected of terrorism or dismissed as mere pawns of the Turkish government. This type of accusation is always launched against unwanted refugees.
Italian authorities have tightened legislation considerably to fall into line with the demands of the EU's Schengen Agreement. But they are being accused of laxity and irresponsibility because they dare to consider an individual and collective examination of Kurds' asylum requests (as required by the United Nations Convention on Refugees) rather than follow the lead of other EU countries - particularly France - and reject applications from these countries automatically.
The presence on the Italian coast of asylum-seekers from nearby or more distant lands is nothing new. Hundreds, if not thousands, of asylum-seekers or undocumented immigrants fleeing dictatorships and poverty have already died in the Mediterranean: in Italian waters, along the Greek coast and in the Straits of Gibraltar which separate Spain from Morocco.
On several occasions in recent history, Italy has accepted tens of thousands of Albanian refugees. But on this occasion, we have witnessed outright hysteria, and a broad-based scenario of repression. A police summit was held in Rome on January 8" in efforts to cement over the cracks that had appeared in the southern flank of Fortress Europe. During this repressive meeting, the police forces of the eight states involved in Kurdish migration (Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, France, Turkey and Greece) decided to strengthen co-operative efforts to combat "clandestine immigration" even more fiercely. The aim was to intensify surveillance at the borders of the European Union and, above all, to step up the
The PST was obliged to hold this congress, in order to register as a legal party, under discriminatory new legislation which requires parties to prove that they have at least 100 members in at least 25 of Algeria's 48 willayas (administrative regions).
The PST finally submitted to the authorities proof of over 4,000 membership requests from 44 willayas.
In Algeria's current situation, with the impoverishment of the population, this has been a major challenge for the PST, a small organisation, which has no source of funding apart from its members and sympathisers. Source: Rouge exchange of secret information among the different police forces, largely via the inter-mediation of Europol. This is also one of the most important aspects of the Schengen convention, which led to the establishment of a vast computer database located in Strasbourg.
A number of factors explain why, within the general framework created by the establishment of Fortress Europe, this episode has been blown so far out of proportion.
• Italy has finally joined the Schengen convention, three years after its creation. This obliged the Italian government to considerably tighten its anti-immigration policy, which had traditionally been less repressive than that of the northern nations. But this turn of the screw did not satisfy the upper echelons of the European police system, which additionally want Italy to extend more brutal treatment to asylum-seekers. Italy's neighbour, France, has one of the most stringent anti-immigrant regimes in Europe.
• According to EU police chiefs, Italy's long coastline and many islands make it easy for boats to dock; it is close to the countries of origin of refugees; and the population, familiar itself with the notion of migrating toward northern Europe, has a tradition of welcoming refugees. Austria's recent entry into the Schengen convention was preceded by a similar pressure campaign waged by the German authorities and particularly by the government of Bavaria.
The French and German governments have brought most pressure to bear: Germany faces a parliamentary election later this year. Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the right are in a tight corner and have focused strongly on xenophobia and security concerns in order to regain ground. Minister of the Interior, M. Kanther, presented a battery of measures stepping up control over foreigners and restricting their access to social services. According to SocialDemocrat legislator and leader, G. Verheugen, "The Kurdish problem is nothing new. An international problem is being exploited for the purposes of internal politics. Fears are manipulated to create the belief that suspect foreigners are undermining the well being of Germans. This type of psychosis lays the foundations for the far-right." His statement makes it all the more regrettable that the Social Democrats should have allied themselves to the right-wing Christian Democrats in 1993 by voting to restrict asylum rights and that certain SP leaders should have joined in the xenophobic campaign.
Meanwhile, France's SocialistCommunist-Green government is taking a strong line with asylum-seekers and has drastically restricted their admission in
recent years. Minister of the Interior, J.P. Chevènement, who represents a particularly jingoistic faction, has explained that unless the borders are hermetically sealed, France will be flooded by Iraqi Kurds and Algerian refugees.
The French government has deployed special repressive units along the border with Italy. Two years ago, police here conducting a night-time "inspection" on a mountain road killed a Bosnian child travelling with a group of refugees.
European governments are using the Kurdish refugee "crisis" to accelerate the standardisation of immigration policies within the European Community. The treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam, numerous conventions and accords shrouded in varying degrees of secrecy and the Schengen accords themselves all point in this direction; the new "pillar" of the European edifice is intended to shift decisions about the entry of immigrants and asylum-seekers onto the shoulders of ultra-centralised bureaucratic bodies and police forces. The most repressive norms will surely be applied to the European borders in the name of freedom of movement within Europe itself. This is one of the essential reasons why such pressure is being brought to bear on the Italian government.
There is a striking parallel with the issue of the single European currency. Here too, Italy has been assigned the role of the bad student who is admitted into the next grade only grudgingly, and subject to considerable pressures.
Another vital factor is the crisis of relations between the European bloc and Turkey. As the French newspaper Le Monde commented in a January 5 editorial: "Can we shut Turkey out of Europe on the pretext that she mistreats her Kurdish community and simultaneously close Europe to Kurds attempting to land on the Calabrian Coast?"
A variety of sensationalist hypotheses has been launched by both media and governments: the asylum-seekers are undercover envoys of the Turkish government which is seeking to avenge the European decision and threatening Germany with an "invasion"; or else the refugees themselves are being manipulated by the guerrilla Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) to aggravate the differences between the Turkish government and the European Union. Those who have been obliged to use the services of "smugglers" in their flight have been called bandits.
What is clear is that despite the tensions, the Turkish government participated in the police summit in Rome, committed itself to preventing departures to community nations and proceeded to carry out raids in Istanbul. French foreign minister,
Hubert Vedrine played a central role in finalising negotiations with Turkey, thus re-securing Europe's link with dictatorial regimes - so highly appreciated when they guarantee both order and the surveillance of potential immigrants. In defence of the right to asylum
Human rights organisations are denouncing the many violations of rules for the right to asylum already being committed by the different EU countries. Amnesty International has pointed the finger at governments negotiating "re-admission" agreements with the Turkish regime; agreements which involve the forcible repatriation of refugees and even
Analysis w There is only one magazine in • the leaders of France's trade union contemplate their return to Northern Iraq regardless of the threats faced by the population there.
The EU governments are collaborating to turn back asylum-seekers without even examining their requests, an approach that contravenes all international conventions.
Underpinning these events is Europe's vast apparatus of control and repression;
the Schengen accords and the treaties of
Maastricht and Amsterdam have laid the foundations for a centralised system to deal with the entry of immigrants and refugees. Now governments are pressuring one another to toughen related legislation and are staging identical xenophobic campaigns. * ith Attitude the English language where left debate how best to articulate the new mood of resistance to public sector cuts and unemployment.
• Tahiti's NGO activists explain why they feel Greenpeace marginalised them during the campaign against French nuclear tests.
• Indian activists argue that we shouldn't ban imports on countries with deficient environmental and labour legislation.
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