The recent expulsions of the Roma from France form the latest act in a saga of centuries long persecution suffered by the Roma throughRoma in Europe, most living in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary where they suffer systematic racist persecution. educational achievement due to racism in the education system, high levels of poverty and unemployment, severe police harassment and so on. In other words their status Is similar to that of other racially oppressed minorities such as African Americans in the USA. therefore that some Eastern European Roma have taken advantage of the free movement citizens within the EU to migrate to Western Europe.
There could any number of reasons why French President Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to violate EU law by expelling the Roma back to Eastern Europe. None of them are progressive ones. Certainly in Britain any demands for the compulsory repatriation of Black and Asian people have only ever come from the far right and the flakier elements of the Tory
Like all other capitalist governments today the Sarkozy administration is attempting to push through a series of austerity measures in France but faces a much more confident and combative workers movement than exists in Britain. The recent mass strikes against the plan to raise the French retirement age are
As Sarkozy faces this mounting opposition and continued labour unrest his expulsion of the Roma represents a form of reactionary populism probably aimed at forcing the left and the workers movement onto the defensive by stirring up all the existing xenophobic and racist prejudices within French society. If so it is entirely consistent with the recent introduction of other racist and reactionary measures such as banning Muslim women from wearing the veil.
There may of course be an even more sinister reason behind the expulsions. Before they were expelled the number of foreign Roma in France could be counted only in the thousands. France though has a far greater number of Blacks and Muslims living within its borders and who is to say that the expulsion of the Roma might not be a dry run for greater mass expulsions at some point in the future? If Sarkozy can expel the Roma and get away with it then others may one day follow
The French expulsions have been denounced by other EU countries. Within France too there has been protest, even among Sarkozy's own supporters, and demonstrations in support of the Roma. Nevertheless while the reformist left has than it did to the banning of the veil such opposition has been inconsistent and half tion of Sarkozy for bringing "shame" on Martine Aubry. The President immediately pointed out that in Aubry's capacity as the removal of two Roma camps in the is not much better. In Italy and elsewhere
camps". Roma. shown greater opposition to the expulsions hearted. This was typified by the denunciaFrance by the French Socialist Party leader Mayor of Lille she had recently pressed for
Elsewhere in Europe today the situation in Western Europe there has been a recent
19 * International rise in racist attacks on Roma and the expulsions from France can only fuel such racism. In Hungary the far right Jobbik Party has now even called for the coun try's native Roma population of about 700,000 to be confined to ghettos - euphemistically called "public order protection
Sarkozy is no Fascist. Indeed as someone of East European Jewish origin he might well have endured the same fate as the Roma had he been alive in Nazi occupied Europe. Nevertheless the decision of his government to expel the Roma could be the thin end of the wedge.
In modern times demands for compulsory repatriation have normally been the preserve of the far right. Sarkozy has thus allowed the far right in France and Europe generally to set the political tone, possibly opening the door for it to move even further to the right. In a worst case scenario the political consequences of this both in France and Europe as a whole could be disastrous, and not only for the The Roma (sometimes called Gypsies) are descendants of nomadic wanderers who left Northern India in several migrations around the 11th Century, some arriving in Europe as early as the 14th Century. In both feudal and capitalist Europe the nomadic lifestyle of the Roma invariably brought them into conflict with the authority of the state. The ruling classes of Europe have traditionally had little time for nomadic communities, they wanted those they oppressed to lead a sedentary existence in order to exploit them whether as slaves, serfs or proletarians. Given their nomadic lifestyle the Roma therefore became subject to any number of legal restrictions on their activities. Their persecution has been on a par with that of the Jews, if anything worse From medieval times onwards many Roma in Eastern Europe had the status of serfs or even slaves and it was not until the middle of the 19th century that all were finally liberated. Racism against the Roma though has continued up to the present day. An often and conveniently forgotten aspect of the Nazi holocaust is the estimated half a million Roma who perished in the concentration camps. The Nazis had an equally genocidal policy towards the Roma as to the Jews. A policy statement issued by the Nazi Party in 1935 stated: In Europe generally, only Jews and Gypsies come under consideration as members of an alien people.'