This article first appeared on the French New Anticapitalist Party’s website on 22 October.
Translated for Workers’ Liberty by Ed Maltby.

A new wave of undocumented migrant workers’ strikes, bigger than that of April 2008, began on the 12th of October. Strikers are determined to get papers for all. To win that, solidarity from all workers is necessary.

“Colonised yesterday; exploited today; tomorrow, regularised”

That is the slogan of the thousands of undocumented migrant workers who are taking part in the new strike wave, initiated by the CGT, CFDT, SUD, FSU and UNSA unions and supported by associations such as the Ligue des droits de l’homme [human rights league], Cimade, RESF [a campaign to defend undocumented migrant school students and their family], Femmes Égalité, Autremonde, and Droits devant!!, etc. Since the 12 of October the movement has steadily grown, from 1,000 on the first day to 3,000 a week later. There has been a qualitative and quantitative leap from the strike wave of April 2008, which involved 600 workers and won 2,000 regularisations.

After several days, over 700 “isolated” workers, i.e. workers employed by unscrupulous employment agencies, invaded the Synergie and Adecco agency offices in Paris, 400 occupied the bosses’ canteen, and 380 occupied the offices of a national federation of construction employers. More than 30 workplaces are occupied. On the picket lines which “isolated” workers have organised, workers of all trades are coming to participate – butchers, bakers, gardeners, etc. At Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), the migrant workers have occupied a tax office in order to denounce the complicity of the state which pockets the taxes and social security contributions of undocumented migrant workers without giving them access to the basic rights of citizens. It is without a doubt the biggest movement of precarious workers ever organised in France.
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