FRFI 163 October/November 2001
Switzerland is one of the two richest countries in the world, with an annual per capita income of over $33,000. During the 18th and 19th centuries it was a country from which people emigrated but since the First World War it has been a country to which people migrate. A public debate is currently taking place about the role played by the Swiss state in building up the German war machine through provision of financial support for Nazism and by blocking the assets of the communities persecuted under the Nazi reign and since. This is in addition to the routine role of Swiss finance capital, which is to camouflage the huge sums of money extracted by dictators and racist politicians throughout the world.
In Switzerland itself, a racist, xenophobic ideology is gaining strength, especially in the richer, German-speaking, eastern part of the country. In September 2000, Swiss people voted down proposals to restrict immigration by limiting the proportion of non-Swiss residents to 18% of the population. 64% voted against the new measures, however the voting was not even and in cantons where the political agenda is dominated by conservative movements, the percentages voting in favour of repressive measures were far higher.
In addition to those immigrant workers who, until the late 1980s, were excluded from decent working and living conditions, including from trade union membership, there are 200,000-300,000 immigrant workers in Switzerland who are not officially recognised by the authorities. Not only is their existence ignored, but they are excluded from exercising all political, economic, social, cultural and trade union rights. This situation is a result of discriminatory and repressive laws, which have resulted in several cases of death during forced removal. The legal framework promoted by parliament and the Federal Council is dictated by big capital and serves the needs of the employers. The sole aim of the neo-liberal policies is to increase the profitability of capital, by promoting the interests of a minority to the detriment of the most disadvantaged workers.
Both the so-called clandestine workers and the legal workers are victims of the same precarious working conditions and the exploitation of their labour. The sans-papiers movement is made up of the workers without official documents themselves, together with, seasonal workers who have lost their right to work and workers who have escaped from poverty and persecution in their country of origin but whose asylum claims have been rejected. Inspired by similar struggles in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Greece, and drawing support from trade unionists, humanitarian church-members, university students, members of anti-racist movements and political parties, the sans-papiers have begun to express themselves by means of occupations of churches, community centres and factories.
This is a movement led by the sans-papiers themselves and supported by solidarity committees of people who do have papers. The workers formulate their demands, decide on their tactics, assemble their resources and resist the repressive measures used against them. All this is done through democratic discussion. The sans-papiers movement in Switzerland began in Lausanne, then spread to Friburg, Neuchatel-la-chaud-de-fonds and Geneva. It then moved on to stage an occupation in Berne, the capital city.
The sans-papiers movement demands:
• complete freedom of movement
• collective regularisation of the whole sans papiers population
• intervention by national, regional and local government to ensure the regularisation of the sans papiers
• an end to expulsions
• guarantees of the same working conditions, payment, education and healthcare
• decent living conditions for all residents, whatever their residence status
• suspension of any measures which create a situation whereby current immigrants are forced to become sans papiers workers
During the occupation in Friburg, Swiss people put up barricades to prevent police intervention.
The struggle is integrally linked to the social struggle for better living and working conditions. Every day thousands of people flee wars and poverty which have been caused by the adoption of IMF policies in their countries. The exodus is created through huge inequalities of income and living conditions. This tragedy is part of a globalisation in which poor human beings are imprisoned in their own lands while capital and material goods are free to travel around the world.
The movement also represents a reawakening of anti-capitalist conscience among the Swiss youth and working class. Solidarity activists, progressive Christians, social workers, independent intellectuals, trade unionists, community associations, and even the traditional left, which has previously limited itself to electoral politics, are involved. Since the Berne occupation, the movement has expanded from the French-speaking cantons and a mass rally is taking place in Friburg on 15 September to raise the issue to greater prominence. The movement is refusing to let sans papiers workers simply be picked off one by one by promises of case-by-case evaluation of their claims for regularisation and is demanding a collective solution.
Murad Akincilar
