BY NAT LONDON

PARIS - Hundreds of cops armed with axes and other weapons stormed the St. Bernard church in Paris at dawn arresting over 200 people on August 23. The brutal police attack was aimed at 300 undocumented immigrant workers who have occupied the church for the last two months.

"I turned on the television and I saw a cop with an ax, chopping down the church door, then the cops broke all the stained glass windows," said one worker at the Renault auto plant, expressing the outrage of many working people toward the government action.

Widespread criticism of the assault has led to debates on government policy concerning immigration and the causes and solutions of Francés 12.5 percent unemployment rate.

This is the third time in five months that the police have intervened against the immigrants, mostly Africans from Mali, who have been demanding regular immigration papers. Ten of the protesters had been waging a hunger strike for 52 days when the police attacked.

By their intransigent determination, the 300 immigrants have broadened support in their struggle for democratic rights. Some 8,000 people had demonstrated in solidarity a few days before the cop attack.

The movement began in March, shortly after the strike wave which shook France in December. Three hundred immigrants occupied the St. Ambroise church but were soon evicted by the police. Before occupying the St. Bernard church, they were housed with the aid of some rail workers.

Two days after the police raid, four of those arrested were put on a plane with 52 other undocumented workers and sent back to Africa.

Ground workers at Air France and Air Africa refused to service the plane and military aircraft had to be used. Ground personnel at the airports in Dakar, Senegal, and in Bamako, Mali, refused to handle the plane as well, and a second French air force plane had to land in Bamako bringing a special ladder in order to unload the plane. Protests were reported to have taken place in Mali as the plane landed there.

In the following days judges in France ordered the release of all but 11 of those remaining in detention. The government has announced that it will issue immigrant papers to between 50 and 100 of the protesters.

"There is only one single struggle," declared Madjyguene Cissé, representing the undocumented workers. "The shock of December, of the struggle against the Juppé Plan and of the other workers struggles are in the framework of the same resistance to the bosses."

The hunger strikers called for a major demonstration in Paris for August 28.

Nat London is a member of the General Confederation of Labor and works at the Renault auto plant.  
 
 
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