A few years ago the “ struggle against the deportation machine ” had an advantage that insights make us to bitterly recognize as obsolete now : the clarity . The burning of detention centres ( that of Vincennes , Mesnil-Amelot , Nantes , Plaisir , Bordeaux , Toulouse ), escapes , demonstrations , the support for the accused of the arson in Vincennes , leaflets , posters and multiple attacks , all that was unequivocal , we read in a bulletin of that moment : “ either you fight against the detention centres , for nothing less than their eradication as some of the undocumented have practised from their specific situation , or you wish to maintain them ”. The deliberate destruction of the centre of Vincennes “ removed its humanitarian varnish with it : the inmates fought concretely for “ freedom ” pure and simple , not for an improvement of this cage between a police academy and a racetrack ”.
The question of solidarity would not only be able to go beyond the simple affirmation but also propose another itinerary than that of support . By targeting the entire deportation machine and not only the centres and expressing a clear content that did not arise from outside , the actions inserted in the diffused antagonism could open a way to a resolutely offensive solidarity . Currently in France , at least in recent months , our ideas have not had enough echo and we have not sufficiently contributed through actions to subvert a situation that was potentially rich with possibilities . We were not able to affect so that the revolt gets the better of the logic of support . On the other hand – contrary to the years summarized above – the acts of rebellion with which we want to express a concrete offensive solidarity are not plenty .
But revolt is festering , sometimes it erupts , and has no borders : Saturday 22 August clashes broke out between Macedonian police and migrants coming from Greece on the border between the two countries . While two days before the state of emergency was declared , the army and the special forces of the police dispatched on site were overwhelmed . Those who passed , stormed the station of Gevgelija to travel by train to Serbia . At Calais the night of 31 August after the visit of the prime minister , 200 persons ran onto the highway access of the Eurotunnel site and began a blockade . 3 September , people blocked the entrance of the Jules-Ferry centre ( managed by the association La Vie Active ) where distribution of meals is taking place , protesting against the humanitarian aid and the conditions under which they are held . A few days later at the Saint-Exupery detention centre near the airport of Lyon , the prisoners pile up mattresses and sheets which they set on fire . They push back the police while furniture and windows are broken and two people climb up on the roof to escape . A few days later in Roszke ( Hungary ) a thousand migrants forced a way through a police cordon to not be taken to a reception and registration centre nearby . Some of them climbed a fence to reach the highway to Budapest and continued their journey on foot . In Bicske migrants on trains they thought went to Germany , refused their deportation when they realized that these trains were destined for centres of identification and selection . On 5 September on the island of Lesbos ( Greece ) for the second consecutive day , migrants clashed with the police . Hours earlier a thousand of them left a temporary reception centre and had blocked a road on the island . Again in Lesbos , a thousand migrants regrouped and tried with force to get on a boat to Athens . On 6 September , in Valencia ( Spain ) forty prisoners of a detention centre rebelled against the cops and stole their keys . One group tried to escape . In the meantime , inside , mattresses were set on fire , material was destroyed and five cops wounded . On the 7th in Bedford ( England ) women imprisoned in the Yarl ’ s Wood detention centre occupied the yard and declared : “ We are in the yard , we protest . [...] We demand our freedom . We sing for our freedom . We cry . [...] We do not want their food . We do not want their activities . We just want our freedom .” Every week brings with it its share of deaths that eats at us and leaves us with a heavy heart . In the face of this horror in which hundreds of thousands of people are immersed , of this every day war that is capitalism , it is our rage against this iniquitous world as a whole and life at discount prices that it entails , that sharpens day by day . But as has already been said in the past , we are not in solidarity with the misery , but with the vigour with which men and women reject it . To the solidarity in oppression we oppose the complicity in revolt . So if we strife to envisage concrete offensive perspectives with which to express particular solidarity , we want to believe that it is possible to envisage expressing rage – that also does not need to wait for such “ perspectives ” – that is diffuse , and for that reason could pave the way for moments of confrontation and rupture with the existing order . And that along the way , freed of political racketeering , of humanitarian varnish , of this putrid indignation of citizens “ who complain but who want to maintain the system ” – the cornerstone of democratic servitude – there will be occasions for solidarity to intensify .
“ To say that nothing can change , that we can not divert the march of destiny , is the reward granted to all our cowardice .”
“ There are no things done , routes prepared , there is no finalized manner or work , through which you could get through to life . There are no words that can give you freedom : because life is precisely to create everything by yourself , to not adapt to any path : language does not exist but you have to create it , you must create its form , you must create everything : for your life to be yours .”
There is no good justification to wait to fulfil what our heart and our reason suggest , neither a social movement , nor an appointment with history . If we refused to postpone the dissemination of our ideas and resulting practices , to hypothetical more favourable tomorrows , we still feel the need to create the conditions that make an overthrow of the social order possible , a social event still unknown , unpredictable but destructive .
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