November 3, 2025, editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French.
Last Thursday, the RN (extreme right-wing National Rally party in France) won a vote in the National Assembly for the first time: a resolution denouncing the 1968 Franco-Algerian migration agreement. Yet another opportunity for the RN to spew its racist venom and play its parliamentary tricks, getting right-wing representatives to vote for the resolution.
What does this agreement cover?
Since 1968, the agreement in question has been amended three times by the French government. Some provisions give Algerians a slight advantage over other immigrants. For example, the waiting period for family reunification is six months shorter. But other measures put them at a disadvantage: Algerians can’t get papers on work or humanitarian grounds; students who graduate in France have more obstacles if they want to stay and work.
A lot of racist noise…
Since the “Bloquons tout” (Let’s block everything) protests and the September strikes are no longer in the media spotlight, racist mudslinging has resurfaced. They blow up the slightest incident involving foreigners. Is this a distraction tactic? In part, yes: immigrants aren’t the ones laying people off, blocking wages, or destroying public services, but capitalists and the government are. What is more, this demagogy aims to weaken us. By creating a climate of mistrust between us, racism seeks to prevent us from standing together against our bosses and defending our living conditions.
The RN does not have a monopoly on this. For two years, the right wing and government have been waging a full-fledged campaign against Algerians. They hypocritically denounce the military dictatorship, even though the French state was careful not to help the Algerian people get rid of it during the “Hirak” revolt. In fact, they target all those among us in France who have roots on the other side of the Mediterranean.
…to cover up the bulldozer of anti-social attacks
In return, the RN is competing with [centrist Prime Minister] Lecornu on ways to pick our pockets. On October 23, it presented its “counter-budget” to an audience of corporate bosses. Far from fighting budget cuts, the RN wants to slash an additional €36 billion (about $42 billion). They target the poor, foreigners, and environmental protection. But doing without so much public money will inevitably fall on the entire working population. Especially since the far-right refuses to touch a single penny of the €270 billion state subsidies to capitalists. Its deputies keep on voting against anything that goes in this direction!
However, nothing works without us in this society. The “Solidarity March” (Marche des solidarités) will mobilize on December 18 under the slogan : “A day without us: if we stop, everything stops,” for the International Day of Solidarity with Migrants. Behind this slogan lies the reality of undocumented workers: exploited and oppressed in workshops, service jobs, and construction sites. With bosses who sometimes push them to the point of death, but also use them to put pressure on employment and wages of the entire workforce. We must break this logic by joining en masse in the mobilization on December 18, as social workers are already doing with their call to strike. If we stand together, the bosses, the rich, and the government that serves them will not be able to impose anything on us. No matter what those on the [reformist] left touted, claiming that with the end of procedure 49.3 (a rule that allows the executive to push through a law without a parliamentary vote) , they would be able to defend us in the Assembly: the results proved this was a lie. Instead, it is up to us workers to take matters into our own hands. Starting by uniting, whatever our differences.
