PARIS, June 13 — Some 700 undocumented workers have been on strike at about 40 locations in the Paris area for the past two months. Their political strike to obtain legalization has inspired workers across France.

The action has now entered its third phase, in which anti-racist working-class support for the mostly black African strikers will be critical. Such support needs to be based on revolutionary class consciousness, highlighting the limits of a purely trade union perspective.

The unprecedented strike is rooted in three previous successful walkouts at a laundry and two restaurants which won undocumented workers 45 legalizations. Those strikes encouraged undocumented workers, but the workers were also spurred by increased firings — due to a July 1, 2007 decree saying bosses must have the prefectures (an administration of the Ministry of Interior) check foreign workers’ documents before hiring them — and increased immigration police raids and deportations. Meanwhile, French unions and immigrant rights associations were organizing among the undocumented workers, notably with a flyer detailing workers’ rights.

This led to the strike’s first phase when hundreds of undocumented workers walked out on April 15. They won 85 legalizations but Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux was clearly playing for time, hoping that weariness and vague promises would end the action. On May 20, additional hundreds of strikers joined the first wave. Some 350 workers have now been legalized, but still only one-third of those who’ve filed applications.Moreover, although racism is always the bosses’ number one tool to divide and rule, the Sarkozy government clearly needs to whip up anti-immigrant racism now to regain popularity with right-wing voters. The French government is one trillion euros in debt ($1.6 trillion). Interest payments on the debt are the second-biggest budget item. The European Union, fearing inflation, is pressuring the French government to balance the budget and reduce debt. But the government is applying Reaganite trickle-down economics and has given the wealthy fat tax cuts. Consequently, only an austerity program — cutting services and laying off public workers — can balance the budget.

Some of those cuts, like closing many county courthouses, are alienating sections of Sarkozy’s electorate. Therefore, the government is trying to make the cuts on the sly so as not to arouse public protest. The result is a wavering policy of government advances and retreats. Some sections of the ruling class worry that the image of a disunited government is weakening French imperialism.So Sarkozy and Hortefeux are counting on anti-immigrant racism to strengthen right-wing support for the government. The result is a case like that of “Mr. G.” In January he went to the prefecture in Melun to file for legalization. The clerk handed him a form to fill out and within five minutes the cops put him in a detention center on a just-issued deportation order! Another case is that of Baba Traore from Mali, who leaped into the Marne River on April 4 to escape the immigration police. He died of immersion in the 43°F water causing cardiac arrest. Clearly, smashing the undocumented workers’ strike is a top priority for this government.

Now comes the third phase of the strike, broadening the struggle to the whole working class in the Paris region and beyond. Solidarity committees are being established at each striking location. They organize picket lines, protest marches, the leaflet distributions and the collection of funds. But mobilizing the necessary solidarity implies winning workers to an understanding of how the capitalists and their government use racism against “foreigners” to maintain their system of exploitation. That understanding involves the need for communist revolution.