The Bulldozer Politics Against Immigrant Autonomy in France

TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH BY LÉOPOLD LAMBERT

From the bulldozing of Maghrebi and Portuguese shantytowns in the 1960s to the mass demolition of banlieue social housing starting in the 1980s, the French state and municipalities have countless times evicted and displaced the racialized working class from their homes in a clear continuum of colonial logics. Starting from the 1980 “Vitry bulldozer” event, regular Funambulist contributor Hajer Ben Boubaker draws upon the many forms of autonomous resistance that immigrant workers have led against this destruction.

The event known as “the bulldozer of Vitry [southern Paris banlieue municipality]” is little-known to many of our contemporaries, but it was a decisive political moment in early 1980s France. Before being a case of attempted destruction, of which the bulldozer is the key object, it is first and foremost that of a place, a hostel for immigrant workers targeted by the destructive object. Its name was le foyer (hostel) Manouchian, named after Missak and Mélinée Manouchian who were Armenian immigrants, resistance fighters, communists and members of the MOI (immigrant workforce). Founded in 1932, the MOI was linked to the French Communist Party (PCF) and enabled foreign workers to defend their rights and interests against latent xenophobia not only in society, but also within labor and trade union movements. They were shot by the Nazis on the Mont-Valérien, just outside of Paris, along with 22 other members of the organization.