Re: RACISMO EN ESPAÑA

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, February 12, 2000

Resenting African Workers, Spaniards Attack

By MARLISE SIMONS

MÁLAGA, Spain, Feb. 9 -- The sun-drenched shores of southern Spain have
long been overrun by foreigners. But seldom, until a few days ago, has the
line been so sharply drawn between those who are welcome and those who are
not.

This week, this region better known for its sparkling white villages and
beaches and lineup of hotels became the site of modern Spain's ugliest
anti-immigrant violence.

For almost three days, several southeastern towns were overwhelmed by mobs
of residents chasing Moroccan and other African immigrants through the
streets, shouting racist slogans, wielding bars and sticks, and trashing
foreign laborers' cars and shops. By the time the riot police stopped the
rampage, Moroccan farm workers said, hundreds of them had been beaten by
angry Spaniards and seen scores of their shanties set afire. Many
immigrants fled to nearby hills.

The outburst, though unusual here, abruptly added this corner of Spain to
the list of European regions where new and large-scale immigration is
fueling resentment and xenophobia.

Spanish politicians across the spectrum immediately condemned the
incidents. Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, describing them as racist,
said they were "a total and absolute embarrassment" for Spain.

But the violence has also underscored a more intractable issue: as Spain's
economy prospers, its demand for unskilled labor is rising apace with
resistance to integrating thelaborers, most of them North African.

"We must think about how we need to change in a pluralist society where
every day we will need more immigrants to take our country forward,"
Foreign Minister Abel Matutes said on state radio.

Such a comment was once unthinkable in a country that, far from pluralist,
has been highly homogenous since it expelled its Jews and Arabs in the late
Middle Ages. Since then Spain has mostly exported its own people, first to
its Latin American colonies and, this century, to northern Europe. That
trend was reversed only two decades ago, as Spain joined the European Union
and its economy began to boom. But even now, only 2 percent of Spain's
population is foreign-born.

Here on the Costa del Sol, the villages hit by violence this week are in
effect an anomaly. Much of this coast is studded with villas, apartments
and hotel chains used by well-to-do northern Europeans. But east of Málaga,
the flatlands around Almería have grown rich from intensive agriculture --
made possible by increasing numbers of immigrants.

As many as 10,000 hothouses have sprung up to supply much of Europe with
winter fruits and vegetables. A floating population of perhaps as many as
100,000 laborers, most Moroccan, pick the tomatoes, strawberries and
eggplants or move with the seasons to harvest olives and oranges around
Andalusia. Many have crossed the Mediterranean in rickety boats to make
about $25 a day. The wage may be miserable in Europe, but it is about four
times what the farmhands can make at home.

As a result, in some of the Almería villages, as many as 25 percent of the
people are now poor foreign migrant workers, the highest concentration
anywhere in Spain. Many are clandestine migrants who live in hovels,
without light or water.

For example in El Ejido, the center of the violence, more than 10,000 of
the 45,000 residents are legal and illegal foreign workers, city officials
say. According to an official report released this week, almost 60 percent
of El Ejido's immigrant population live in slum conditions, more than half
without running water.

The trouble began here last Saturday, after the funeral of a Spanish woman
who had been robbed and murdered. A Moroccan immigrant was arrested in the
case, and unrest quickly spread throughout the farming district, whose
residents were already angry about the killings of two Spanish workers two
weeks earlier, allegedly in a fight with Moroccans.

Residents, who had evidently planned their revenge, blocked off roads with
barricades of burning tires to delay police officers and television crews.

"They came with sticks and bars," said Kamal Rajmuni, a Moroccan community
organizer in El Ejido. "They always treat us like dirt, but this time they
behaved like Nazis. Many people had to run for their lives."

Witnesses said bands of Spanish men, many of them young, screamed, "Out
with the Moors!" as they threw stones at the foreigners. Several Moroccan
teahouses and two makeshift mosques were destroyed, and firebombs were
thrown at immigrant shanties.

"We knew there was resentment, but we had never seen this much hatred,"
said Abdel Hamid Beyuki, who heads the Moroccan Workers Association. "We
are all very shaken. Some people are still hiding in the hills. A lot of us
aren't sleeping at night."

The violence shocked many Spaniards as well. People in this country had
long been used to reports of terrorist acts by Basque separatists in the
north. But they had never before seen television images of immigrant hovels
burning or small stores destroyed in Andalusia.

Newspapers and human rights groups in Madrid have demanded to know why it
took the reinforcements of 600 riot police officers almost three days to
stop the vandalism.

Blame has been passed around. Officials in El Ejido say young men from
other towns arrived on the day of the funeral, supposedly mobilized by a
neo-Nazi Web site.

Simón Barbera, a landowner near Roquetas de Mar, says politicians are
largely to blame for the growing tensions because of lax immigration
policies.

"The problem is," he said, "around here we have work for 15,000 foreign
pickers, but we have almost 30,000 and they have no place to live."

The incidents this week, which have led to the arrest of 55 people, has
intensified the debate in Madrid over a new immigration law approved by
Parliament late last month. The law will allow more than 70,000 illegal
immigrants in Spain to become eligible for residence permits and to bring
their dependents over.

The center-right government says that if it wins a majority in the general
elections in March, it will tighten the bill.

Around Almería this week, many farmers said they were losing tens of
thousands of dollars as vegetables go unpicked. Many Moroccan laborers have
gone on strike, and large numbers of illegal workers are still said to be
in hiding for fear of being expelled.

Mr. Beyuki, one of the strike leaders, said the workers were demanding
equal labor rights, adequate housing, and compensation for ruined cars and
buildings.

"Besides," he said, "we want the Spanish labor unions to take up our cause.
As far as Moroccan workers are concerned, the unions here seem to be in a
coma."


Louis Proyect
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