The German government is to deport 40,000 Romanians, 60 per cent of them gypsies, starting on 1 November. The deportations will be carried out by the simple device of refusing requests for asylumi.
mass deportations, bringing back echoes of the mass deportations eastward during the war, are the result of a huge campaign waged by the fascists and other rightwingers alleging that foreigners are responsible for a 'crime wave'.
Fallout
But this campaign is nothing new; what is new is the political fallout from the anti-immigrant pogrom in the eastern port of Rostok.
Rostock was just the tip of the iceberg of anti-immigrant attacks. In over 40 towns, including Berlin, Cottbus, Leipzig and Stendal, immigrants have been the victims of street violence.
And the violence continues after the dramatic 25 August Rostock attack.
But on the streets the Nazi, skinhead and racist gangs are 26 Sept, 1992 No. 28 not having itall their own way. The left's anti-racist demonstration in Rostock on 29 August attracted 20,000 people - and the mobilisation was at very short notice.
In other towns the left and anti-racist groups have organised guards of immigrant hostels, and in several cases have saved immigrants from being firebombed or beaten up.
Clampdown
But these successes at street level have not stopped the political stampede towards a clampdown on immigrant workers. Chancellor Kohl may be under the pressure of the right and racists, but he is only able to get away with the mass deportation plan because of the compliance of the SPD -Germany's Labour Party.
In a panic the SPD leadership has dropped its previous opposition to anti-immigrant policies. Their view that the only way to prevent racism is to reduce immigration is disastrous - giving ground to the fascists' argument that it is the immigrants who are responsible for mass unemployment and poverty.
Apart from the far left, only the SPD young socialists have stood 013T against the collapse on immigrant rights.
It is no accident that it is in east Germany that the fascist street gangs have been able to whip up sympathy. Unemployment at 20 per cent there is a direct result of the decision by the West German bosses to wreck the economy of the ex-GDR.
Many reports show that support for the racists is far from universal in the east. But what makes the situation dangerous is that it is the extreme right wing which has the offensive, and that the SPD and unions leaders are bucking under that offensive The danger in the situatior comes precisely from the fact that the hopes and expectations of the workers of the GDR have been cruelly disappointed. Given the failure and semi-collapse of Stalinism in their overwhelming majority they supported the 'realistic
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