28/08/2024
Our ShoutOut News Extra feature for August 2024 considered the then recent raft of disturbances that had taken place in several towns and cities across the UK, around the issue of asylum seekers. Fuelled by a toxic mix of testosterone, beer and boredom, as well as manipulation by racist groups, the disturbances led the news in England for some days. Here is the briefing sheet that informed our debate on the subject, for your reference and digestion:
The Guardian says that Labour MPs are closing their accounts on X, , formerly known as Twitter, because of what they call the spread of hate and disinformation on the platform. One backbencher tells the paper that the website has become a "megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups" with an unnamed government minister saying they have cut down on posting on the site and are "reluctant to return". - BBC News Channel.
For as long as there has been immigration in this country, there has always been a backlash. And it’s the right-wing mainstream media and politicians who have always been sounding the alarm.From Oswald Mosley and the fascists in the 30’s, through to Enoch Powell and his infamous “Rivers of blood” speech, the skinheads, the National Front. More recently – the British National party, the EDL, UKIP, and now Nigel Farage’s new outfit, Reform. On Saturday, the far-right rioters who descended on Castle Park organised under the banner of ‘stop the boats’ – the constant refrain of a dying Tory government clinging to power, knowing they were done for. You’d think politicians would realise the bloody, violent consequences of stirring up this hatred – of reaching for that tired message of scapegoating all our country’s problems on an ‘Other’, on ‘Migrants’. The right-wing press too. For pasting their front pages with racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant sentiment that we hear being spouted by those who’ve joined in the far-right violence on our streets in the past week.
Editorial, The Bristol Cable.
Downing Street stressed today that it remained on “high alert” for more riots, although they appear to be abating. “We welcome that there has been a de-escalation this weekend. But we’re certainly not complacent and remain on high alert,” the spokeswoman said. “We also recognise that the job is not done until people feel safe in their communities,” she added, emphasising the government’s mobilisation of police and courts, something in which the Prime Minister is long practised. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper took to the Telegraph to criticise politicians, who she did not name but almost certainly look and sound very much like Nigel Farage, who she said had exhibited “shameful behaviour” and “sought to undermine the legitimacy and authority of the police.” - Morning Star communist daily newspaper.
When all is said and done, however, real life remains. And on the streets, Muslim women are having to defend themselves against the threat of violence. For the older generation, the recent, racist targeting of Muslims and Black people brought back memories of the 1970s when anyone of a different skin colour was fair game. Younger generations are living up to the stark reality that while the police did what they could to keep the rabid racists from attacking them last week, they still need to take steps for the next time, when law enforcement isn’t around. How, in 2024, have we come to this?Conversations were initially had between minorities around not retaliating to the indiscriminate violence.Those chats have since evolved into how to stay safe visiting areas that lack diversity, and staying off the street after the pubs close in those spots. Knowing where the local police stations and hospitals are, along with which numbers to have on speed dial in case of an emergency. And, knowing how to ensure that the Crown Prosecution Service does not fail people of colour by treating legitimate self-defence as breaking the law. That British Muslim and Black women are having to seek self-defence classes as an option is a measure of how far back the bigots have taken us. And yet there has been a surge in numbers attending lessons to protect themselves as aggression is aimed at mosques, women are having hijabs ripped from their heads and bullies believe they can corner and intimidate females on public transport. Tell MAMA UK, a group monitoring anti-Muslim incidents has revealed it has had more than 500 calls and reports of such behaviour across Britain. - Darren Lewis writing in the Daily Mirror
POLICE have revealed that protests in Belfast city centre on Friday night passed off peacefully but said they are continuing to investigate recent incidents of disorder. Around 1,000 anti-racism campaigners gathered outside City Hall, where there was also a group of several dozen anti-immigration demonstrators. Although the protests passed off largely without incident, further reports of criminality were reported elsewhere in the city and further afield. We continue to investigate all reports made to us in relation to the recent disorder on our streets and we will be making further arrests," said Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones. On Thursday night, officers dealt with a number of reports of criminal damage to property in south Belfast. A car was set on fire and a window of a house was broken in Benburb Street, while windows of a house were also smashed in Kilburn Street. In east Belfast, a number of bins were set on fire in Castlereagh Street and police were attacked by a group of masked men who threw bricks and masonry at officers in Flora Street. Although Friday night's protests in the city centre concluded peacefully, an Islamic centre on Greenwell Street in Newtownards was attacked several hours later at around 1am on Saturday. A petrol bomb was thrown at the building but failed to ignite while racist graffiti was daubed on the walls and door. The IRISH Post.
The wave of far right violence is shocking and disgusting. But it should not have come as a surprise. If you have official politics saturated with racism, scapegoating and officially-sanctioned Islamophobia then this will feed the far right and incubate a fascist core. The Tories ran a whole general election campaign focused on the “Stop the boats” slogan that appeared on far right mobilisations. But it’s not just the Tories to blame. Less than two weeks before the explosion of mosque attacks and burning of hotels where migrants are housed, Labour home secretary Yvette Cooper decided to write exclusively in The Sun newspaper. She declared what the newspaper called a “summer blitz of immigration raids targeting workers in dodgy car washes and nail bars”. It was a direct acceptance of racist scapegoating. Since the era of neoliberalism in the mid-1970s, Labour and Tory governments have rarely even pretended to make significant improvements in working class people’s lives. Instead they have offered only varying programmes of austerity and cuts. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage played a key role in legitimising the hatred after the tragic Southport murders. He popularised the idea that the authorities were “not telling the truth” about the murder suspect. He added, “What I do know is that something is going terribly wrong in our once beautiful country.” That’s the polite version of the far right’s “We want our country back” chant. Even as he denounced attacks on the police, Farage added, “Ever since the soft-policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread." _Editorial, Socialist Worker newspaper, Issue 2918.
Coordinated antifascist defense has been inspiring, but it must grow. British antifascism must become omnipresent and attentive in order for our country and the people who live in it to be safe. The philosopher Hannah Arendt states in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism: “In each one of us, there lurks such a liberal, wheedling us with the voice of common sense… There is a great temptation to explain away the intrinsically incredible by means of liberal rationalizations”. Indeed, the temptation to overlook fascism when it is on the rise is great, but must be avoided at all costs. That complacent emotional and rational impulse has been followed by the British Conservative and Labour parties and their supporters for nearly a decade and a half now, as during the first rise of ultra-nationalism in Europe in the 1930s. It cannot, for the sake of our livelihoods, be allowed to continue. - Editorial, Freedom Anarchist Newspaper, August 2024.
Curtailing someone’s freedom to have an opinion is not the point here. The point is inciting hatred with the intention of causing harm to others. The violence that started in Castle Park on Saturday did not come from uniting for a cause. It was an organised form of hate and violence against certain communities. It was about ending a culture of coexistence – something that is the very essence of Bristol.Bristol boasts of being a friendly and welcoming city. As an immigrant, I have truly felt this. Karen Johnson, B247 Newspaper.
A 13-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to violent disorder following a protest at a hotel housing asylum seekers in Aldershot. Prosecutors said the girl was among a crowd gathered outside Potters International Hotel and was seen punching and kicking at the entrance of the hotel. A police officer was injured when disorder broke out at the demonstration involving about 200 people on 31 July. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sat with her parents at the short hearing at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court, sitting as a youth court. She was one of dozens of people appearing in courts across England on Tuesday following widespread riots.
Among those appearing in court were:
- A man from Mansfield who was jailed after admitting stirring up racial hatred when he called for a hotel to be set on fire in a Facebook post
- John Honey, whose images were widely shared on social media as he looted a cosmetics store, a phone shop and a shoe shop in Hull. He pleaded guilty to burglary
- A woman who was remanded in custody after denying buying eggs and water for protesters to throw at police during a riot outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Manchester
- Four men who were sentenced for their parts in violent protests in Plymouth City Centre
- BBC News Channel
Sentences as long as three years have been handed down, and yesterday two 12-year-olds became the youngest sentenced over the violence. One of the boys was filmed throwing an object at a police van, as well as kicking the window of a vape shop and a passing bus, according to the CPS. Two more people were also jailed at Chester Crown Court for stirring up racial hatred online by calling for protests outside a hotel in Runcorn. Christopher Taggart, 36, and Rhys McDonald, 34, who are both from the Cheshire town, pleaded guilty and were given sentences of 32 months and 28 months respectively. Some 975 people have been arrested and 546 charged in relation to the disorder, the National Police Chiefs' Council said on Monday.
- SKY News Channel
Questions for the Panel
- Are tech companies responsible for the conspiracy theories that led to this round of disorder and rioting?
- Do you feel safe in Bristol after the mini riot that occurred on Saturday 3rd August? How do you feel after the wider diverse communities of the city mobilised against the far right on Wednesday 7th August?
- Do you think the Prime Minister should have responded to Elon Musk's claim that "civil war is inevitable"? Can the PM take any further action against such an inflammatory remark?
- How do these riots compare with other scenes of disorder over the years?
- Do you feel sorry for any of the people caught up in these riots? After all, many have low educational qualifications, many are on benefits or in low paid work. Do they have legitimate grievances against the system, or are they totally misguided?
- Any further comments or feedback?
