“Far Left” Feeds “Far Right” Riots in the UK

UK riots 2024 map

26-08-2024: As Martin Luther King Jr remarked in 1967, a riot is the language of the unheard.[1] The riots which spread through the United Kingdom (UK) in early August were no exception to this axiom. Even though the catalyst may have been utter revulsion at the unspeakable stabbing murder of three young girls at a dance class,[2] there are deep and underlying causes to this unrest which almost everyone in the UK knows were simmering beneath the surface for at least the last ten years. Attempts by the mainstream media to claim that “misinformation” was to blame for the riots, because the stabber was not a migrant, was not a Muslim, and that the police did not withhold information about the perpetrator for dubious reasons[3] – are facile. These claims may be true, but it is also the case that many Britons were horrified by the violence against children, and crime in society in general, and some were even scared into taking whatever action they could to prevent this from happening again.

Long term economic decline

No doubt there were some racists and thugs who joined in and committed violent crimes in response – threats or attacks on those suspected of being migrants, and the attempted burning of two hostels housing asylum seekers.[4] These actions can only be stridently condemned. However, it is unreasonable to brand everyone who mobilised as “racist” and “far right”, let alone “fascist”. Many of them may well have been waylaid into a narrative which blames migrants for an economic downturn for which such folk are of course not responsible. Yet in the presence of a government and a so-called “left” which bands together to largely ignore the economic problems tearing UK society apart, inevitably fingers will be pointed towards the large numbers of immigrants entering the UK for all kinds of reasons. What is needed from a real left are explanations as to why living standards are declining, how they are linked to the ongoing and menacing threat of the breakout of simultaneous global wars, why migration is not the cause of these problems, and what to do about it.

The working class has been battered in the UK especially since the capitalist financial crisis of 2008. Productivity from 2008 to the present day has basically flatlined.[5] Living standards two years ago dropped by the largest margin since the 1950s,[6] and remain dire. One large reason for that was the scientifically unjustifiable lockdowns as part of a fraudulently declared “Covid pandemic”. Another is the shovelling of at least 12.5 billion pounds of taxpayer’s money, of which 7.6 billion is military hardware,[7] to Nazi battalions in Ukraine at the behest of US (United States of America) led imperialism in its war on the Russian Federation. This extreme provocation by the ruling classes of the West constantly threatens a nuclear war. Tyrannical Covid political repression, combined with decades long economic decline, has led to a staggering mental health crisis, with around half of the population affected by stress, with depression, anxiety and other disorders running rampant.[8] This is “Broken Britain” but these are just a few indicators of the scale of the malaise which is hitting working people the hardest.

Criminalisation of free speech

The aftermath of the state response to the riots has perhaps further deepened the totalitarian liberal state, flowing on from the false pandemic and NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer virtually labelled half the country as “far right”, while declaiming once again that the UK will defend “Muslim communities”.[9] Undoubtedly, no person of Islamic faith should be threatened, and workers should not stand in the way of the state preventing harm from visiting such people. Yet it was the noticeably clear partisanship of Starmer that is only going to reconfirm the sense that the UK government prioritises minority communities over and above English or British people themselves. “Two tier” policing – kid gloves for those from minority communities and an iron fist for the “white” majority – is also a major concern. In addition, large scale immigration into the UK causes many distress, which might have a real or imagined basis. In one poll, 64% of Britons believed that immigration policy was to blame for the riots, while 59% say the stabbings in Southport were the cause of the crisis.[10]

The censorship and criminalisation of free speech online by the UK government itself shocked many. 30 people have been arrested for “online offences”, including a sentence of three months jail for sharing a “derogatory meme about migrants” and the arrest of a women for sharing “inaccurate” information about the identity of the Southport killer.[11] The UK government made it known that police were “scouring social media” searching for “harmful” riot footage regardless of intent.[12] The posting of genuinely harmful material and inflammatory calls for violence probably should be taken down by social media companies. Yet the arresting of people for posting, or liking posts, or sharing posts on social media is a development that should trigger grave concerns. The capitalist state cannot be the arbiter of what is and is not “harmful”, as they will interpret it for their current political ends. As was demonstrated during the ultra-repressive two-year period of “Covid”, working people must defend the most elementary democratic rights from a state merged with Big Tech, and expose Big Media.

Arresting people for online comments is a sure-fire way to criminalise free speech,[13] and it also has the effect of frightening people into posting anything online at all. Yet the political context for the last decade, and especially since “Covid”, is that what used to be known as progressive and liberal values are merging with the capitalist state, with the full participation of the so-called “far left”. While the capitalist state arrests people for “racism”, the purported left responds with “anti-racism” demonstrations. This only signifies to those who are concerned about the downfall of Britain that the “left” is not different from the deep state, and even government itself, which they confront every day. The blaming of economic problems on migrants and Islamic communities is of course a false end and needs to be countered. However, as long as the so-called left continues to say “refugees are welcome” and “stop Islamophobia” without rationally responding to genuinely expressed issues, this “left” will be associated with the government, the state, the media, the police and all of the institutions which the left of the 20^th century fought against. A real left would see massive problems for itself aligning with liberal capitalist pillars of the state – such as the Labour Party, the Union officials and even the police.

Pro-war, pro-terrorism?

The fact that Nigel Farage and the Reform UK party won five seats and 14.3% of the vote[14] at the recent general election is a significant factor that the left must deal with. Obviously, not everyone who voted for Reform UK can be smeared as “far right”, and if the “left” pickets them as “far right”,[15] it will again drive many away from the left and into the arms of the right. Yet these are the tactics of “left” parties like the grossly misnamed Socialist Workers Party[16] and the Revolutionary Communist Party[17]. While these and other so-called left organisations mobilise ostensibly for Palestine, they are hardly concerned about a world war against Russia, or China, or an assault on Iran by the West. What is more, the way in which they have marched in the streets for 10 months since the October 7 attacks on Israel strongly implies at least some level of support for the Islamic terrorism of Hamas. Not only have the “left” not led a genuine anti-war movement[18] at a time when one is most desperately needed, they have instead fuelled political reaction by their assumed backing of violent “Islamic” terrorism.[19]

There is an unfortunate history to the “left” effectively marching for the terrorism of Hamas since October 7 last year. During the 2010s, the largest imperialist war at that time was the US led proxy war of regime change on Syria. This followed NATO’s bombing and destruction of Libya. With some important exceptions, almost the whole left in practice backed the West’s overthrow of both Libya and Syria. And, in both cases, mercenaries in the form of ISIS and Al Qaeda were used as ground troops for imperialism.[20] The war on Syria started in 2011, and from 2012 to 2022 – a period of ten years – Hamas was in Syria[21] fighting alongside ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). That is, Hamas was fighting the Syrian government – for a decade – on behalf of Washington, and also against Syria’s allies such as Iran, Hezbollah and the Russian Federation. Hamas had the same aim as the faux left – regime change. This is one reason the so-called left today has no qualms about marching in the streets while in practice absolving the appalling actions of Hamas.

The effect of a pro-war, pro-“Islamic” terrorist “left” is disastrous. Not only are many aghast at this behaviour, it drives many who are horrified away from the left and into nationalist and conservative politics. No doubt it has driven some into the actual far right. It should be noted that the Real Left UK is a welcome exception to this rule, having broken from the faux left on Covid and Ukraine.[22] Yet the majority of self-identifying “socialist” organisations stumble on, unaware of their own role in feeding and fostering the “far right” that they imagine is almost anyone with a differing opinion. If a genuine left wishes to counter the “far right” it needs to begin by opposing imperialist wars (on Russia, China, Iran, the DPRK), drop the embrace of Western backed “Islamic” terrorist groups, and take action on the dire cost of living crisis. If this was to occur, masses of working people in the UK and elsewhere may begin to turn away from the path of blaming immigration for the woes that are ultimately caused by late-stage capitalism. It would then be possible to begin to win them to the project of socialism – the establishing of workers’ republics led by vanguard parties committed to peace and common prosperity.

Workers League

http://www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] http://www.theweek.com/speedreads/917022/riot-language-unheard-martin-luther-king-jr-explained-53-years-ago (20-08-2024)

[2] www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg55we5n3xo (20-08-2024)

[3] www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/southport-stabbing-latest-far-right-riots-b2590454.html (20-08-2024)

[4] www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/4/far-right-rioters-attack-hotel-housing-asylum-seekers-in-uk (20-08-2024)

[5] www.ft.com/content/0bad26d0-92a3-4f70-8ae3-9dff6c77d8f1 (20-08-2024)

[6] www.news.sky.com/story/living-standards-set-for-largest-drop-on-record-says-fiscal-watchdog-12573584 (20-08-2024)

[7] www.commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9477/ (20-08-2024)

[8] www.statista.com/topics/8164/mental-health-in-the-uk/#topicOverview (20-08-2024)

[9] www.uk.news.yahoo.com/keir-starmer-tells-rioters-regret-162907648.html (21-08-2024)