I’m going to talk about the riots. Yesterday this blog was going to talk about the London riots, but that’s no longer accurate, because last night they spread north to Birmingham and Manchester.
Here’s what I won’t talk about: I won’t talk about the death of Mark Duggan, it’s been covered in the news, and I really don’t think the riots are about that any more. I’m not going to talk about what type of person was involved in the looting and pillaging, there’s been a lot of speculative finger pointing at different races, classes, political leanings and ages, everyone is blaming everyone else and I’m tired of it. I also don’t want to dwell too much on how the police are handling it, some people think they need to get the water cannons out, some people don’t. All I will say, is that personally, I think the police need to put aside arresting people and fighting looters for the time being, and concentrate their efforts on protecting people more directly.
The first thing I’d like to say is NO-ONE LIKES THESE RIOTERS, this is not a populist movement, and they certainly aren’t anarchists. The media, especially the more conservative-minded newspapers, are very quick to use the term “anarchists” to describe these people, now, as an anarchist, I do not identify with these rioters, this isn’t anarchy, this just chaos, and they sicken me as much as they sicken everyone else, and I wish the people involved would stop dressing it up as political, if it’s political, where are the banners? Where’s the list of demands? Why has no-one marched on Parliament? I’m failing to see the political symbolism in stealing a pair of trainers.
Next thing: Big Society. David Cameron has said that the amazing clean up operations in cities all over are examples of the Big Society at work. David Cameron: Fuck you. This is not Big Society, this is people coming together to help one another when the government does nothing. Stop trying to piggyback on the work of normal people to score points. It seems to me Big Society is politico speak for claiming credit when something good happens, and washing your hands of it when something bad happens. My question to Big Dave is this: where’s your broom and bin bag?
I don’t really go for patriotism that much, I’m not particularly proud to live in the UK, because it was essentially an accident of birth, but seeing all these clean up operations, done by ordinary people completely voluntarily because they love their communities does fill me with pride. I feel proud of the people of Britain right now.
The final word really is that I think these riots have been a long time coming, and I’d like to reiterate I do not support them, but the cuts, rising unemployment and frustration with the situation have led people to express their anger in reckless and chaotic ways. The government will blame the rioters directly, and while these opportunist thieves have to be held account for their actions, I think people would do well to take a step back and look at the backdrop these riots are set against.
I’m going to finish with a quote from Martin Luther King: When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.
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where-do-my-bluebirds-fly said:
some of the most sensible points about the riots i’ve read so far :) well said! x
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