Thangam Debbonaire: ‘Recovery from race riots can start us telling a new story for Britain if we choose’

Thangam Debbonaire   

8th August, 2024,

Downing Street. Photo: UK Government

The sight and sound of mass violent racism in our country does something visceral to me and I imagine to many/most people of colour living in Britain, whether born here or not.

It’s our country too. We work, run businesses, create jobs and wealth, pay taxes, work in public services, we volunteer and campaign. We create!

We want our country to work – for everyone. We should be involved in scripting what comes next. It was heartening to see so many people turn to peaceful resistance and outnumbering racists on the street. Now we have to craft a future.

In the immediate aftermath of the first days of these race riots I thought, yes, Keir, do start with a law-and-order response but think now about what’s next. Almost everyone hates riots and rioters, as polls confirm.

Whether you want to welcome refugees, reduce numbers or just feel something’s wrong, nobody thinks our immigration system works. We need a national discussion about (im)migration, the purposes and processes.

But riots cannot be the father of policy debates. This needs to be done in stages.

First, name racism as racism

Before our current (im)migration systems, we must examine the significance of race in modern Britain and we need to name and constructively challenge the multiple harms of racism. That’s necessary for us to work out how we see our future.

Law and order is necessary but not sufficient. There is a legacy question of trust.

Starmer, as DPP in charge of the CPS at the time of the riots a decade ago, is using his considerable strengths. But he leads a government that days ago rightly said the Tories left our criminal justice system in crisis.

They had to release some prisoners early to create capacity. In the general election Labour rightly campaigned for 13,000 more police after years of Tory cuts. People may hesitate to believe this response will be adequate.

Motives really matter

Whilst crime is crime, as ministers have said, our government needs to attend to motive. Calling behaviour mindless thuggery only gets you so far. If – as seems to be the case – the police and CPS are looking at aggravating factors and even anti-terrorism legislation, mindless is an insufficient adjective.

The law attends to motive, when hateful ideology have driven the acts. A political response needs to have this understanding at the heart. It is essential to show people of colour that our leaders understand the impact on us of racially motivated violence.

The front-line rioters may be unaware of the motivations of their online leaders or those who are there in person but wisely hang back and avoid arrest. But as readers of detective stories know, motive matters as well as means. Pogroms don’t come out of nowhere. The fire thrown at the hotel for asylum seekers in Rotherham should serve as a chilling warning.

So where do we go from here?

The peaceful resistance was a good start. Now, do we want our country to change? Yes, being part of changing our country for the better is something I believe most of us are well up for.

For change to be sustainable and to give hope to a weary population feeling nothing can change and they can do nothing about it, civil society and individual citizens have to be part of it.

We can co-author the new story, if our leaders want to make space for this, if they genuinely feel the value, without sub-contracting the responsibility for the structural changes. Painting a new picture can be a shared endeavour, and all the better for it. One which has multiple benefits for economic growth, for the UK’s place in this rapidly changing world.

We have huge challenges, not least climate change. We need to crank up the sluggish economic growth and low productivity which have so limited our capacity to meet these challenges. To do this we need everyone’s talents to thrive.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is essential – but where’s the vision?

Racism and sexism hold people back from developing our full potential, from participating in civic life and being part of the change the Labour Party campaigned on.

I’d like our government to be asking at every stage: where are the women, where are the people of colour, where are working class people? Technically I’m arguing for full integration of the diversity, equality and inclusion agenda I’m passionate about. But that sounds so policy-speak.

The Harris-Walz narrative offer us hints of an alternative. Naming Trumpery as “weird” and using the language of “win” to mean far more than electoral victory is powerful. They draw us in, make us smile and give us badly needed hope.

READ MORE: Starmer condemns ‘thugs’ involved in far-right riots and launches new violent disorder unit – statement in full

Taking on authors of hate speech hiding behind cocktail umbrellas will be difficult. Some will see them as martyrs, their voices enhanced as Donald Trump’s seemed to be when Democrats called him a law-breaker.

The rejection of Modi’s BJP by Hindus in South India in the recent Indian elections show us people can and do reject a leader who thrives on division.

Seeing DEI as a tool for success for the country as a whole, for fairer division of the spoils (“what’s socialism for some is being a good neighbour to others” to quote Tim Walz roughly) and for individual prosperity as a result can provide primary colours for Keir’s vision for the future of Britain. We can paint it with him.

Govern in poetry, colleagues!

John McTernan recently urged Labour to govern in poetry, converting the usual trope of governing in prose into a powerful call to action. As Shadow Secretary of State for culture, I ended speeches with a call for us to “sing, dance, paint, write our way to a new, more prosperous and joyous story for Britain”.

I’m now on the outside, with a Robert Montgomery poem tattooed on my arm.

I call on my former colleagues to write their own poem, make it one of love and revolution (as Robert Montgomery’s is) and inspire us to write the future of Britain together.

Tattoos aren’t compulsory, my friends, but poetry should be. We are all with you!

Thangam Debbonaire

Thangam Debbonaire was Labour MP for Bristol West from 2015 to 2024, and previously Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.@ThangamMP

View all articles by Thangam Debbonaire

 

Don’t let the far-right seize the agenda

With hope and solidarity, we can fight back and win, argues Alex Burt.

The British far-right are on the march. Emboldened by the political class parroting their talking points, we are seeing a significant escalation of far-right activity and all the violent bigotry that comes with it. The last week has seen protests escalating into riots and pogroms, showing the ugly and violent reality of resurgent extreme right organising in 2024.

To socialists across the country and the wider labour movement, this should be seen as a major, perhaps even existential threat. The threat of fascists pitting working class people against each other along ethnic lines threatens only to reinforce the position of the ruling class. However, support for the far-right is often based in mostly white, working-class communities where in the absence of a strong leftist movement, demagogues and provocateurs direct anger away from the capitalist class and towards migrants and minorities. 

Perhaps most clearly, that can be seen in the way Reform UK and the Conservatives have spoken and governed in regards to migration and diversity. From 2010’s hostile environment to the legal cap on migration promised in 2024, demonising migrants and migration has been a central pillar of Conservatism. Reform has, unsurprisingly, gone much further with fantasy policies such as ‘net zero migration’ and threatening to use the Royal Marines to drag small boats back to France. Lee Anderson, formerly a Tory but now Reform MP for Ashfield, accused Sadiq Khan of being “controlled by Islamists”.

In the absence of a major party making a positive case for diversity, these talking points have evolved into ‘political truths’. Every crime by a migrant or a Muslim is now a symptom of uncontrolled immigration, every small boat crossing a security issue rather than a humanitarian one. The discourse on migration has become hijacked by Farage and the populist right, and in turn is held captive by the far-right talking points that they in many ways represent.

Politicians such as Farage act as a ‘respectable’ mouthpiece for the politics of racial grievance. A former City of London Commodities Trader and self-described Thatcherite will simply be more acceptable than Nick Griffin could ever have dreamed of and as a result the far-right attach themselves to him, whether he likes it or not. It gives them a mainstream base to organise their hate and spread it far and wide. The controversies surrounding racist Reform candidates shouldn’t be a surprise: scratch the surface and it has a member base similar to the BNP, just with more respectable leadership. 

Despite their controversies, Reform did very well with a parliamentary base of five seats. The politics of the populist right, acting as a vector for the far-right, clearly struck a chord with a section of the population. Worryingly, all five seats they won rank in the top half of most deprived constituencies. Although four were previously Conservative strongholds, Farage’s message throughout the election campaign and its aftermath was clear: Reform are coming for Labour in the red wall. Ashfield has already fallen and more will follow if we do not tackle the problems of class.

The far-right thrive off grievance politics. Where this strikes a chord is with voters who do not feel listened to, who have felt decline in their communities and who are looking for something to blame. Having grown up in Boston – formerly Tory, currently Reform – I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. A town hit hard by deindustrialisation was always going to be fertile ground for these arguments to land. 

Rioting fascists are not going to bring about a far-right government. Disenfranchised, disengaged, working class white people might, if we do not replace infinite growth with redistribution and class-based politics. British politics and society is working for a vanishingly small group of people and more are beginning to look for alternatives outside of the traditional centre ground. Labour’s majority in the election is vast but thin and traditional electoral logic will not apply in 2029, just as it didn’t when we overturned the 80-seat Tory majority from 2019. Labour in government will have work to do.

This does not mean abandoning minority communities. Britain is a diverse country, and Britain’s working class is just as diverse. We gain nothing when we parrot the far-right’s talking points; it gives legitimacy to their grievances and fuels the fire of division. Instead, we must make clear that it is not the migrant or Muslim that have impoverished communities, but neoliberalism. The average concerned Reform voter will always have more in common with a Muslim neighbour than the privately educated Farage and that is a message we must not let be drowned out by the bigots who seek to divide us.

The fundamental reality is that the social contract that gives the British ruling class its legitimacy has broken down. Stagnation and managed decline are the reality of all too many communities. For all of Starme’rs vigour in the first month of government, there’s too little spending the money needed to fix fourteen years of austerity and underinvestment. Indeed, the promise of further austerity under Chancellor Rachel Reeves would only further sow discord and depression in working class communities that the far-right will exploit. 

The antidote to hate is hope. And hope is in short supply from the centrist Starmer leadership. Instead of austerity, ‘difficult choices’ and supply-side reform, let’s start tackling the problem head on. Billionaire wealth in this country has skyrocketed, the money is there if only we are brave enough to stand up to the wealthiest in our society. No one makes it alone: wealth is built by communities and its benefits should be shared within them.

If that spirit is lost on our leadership, then we must take these messages to the streets and to our communities. Let’s organise to protect mosques, businesses and whatever/whomever the far-right may target. Let’s march against them and show there is a movement that will not be cowed by violence and thuggery. But most importantly, as the violence settles and those involved are charged, let’s get organised with a message of hope to our communities. Poverty is not inevitable. Decline cannot just be managed – it must be reversed. There is a world out there to be won, if only we could be bold enough to seize it. The far-right offers hate. With hope and solidarity, we can fight back and win.

Alex Burt is a Labour Party and Momentum member in Leicester South, currently serving as Youth Officer. They also chair their university Labour Society and Leicester Young Labour.

Image: Migrants welcome here GJN banner. Author: Global Justice Now, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Labour Hub Editors

Thoughts for anti-fascists

By David Renton

August 5, 2024

Labour Hub Editors

This weekend will feel awful, but once we’re through it, there are things the left could do to turn the situation around.

The reason why things will feel bad is that Tommy Robinson has rebuilt his street movement, back to where it was in 2018. Robinson has his social media accounts back (thanks to Elon), and we’re back to a situation where he can mobilise around 15-20,000 people whenever the mood takes him.

To make things worse, this time, he or his followers have been calling local mobilisations rather than relying on the sterile environment of central London rallies. We’ve seen the results this week in Southport, and last night in Sunderland.

Between now and the end of Sunday, Robinson still has another 28 local rallies planned – if all happen (many won’t) at least two-thirds of those that do are likely to go unchallenged by anti-fascists. Tonight and tomorrow there will be several more cities go like Sunderland yesterday (a crowd, unchallenged as it attacked Muslim men, and started fires) and fewer Liverpools (where the Robinson supporters were outnumbered and forced to retreat).

Anyone who’s serious about anti-fascism knows the weakness of our tradition over the past four years: in the main cities, where there were groups, they are weaker now than they were in 2020. Anti-fascists have picked up many bad habits that would take a lifetime to unlearn (protesting at a mile’s distance from the threat, militant-sounding slogans with nothing behind them). But rather than dwelling on the bad, I want to focus on the positives – the objective weakness of our enemies, the relatively small number of things we would need to do differently to make anti-fascism work again.

It helps enormously that the main far right group is led by Robinson. Charismatic he may be, experienced, a genuine ‘name’, all of that is true. But he is also, very obviously, leeching off his own supporters – monetising his relationship to them, while having no idea at all to build beyond this point. Ally with fundamentalist Christians, sell his contact list to Reform, cast big moon-eyes at Kemi Badenoch if she won the Conservative election – he would be happy to do any of these, and may well make fumbling steps towards all of them at once, even though they point in opposite directions, make his politics incoherent, and the further he goes down any of those routes the more certain is it that he’ll set one faction of his followers fighting against another.

Further, part of why Robinson’s crowd seems bigger than the left’s is that he can concentrate all his forces (he has no competitor on the street right) while the far left is, quite rightly, trying to do many different things at once: march for Palestine, take direct action against arms companies, occupy universities, protect trans people, etc. Anti-fascism comes quite a long way down our list.

At a certain point, this spreading of left-wing forces can be turned to our advantage. There are many people who also identify with anti-fascism who will be willing to defend a mosque from attack, so long as you have a group of people in your town who are willing to take this work seriously. Leaflet the anti-war marches, that’s where anti-fascists can find a base capable of outnumbering the far right.

Finally, we’ve had examples in the past few weeks of anti-fascism working. France is the best case – where a genuine unity attracting Socialists, Communists, Greens, Trotskyists, and the sorts of people who 20 years ago might have had half an eye on George Galloway – combined to defeat an electoral far right which has spent 40 years doing that and nothing else.

There are all sorts of lessons you could draw from that experience: if you want to make unity work it has to be a deep unity, a visible convergence of people who are publicly setting aside their differences; it can’t just be one national network that’s done the same things for 20 years with diminishing returns. But even if people don’t learn those lessons, it’s enough for the moment that we can say that people outside Britain have faced similar problems and they’re holding the line.

In France, they stopped an almost certain far right government. We have our own threat and, like them, we can defeat it.

David Renton is a barrister and the author of Against the Law: Why Justice Requires Fewer Laws and a Smaller State, which was published by Repeater in 2022 and of Horatio Bottomley and the Far Right Before Fascism, which was published by Routledge in November 2022. This article was taken from his blog Lives; Running and was originally published here.

Image: Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson). Author: Shayan Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Left Foot Forward

CWU union urges branches to contact local mosques, refugee centres and solidarity groups to offer solidarity and support

Basit Mahmood 

6 August, 2024 

The ‘aims of our union and the labour movement are compromised and weakened if the agenda of race war beats the fight for working-class unity’.

Following days of far-right violence in towns and cities across the UK, the CWU union has urged its branches to contact local mosques, refugee centres and solidarity groups in order to offer the union’s solidarity and support on the ground at a time when communities face severe intimidation.

The CWU’s action comes after far-right thugs targeted mosques, made racist chants and attacked hotels housing asylum seekers in towns and cities across the UK in recent days, with further demonstrations planned.

Posting a statement on X, the union wrote: “As you will know, the past few days has seen acts of violence against Muslim and ethnic minority communities across the country.

“The union has now been made aware that at least 40 demonstrations have been planned by far-right groups against mosques and refugee centres this Wednesday (7th August), with more being organised for the coming weekend.

“Many of these acts are being committed in the name of the three children horrifically murdered in Southport. To be clear, these violent riots have nothing to do with people in Southport, who are appealing for calm, and the attack there was not committed by a Muslim. The CWU stands in absolute solidarity with the families and community of Southport and our local branches and region have been showing their support to the community in every way possible.”

The union went on to add that the ‘aims of our union and the labour movement are compromised and weakened if the agenda of race war beats the fight for working-class unity’.

The statement said: “As such, we ask all branch committees to contact local mosques, refugee centres and solidarity groups in order to offer our union’s solidarity and support on the ground at a time when they face severe intimidation.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Unions issue rallying cry to members in solidarity against the far-right

Hannah Davenport 

6 August, 2024 

Mick Lynch calls for a "movement-wide response so that we do not allow such vile shows of racism to divide working class unity"

Trade unions have issued a rallying cry urging members to reach out to local mosques and solidarity groups, to offer union solidarity and support against the far-right.

Leaders from some of the biggest unions in the UK have called for the movement to come together after far-right and racist groups exploited the deaths of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport to spread mis-information and whip up fear and violence.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has called for a “movement-wide response so that we do not allow such vile shows of racism to divide working class unity.”

Lynch continued: “As trade unionists we are central to our society upholding values of peace, solidarity and working class unity and in the days ahead we must do all within our power to oppose hate and division in our communities and workplaces.”

RMT branches have been urged to contact local mosques, refugee centres and solidarity groups to offer support, a call also made by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) General Secretary Matt Wrack and the Communication Workers Union, urging branch committees to offer the union’s help.

“The FBU stands in solidarity with those facing racism, violence and intimidation, and we stand for the unity of all workers against a cynical divide and rule agenda,” said the leader of the firefighters’ union.

Wrack noted that the trade union movement has a “proud history” of standing up against racism and the far-right and “it must continue to do so”.

The Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO), chaired by General Secretary of Aslef union Mick Whelan has also issued a statement calling for community solidarity against the violence and to challenge the narrative of those who try to divide the working class.

The statement reads: “There is a huge amount of work to do to build a new spirit of hope and unity to stop workers and communities being pitted against each other.”

TULO comprises the 11 trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party which are; ASLEF; Community; CWU; FBU; GMB; Musicians Union; NUM; TSSA; Unison; Unite; and USDAW.

The multi-union statement also thanked public service workers and “those who put themselves in harm’s way to keep others safe” and heralded community members and workers who have come out to help clear up, and counter the violence with kindness.

The statement adds: “Unions have a proud history of standing up against racism and the far right – and we will continue to play our part in workplaces and communities to bring workers together, and to stand firm against those who sow hatred and division.

“The trade union movement is built on the principles of solidarity and unity, and that unity has never been more important. We reaffirm our commitment to building solidarity and uniting working people against the far-right.”

Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward

UK

The far-right are misusing Christianity for their warped ideology. There’s nothing Christian about them

Symon Hill 

6 August, 2024 
Left Foot Forward

The far-right are no more representative of Christianity than they are of Britain or of the working class. We must stand up and say so. 

The misuse of Christian language by far-right activists in the UK has stepped up a gear in the wake of the racist and Islamophobic violence that has engulfed cities around England in the last week.

The far-right often claim that they are defending “Christian Britain” from Muslims. The “Patriot March” addressed by Tommy Robinson in London on 27th July featured the Lord’s Prayer being recited from the stage – although the footage shows few people joining in.

But these far-right types now seem to have some actual churchgoing Christians in their ranks – and even a few clergy.

Early on Sunday morning, the far-right Twitter account @QueenBob encouraged people who had taken part in racist protests to attend church (https://x.com/KingBobIIV/status/1819990009857863766):


“Everyone who has attended a march or protest, get to church this morning.

“Tens of thousands of people, attending church, on Sunday morning, to pray for our country, and all who love her would and could change everything.

“You may not believe in God, but you do believe in your country, it’s [sic] values and your community. Stand with them in peace and prayer.”


It’s the third sentence that gives away the far-right attitude to Christianity. Go to church not because of God but because you believe in “your country”. British nationalists like church in the same way they like roast beef and driving on the left – as an aspect of British culture. The historical reality of Jesus as an Aramaic-speaking Middle Eastern refugee is an inconvenience they would rather forget.

One respondent to @QueenBob’s tweet wrote:

“Please, please come to Holy Communion this morning! You will find a warm welcome!” (https://x.com/deborahjrobert7/status/1820009939823170031).

Her feed is full of misleading comments about Muslims and retweets of Tommy Robinson.

Of course such people are an exception. Most British Christians – even centrist and moderately conservative Christians – will reject attempts by the far-right to co-opt them. On Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby declared:

“Using Christian symbolism or the name of God to justify violence is offensive to everything that Christ stands for”.

Anyone with any familiarity with the Bible is aware that it includes literally hundreds of statements encouraging people to welcome refugees and migrants. The irony seems to be lost on Christian supporters of parties such as Reform UK – the semi-respectable face of the far-right – who claim to be defending Britain’s Christian heritage. Lee Anderson last week trumpeted his condemnation of a feature of the Olympic opening ceremony that referenced the Da Vinci painting of the Last Supper and which supposedly offended Christians.

Anderson and Nigel Farage seem to be torn between making excuses for the riots and trying to wash their hands as they declare themselves innocent of the violence that their rhetoric did so much to fuel.

Some far-right figures, however, seem to have no problem being associated with the riots. And we must be aware that the far-right have found a responsive, if small, pocket of support among practising, churchgoing Christians. No figure is more pivotal to this development than Calvin Robinson.

Unless you’re a fan of GB News, you have probably not heard much of Calvin Robinson. He pops up occasionally on mainstream TV, wearing his clerical collar and talking of Christian faith. What is less obvious in these moments is that his views border on Fascism (and I don’t say that lightly).

Robinson’s 357,000 Twitter followers can read him agreeing with people who call for Islam to be banned and describing LGBT+ Pride marches as “demonic”. After being declined ordination in the Church of England, Robinson joined the breakaway Free Church of England before becoming a priest in the Nordic Catholic Church (an “Old Catholic” denomination, distinct from the Roman Catholic Church).

In the last week, Robinson has repeatedly described racist rioters as “white working class people” who are upset over the murder of children.

In reality of course, most white working class people don’t react to the murder of children by attacking innocent people who have got nothing to do with murder. Robinson has little interest in the many white working class people protesting against the far-right or – for example – in white working class bricklayers who have offered their skills for free to rebuild mosques and shops attacked by racists.

Robinson is not the only one. The Christian People’s Alliance (CPA) used to be a centre-right party who combined conservative views on sexuality and marriage with criticism of the arms trade and concern about poverty. Now they seem to be a right-wing club for British supporters of Donald Trump. As late as Thursday – after the name of the Southport killer had been published – they were still suggesting that he might have been an Islamic terrorist: (https://x.com/CPA_Party/status/1818940782184735046).

On Sunday, Robinson led an online prayer service with two other right-wing priests associated with the Free Church of England, Brett Murphy and Phil Harris. Comments from attenders on You Tube included:

“I’m praying for the lost and taken, and the English boys on the streets tonight protesting” (https://www.youtube.com/live/uzP8c9RxIsc).

Robinson and his friends are thankfully a long way from building any sort of US-style Christian Right in the UK. Nonetheless, it is no longer difficult to find people who identify themselves as Christians while backing or excusing far-right violence. We need to remember that we are talking about a small group, however outrageous some of their views are (https://symonhill.org/2023/09/30/if-you-think-calvin-robinson-is-bizarre-look-at-his-supporters/). At the same time, we need to ensure that this tendency does not grow. There are three things that can be done.

Firstly, we need to see Christians and church leaders going beyond merely condemning far-right violence. They need actively to back nonviolent resistance to racism and Islamophobia, and to the economic inequalities and injustices on which Fascism feeds.

Secondly, I hope people of all faiths and none who are resisting the far-right can challenge their claims to be defending Christianity, pointing to the anti-racist and pro-migration views of many churches and the reality of Jesus’ teachings.

Thirdly, if you are involved in organising anti-racist and anti-Fascist protests, I encourage you to contact churches in your area and ask them to take part. If you’re not sure which churches are likely to be supportive, you may get an idea of their views from their websites or social media accounts. We have seen some great examples of Christians joining in the protection of mosques as faith groups come together to reject the far-right.

The far-right are no more representative of Christianity than they are of Britain or of the working class. We must stand up and say so.

Symon Hill is a Baptist Minister-in-Training, university chaplain and history tutor for the Workers’ Educational Association. His latest book is The Peace Protestors: A history of modern-day war resistance (Pen & Sword, 2022).

Left Foot Forward

Far-right thugs outnumbered by anti-racism protesters across the UK

Basit Mahmood 

Yesterday
Large anti-racism demonstrations also took place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton and in London.
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Far-right thugs were outnumbered by anti-racism demonstrators in towns and cities across the UK yesterday, in a powerful show of unity against Islamophobia and racism.

The country had braced itself for more violent far-right demonstrations to take place, with around 100 demonstrations planned by the far-right across the country targeting asylum centres, mosques and immigration lawyers’ offices.

However, many of the events linked to the far-right failed to materialise, with counter demonstrators turning out in larger numbers.

In Walthamstow, images of the anti-racism protest went viral with the streets packed with an estimated 10,000 anti-fascist demonstrators. Thousands of counter-protestors chanted, holding signs such as “refugees welcome, stop the far-right” and “EDL off our streets.”

It came after lawyers’ offices shut down, high street shops were boarded up, GP practices closed early and MPs were told to consider working from home as 41 of the 43 local police force areas in England and Wales braced for potential disorder.

Large anti-racism demonstrations also took place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton and other parts of London.

Aside from some minor disturbances in Aldershot and Brighton, the expected disorder did not appear to take place.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan thanked those who came out peacefully ‘to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia last night’. He posted on X: “To those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia last night—thank you.

“To our heroic police force working round the clock to keep Londoners safe—thank you.

“And to those far-right thugs still intent on sowing hatred and division—you will never be welcome here.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forwar

Powerful video explains how mainstream media and politicians have fuelled the far right

Chris Jarvis 

Yesterday


'It's our politicians and the mainstream UK media that have put a target on the backs of black and brown communities

.


The UK has been hit by a wave of far-right violence and intimidation in recent weeks. While some commentators have sought to present this as a emerging from nowhere, it is clear that increasingly divisive rhetoric and policies pushed by the media and right-wing politicians has contributed to it.

A new video from the anti-poverty NGO War on Want has explained this perfectly. In the video, the organisation’s executive director Asad Rehman sets out the role sections of the mainstream media and politics have played in fuelling the far right.

“It’s not only the far right or fascists such as Tommy Robinson and the English Defence League who are responsible, or even Elon Musk and social media platforms like X who are amplifying hatred”, Rehman says in the video.

He continues by saying: “It’s our politicians and the mainstream UK media that have put a target on the backs of black and brown communities. Former UK prime ministers, countless home secretaries have demonised the Muslim community and pinned the failures of their policies onto migrant minority communities.

“Politicians have fuelled Islamophobia and anti-migrant racism. And rather than challenging divisive, racist figures, the media have platformed and amplified them. They have made racism acceptable again.

“But the truth has always been that when politicians play the race card, it’s minority communities who pay the price. It’s the political decisions of those in power that have created a breeding ground for fascism and racism, decisions which have widened inequality and deepened poverty through precarious and low paid work, a lack of housing and austerity measures that have gutted communities.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Poll reveals who the public think is to blame for the far-right riots


Basit Mahmood

7 August, 2024 

Further demonstrations are set to take place today

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A poll has revealed who the public thinks is to blame for the recent far-right violent riots that have taken place in towns and cities across the UK, with further demonstrations expected to take place today.

The polling was carried out by YouGov, which also found that a majority of the British public believe that the disorder and violence which has taken place at far-right demonstrations over recent days is unjustified.

The public were also asked who they thought is responsible for the riots.

An overwhelming majority of those asked said they believed that the rioters themselves were mostly responsible for the violence that has occurred in recent days, with nine in ten Britons (88%) viewing them as at least somewhat responsible for causing the unrest, including seven in ten (71%) viewing them as holding a great deal of responsibility.

Around 86% of those asked also blamed social media for being responsible for the violent riots. Three-quarters of those asked (74%) also blamed far right groups for the violent demonstrations.

A clear majority of the public (57%) also attribute responsibility to notable far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson, with almost half (47%) also viewing Nigel Farage as holding some level of responsibility for the unrest.

You can view the full chart of who the public think is responsible below.





Overwhelming majority of public oppose unrest seen at recent protests, YouGov poll shows
Basit Mahmood 7 August, 2024 (2 days ago)


'Regardless of what the rioters believe they are representing, their actions are not supported by the British public, with 85% of Britons opposing the unrest at recent protests'
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An overwhelming majority of the British public believe that the disorder and violence which has taken place at far-right demonstrations over recent days is unjustified, with the vast majority of people opposed to the unrest.

The findings come after YouGov carried out a poll to understand what the public make of the riots and those taking part in them.

Over recent days, violent far-right demonstrations have taken place in towns and cities across the country, with mosques targeted, police officers attacked, and hotels housing asylum seekers stormed and set fire to.

The riots occurred after misinformation on social media accusing the perpetrator of last week’s mass stabbing in Southport of having been a Muslim asylum seeker. Three young girls were killed in the attack which took place during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Eight other children suffered stab wounds and at least two were in a critical condition, alongside two adults.

In the wake of the attack, rioting broke out in Southport, with a mosque attacked, resulting in 27 police officers being taken to hospital. Police have said they believe the men involved are part of the far-right English Defence League.

Within hours of the horrific attack, the far-right were spreading misinformation about the identity of the attacker, claiming that he had arrived in the UK via a small boat with a number of far-right social media accounts claiming that the attacker was Muslim, a migrant, refugee or foreigner.

The attacker has been named as Cardiff born Axel Rudakubana, 17. He has now been charged with murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, along with 10 counts of attempted murder.

Further far-right demonstrations are expected to take place today but they do not have the support of the majority of the public.

YouGov finds: “Regardless of what the rioters believe they are representing, their actions are not supported by the British public, with 85% of Britons opposing the unrest at recent protests and just 7% saying they support the violence. Even the broader protests only hold the support of one in three Britons (34%), with more than half (54%) opposed.

“Opposition to the riots is near-universal across every part of the public, with Reform UK voters being the only group showing any substantive levels of support, at 21%. Even this is a clear minority, with three-quarters of Reform voters (76%) opposed to the riots. Support among other voters is far lower – only 9% of Conservatives, 3% of Labour voters and 1% of Lib Dems favour the outbreak in violent disorder.”

Furthermore, just 12% of Britons think that the recent disorder at the demonstrations is justified, compared to 82% who think it is unjustified.

Only one in eight Britons (12%) feel the rioters are representative of the views of most Britons, with three-quarters (76%) saying they do not represent the majority of the public.

When it comes to how the public feel about those taking part in the riots, ‘thugs’ is the most popular description for those causing the unrest, with two-thirds (67%) feeling it is appropriate based on their actions.

Around 65% of Britons would describe them as ‘rioters’, with six in ten (58%) believing the rioters are ‘racist’ and a small majority (52%) agreeing with the prime minister’s label of ‘far-right’, according to YouGov.

Nigel Farage admits to spreading misinformation from Andrew Tate about Southport killings

Basit Mahmood 

7 August, 2024

Farage posted a video online speculating on the background of the alleged killer shortly after the knife attack took place last week.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has admitted to spreading misinformation from the likes of Andrew Tate following the killing of three young girls in Southport.

Three young girls were killed in an attack which took place during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Eight other children suffered stab wounds and at least two were in a critical condition, alongside two adults.

Within hours of the horrific attack, the far-right were spreading misinformation about the identity of the attacker, claiming that he had arrived in the UK via a small boat with a number of far-right social media accounts claiming that the attacker was Muslim, a migrant, refugee or foreigner.

The attacker has been named as Cardiff born Axel Rudakubana, 17. He has now been charged with murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, along with 10 counts of attempted murder.

Following the attack, rioting broke out in Southport, with a mosque attacked, resulting in 27 police officers being taken to hospital. Police have said they believe the men involved are part of the far-right English Defence League.

Rioting from far-right thugs has since spread to towns and cities across the country, with mosques targeted, police officers attacked and hotels housing asylum seekers stormed and set fire to.

Following the horrific attack in Southport, Farage posted a video online speculating on the background of the alleged killer shortly after the knife attack took place last week.

He falsely claimed that “some reports suggest he was known to the security services”.

Farage was asked about his actions on LBC, where he insisted he was only trying to find out “the truth”.

He said: “There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings – Andrew Tate etc – suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in a boat in October 2023. Other suggestions that he was an active Muslim, and much of this led to the riots that we saw.

“I asked a very simple question – was this person known or not.”

Presenter Tom Swarbrick hit back: “Nigel Farage, you didn’t just do that, did you? You said some reports suggest he was known to the security services. Those reports were from a fake news website amplified by Russian state TV and, as you mentioned, Andrew Tate Which ones were you looking at?”

Farage said: “Which adds to what I was asking for – give us some clarity.”

Tory shadow minister slammed for suggesting far-right violence was ‘politically justified’


Basit Mahmood 

5 August, 2024 

'Your resignation is necessary and urgent.”

A Tory shadow minister has been slammed for suggesting that the recent far-right violence on the streets of Britain, which has seen mosques targeted, police officers attacked and racist chants being made, was politically justified.

Lord (Byron) Davies made disgraceful comments while exchanging comments with a Mail on Sunday columnist on X.

Dan Hodges, had posted: “There’s no political justification for the disorder we have seen. But if people want to get into the blame game these are the facts. The Tories were in power for 14 years. Labour have been in power for four weeks. Blaming Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper for this is just ridiculous.”

Davies, the former MP for Gower, responded: “But Labour blocked the Rwanda Bill 130+ times of course it’s politically justified!”

Jo Stevens, Labour’s Welsh secretary, was among those who condemned Davies’ remarks.

She said: “The shadow Welsh secretary’s comments are disgusting, misguided and dangerous. Racist violence is never justified.

“Politicians, including unelected ones, have an important responsibility to de-escalate tensions. Those inflaming them should seriously consider their position.”

CCHQ said that Lord Davies’ comment was ‘unacceptable’ and that he had been warned of ‘consequences of the misuse of language at such a sensitive time and the standards expected’.

Reacting to Lord Davies’ comment, one social media user wrote on X: “This man is Lord Davies of Gower (Byron Davies), a former Tory MP for Gower and a member of the Welsh parliament and the House of Lords.

“Despite the current climate of far-right violence and racism, he believes that the riots are a justified political tactic. @byron_davies, your resignation is necessary and urgent.”

Outrage over Daily Telegraph’s ‘disgraceful’ headline on far-right riots

Hannah Davenport

5 August, 2024 

'One of the most repulsive, inaccurate and frankly embarrassing headlines in the history of the Daily Telegraph'

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This morning’s Daily Telegraph headline has been described as one of its ‘most repulsive and inaccurate’ yet as the right-wing paper got blasted for its latest coverage of the far-right rioting.

On today’s (Monday 5 August) frontpage of the broadsheet newspaper, the headline read ‘Far-right clash with Muslims in rioting’, which has led to disgusted reactions online that have highlighted the paper’s divisive and misleading framing of the far-right riots and those coming out against them.

There have been widespread reports of Muslims and ethnic minorities feeling worried for their safety, amid violent rallies from the far-right that have seen mosques targeted, racist attacks and Islamophobic chanting in the past week. Counter movements by anti-fascists and community members have come out to defend their communities against the violent mobs.

Despite Muslims in the UK facing a surge in hate crime and being the subject of dangerous disinformation online following the Southport knife attacks, the Daily Telegraph chose to stoke division with its latest headline.

The headline has received a widespread backlash online.

Presenter and former journalist David Yelland said the Daily Telegraph’s choice of phrase was “one of the most repulsive” headlines ever from the paper.

The former Sun editor said: “One of the most repulsive, inaccurate and frankly embarrassing headlines in the history of the Daily Telegraph. It has appalled many of its own journalists. It is beneath contempt.”

Taj Ali, co-editor of the Tribune, said the headline reflected the privilege of media editors that “don’t have to live with the violent consequences” of their rhetoric, which seeks to demonise and divide communities.

Taj said on X: “This is an absolutely disgraceful headline. Muslims were forced to defend their mosques, businesses and homes because our communities have been terrorised by racist thugs. Those thugs have been emboldened by racist journalists who absolutely despise British Muslims.”

Guardian journalist Helena Horton said: “Every other paper incl the times and mail has singled out the true culprits. The telegraph may regret equivocating.”

One X user described the headline: “What an awful, twisted, inaccurate, shameful, repulsive take.”

 

UK

SOME ANARCHISTS EMPTY AN ILLEGAL CHICKEN FARM AND DESTROY THE BARN.

Aug

08

2024

0comments

By thecollective

From Unoffensive Animal

30th July, West Midlands UK.

Received anonymously via email:

“On the 30th of July, acting on a local’s tip off, we headed to a barn in West Midlands containing the most horrific chicken egg cages we had seen in over a decade.

It seems the owner disagreed with the ban of conventional cages back in 2012 and decided to keep a small flock to himself in the exact same cages outlawed 12 years ago. Some of the cages contained up to 3 chickens, making it impossible for them to move. The corners of the barn were covered in over a foot deep layer of chicken shit and rats climbed up and down the row of cages like it was a playground. Feed rotted on the floor, mixed with an ever dripping water system that didn’t seem to provide water all the way down the line.

We got to work. Luckily the scum only had thirty hens in the barn, so we emptied every single cage, loaded all hens into the carriers and then made sure the cages would never be used again. We cut every door slide, broke the egg catching trays and strategically removed every piece of metal that made the racking even mildly useful. By the end of the job, there were no cages left in the barn, just a pathetic skeleton of what once was standard to millions of egg layers.

We left a few messages on the walls, in case the owner needed any more reinforcement, and disappeared into the night with thirty chickens that will need a lot of love before they can start expressing themselves, but that for the first time will be allowed to open their wings all the way. They’ll be able to sun soak and dust bath as much as they want for the rest of their life, away from exploitation and abuse.

Not your eggs. Fuck your cages. You are scum.

To Marius Mason, still in a cage. We hope hearing the news warms your heart.

Some anarchists.”

Watch video here: https://youtu.be/yzKSMhU5gbY

 

After French Rail Sabotage, Some See Signs of a Murky ‘Ultraleft’

Aug

08

2024

1comments

By thecollective

From The New York Times by Aurelien Breeden and Catherine Porter

Experts say the arson attacks before the opening of the Paris Olympics bear the hallmarks of insurrectionary anarchists opposed to the state.

Who sabotaged France’s high-speed train lines last month?

Clear answers to that question have been elusive so far, more than a week after coordinated arson attacks that disrupted rail travel for hundreds of thousands of travelers before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

There have been no arrests, and no suspects have been publicly identified. For now, the country appears far more invested in its Olympic medal count than in the outcome of the investigation. That is probably a good thing for the authorities, because such cases, though not uncommon, are notoriously difficult to solve.

Officials are not ruling out any possibilities, including foreign interference. But much suspicion has fallen on what French authorities label as “ultraleft,” anticapitalist groups that are less interested in gaining notoriety for their actions than in disrupting the workings of the state.

Railway sabotage is a “traditional method of action” for such groups, Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said in the aftermath of the attacks.

France’s domestic intelligence agency also has said that arson has been “a preferred modus operandi” for the “ultraleft” movement, “which regularly launches campaigns aimed mainly at energy and telecommunications infrastructures.”

But in France and elsewhere in Europe, “the number of arrests for left-wing and anarchist terrorist and extremist offenses is generally not very high,” Europol, the European Union agency for law enforcement cooperation, said in a report last year.

While experts caution that last week’s sabotage case remains open, they also say it bears some hallmarks of the insurrectionary anarchists, who frequently use low-tech methods like arson and cutting cables to target railway or telecommunication sites.

One potential clue being examined by investigators is an anonymous email which was sent a day after the attack to The New York Times and other media organizations and which celebrated the sabotage. It claimed that the attacks were intended to disrupt the Olympics, which the email called a “celebration of nationalism” and a “testing ground” for mass policing that shows how states “subjugate populations.”

It is unclear if the email came from the actual saboteurs, but the Paris prosecutor’s office, which is handling the investigation, said that was being examined. Several experts on far-left movements and sabotage said that the tone and arguments of the email were consistent with an anarchist ideology, and they noted that sabotage carried out by anarchist groups was often followed by similarly fuzzy claims of responsibility.

Victor Cachard, a French author who has written extensively about the history of sabotage, said that it was hard to ascertain with any confidence who was behind the attacks. Still, he said, “when you look at the recent history of claims that come after this kind of action, the insurrectionist anarchist movement is often behind it.”

The email, which was signed “an unexpected delegation,” in a reference to the Olympics, was sent from an anonymous email address created on Riseup, a platform that “provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change,” according to its website.

The text of the email criticized France’s weapons export industry, condemned police brutality, castigated French companies like Total or Alstom for wreaking social and environmental havoc and took a dim view of France’s high-speed train system.

“Railroads are not an innocuous infrastructure,” the email said. “They have always been a means of colonizing new territories, a prerequisite for their devastation, and a ready-made path for the extension of capitalism and state control.”

Practically speaking, targeting railway systems or telecommunication networks “requires the least energy for the greatest efficiency,” Mr. Cachard said. France’s rail system is especially vulnerable — too vast to be completely secure, and centralized, with all four main high-speed lines running out of Paris.

That makes creating a bottleneck easy, though train traffic quickly returned to normal after France’s railway company scrambled to repair the damage after the rail attacks. Another spate of vandalism last week against fiber optic cables caused limited disruption.

“The goal of the sabotage is to frustrate the state and to send the message to other groups with similar ideas,” said Thomas Dekeyser, a researcher at Aberystwyth University in Wales who has studied past cases of sabotage in Europe.

He and other experts say that in recent years more activists have become attracted to sabotage. They include climate activists who believe that traditional methods like petitions or protests have made little headway, as well as militants who object to the spread of infrastructure like 5G antennas.

France’s telecommunications infrastructure — phone lines, fiber optic cables, relay antennas — is targeted by about a dozen small-scale acts of vandalism or sabotage every month.

“There is a willingness to push the boundaries, to act not against human life but infrastructure,” Mr. Cachard said. “Throughout history, you see that sabotage goes up a notch when the state is unresponsive to traditional modes of action.”

Indeed, infrastructure sabotage is hardly a new phenomenon.

Aurélien Dubuisson, a historian and affiliated researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, who is an expert on extreme-left movements, said that sabotage was sometimes used in the labor movement’s early days. For instance, figures like Émile Pouget, an anarchist journalist and trade unionist who was active in the late 19th century and early 20th century, advocated such tactics.

Sabotage of railway lines was famously used by French resistance fighters of all political stripes during World War II. Disruptions like temporary power cuts have also been used by French labor unionists opposed to President Emmanuel Macron.

Last year, France’s interior minister said that the authorities were monitoring about 3,000 “ultraleft” activists. But Mr. Dubuisson and other experts caution that officials often use a broad brush that is not always helpful in understanding whom they are talking about.

“It’s a bit of a catchall term,” he said. “The ultraleft label has become a political and media expression for almost anything on the left that involves the use of illegal practices, whether violent or nonviolent, within a political framework.”

And arrests are rare in sabotage cases, making it even more complicated to establish a pattern or blame a specific group, experts say.

Mr. Dekeyser, who made a documentary about a series of arsons and bombs set in the 1980s by an anti-computer group, said that despite a claim published in newspapers under the acronym C.L.O.D.O., the saboteurs were never caught. After two years, the group disappeared.

Insurrectionist anarchists and similar groups are rarely interested in converting the general public to their cause or in using the press or the legal system to their advantage, experts said. They are generally loosely organized, with no formal hierarchy or structure; smaller groups may form to take specific action before disbanding just as quickly.

Anarchists and other fringe, left-wing activists are also accustomed to working with like-minded groups in countries like Italy, Germany or Spain, making it easy to slip across the border, experts say.

In Germany, Tesla was forced to halt production at an assembly plant in March after someone started a fire at a high-voltage pylon that cut electricity to the factory and the surrounding region. A group declaring ties to the antifascist movement claimed responsibility for the attack, but there have been no arrests in this case either.

“They don’t want to draw attention to themselves, but instead focus on action and vulnerability of the infrastructures,” Mr. Dekeyser said of groups like insurrectionist anarchists. “They are not interested in building a platform from which to speak.”