Britain, racism, and racist riots

Starmer and Labour swept into power in July having won a General Election by default and not merit, despite Labour’s claims of a sweeping majority on the scale of Tony Blair in 1997. It was nothing of the sort with their success being solely due to the collapse of the Conservative vote, who haemorrhaged votes to Farage and Reform. Many on the left predicted a short honeymoon period but none of us could predict that within the space of a few weeks that this honeymoon would have come to an abrupt halt. Politicians in Britain have been fanning the flames of hatred towards refugees and minorities with increasing hostile rhetoric for over a decade. This exploded when on the 29th July, the teenager Axel Rudakubana, went into a dance studio in Southport and attacked children, killing three and wounding ten other people – eight of whom were children. Despite him being born in Britain and one of the victims being the child of migrants, many accused him of being a Muslim immigrant known to the authorities. This ignited the touchpaper and provided just the excuse for racist mobs to take to the streets under the banner of protecting British children from foreign attackers.

With the new government feeling the strain of civil unrest unleashed onto the streets of Britain, community tensions, and struggling to maintain order, it is facing a threat from the far right who are claiming to speak for the British working class in the absence of a unified left. This appalling attack came only two days after the convicted criminal and neo-Nazi, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson, held a ‘patriotic’ rally called “Uniting the Kingdom” in Trafalgar Square, London on 27^th July. This event attracted around 20,000 ‘patriots’ to hear an array of speakers preaching nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment from their pulpit. The event also included a screening of Yaxley’s film, Silenced, which repeated false claims that he had previously made about a Syrian refugee that led to him to losing a libel case in 2021. Yaxley was due to appear at a high court hearing 48 hours after this event, accused of contempt of court for making the documentary, and in his blatant show of defiance airing this against court orders, he potentially faced prison.

After this flagrant breach, he then fled Britain and according to the Daily Mail he is now holed up in Cyprus, sunning himself where he is inciting his racist mobs on social media, attempting to portray himself as a victim for being a messenger of the ‘truth’. But he is not alone in spreading this racist poison. Others have been dog whistling and dragging British politics to the right. We have had a racist narrative coming out of Farage for years, aimed at taking Britain out of the EU, blaming migrants, refugees, and Muslims for Britain’s decline domestically and globally. Both Cameron and successive Tory leaders, and now Starmer, have sought to take him on by simply adopting the same racist rhetoric and amplifying it, albeit in more nuanced ways. The ‘hostile environment’ towards minorities and asylum seekers did not start under Therea May but farther back under Blair’s Labour.

The Labour Party have always been a party with racist tendencies and outright racist policies towards ethnic minorities, despite many members being active in anti-racist movements and attracting minorities under the pretence that it supports the working class and minorities. Blair’s neoliberal Labour was hostile to Muslims and Roma. Jack Straw the then Labour MP for Blackburn in 2006, claimed that he asked Muslim women to remove their veil when visiting his surgery. David Blunkett, the Labour government Home Secretary was even more forceful in ramming home institutional racism. On 11th November 2013, he gave an interview to Radio Sheffield when he spoke of reported tensions in Sheffield where Roma workers mainly from Slovakia had settled. His incendiary comments included “We have got to change the behaviour and the culture of the incoming community, the Roma community, because there’s going to be an explosion otherwise. We all know that”.

This was not attributed to a lone lapse of self-awareness. In 2001 after the disturbances in Burnley, Bradford and Oldham, which started with white youths attacking Asian youths, Blunkett went on to suggest that the polarisation and segregation of Asian communities was their own fault when he stated: “We need to say we will not tolerate what we would not accept ourselves under the guise of accepting a different culture.” One needs to be reminded that these comments came three months after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York by and one month after the invasion of Afghanistan with the new ‘War on Terror’ against Muslims. Labour’s imperialist mindset, which has supported wars not only in Afghanistan but also Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the ongoing slaughter in Palestine, automatically requires dehumanisation of Muslims to justify Western barbarism and the argument of a ‘clash of cultures’ to save ‘Western democracy’. This is not unique just to its ‘right wing’ but is fully ingrained within a party that supports imperialism.

Neoliberalism and the atomisation of communities

The UK has been in serious economic decline, the 2007 financial crisis and the subsequent disastrous austerity programme laying waste to public services, then through the COVID pandemic, which resulted in the ruling class overseeing one of the biggest transfers of wealth from the poor into the hands of the rich. The Tories’ taking the reins of government in 2010 led to deliberate racist dog- whistling, demonisation of refugees, and othering of communities, designed to scapegoat and hide criminal negligence and their ideologically driven programme. This appealed to the backward elements of the working class, who bought into this narrative and who then voted for a Brexit with the return of British ‘sovereignty’ with a referendum to keep them onboard. While Cameron made it clear he wanted Britain to remain in the EU, his miscalculation and poorly thought through referendum designed to stave off UKIP and in-party fighting blew up in his face. The Tories with no means to solve the underlying economic problems have had to resort to ‘culture wars’, underpinned with Britain’s ‘hostile environment’ policy, which was eventually passed onto Priti Patel, who was sacked for trying to divert money to Israel before being brought in as Home Secretary by Boris Johnson. Tory politicians like Michael Gove and Suella Braverman have consistently attacked Muslims, refugees, and the Palestinian movement with Johnson degrading Muslim women by comparing them to letterboxes.

While Brexit under the Tories allowed racist discourse to become normalised, Labour have been no better with racist tropes and demonisation becoming accepted within the landscape of British politics. Starmer was instrumental in Labour’s mixed messaging and ‘confusion’ in having an incoherent Brexit position, which contributed to the failure of Corbyn in the 2019 general election. This must be seen as a deliberate tactic given the wider context of inside plotting and party machinations to deliberately undermine Corbyn and Labour’s shift to the left. While the consequences leading to this current situation has returned to haunt Labour, it is becoming blatantly clear that under Starmer, the government means to continue as it began with him at the helm. They have no intention of placing the genie back into bottle. In many respects it has opened a new opportunity to introduce wider attacks on civil liberties and the right to assemble and protest. The immediate reaction was to meet police chiefs and set up a ‘standing army’ of police officers with the formation of new Violent Crime Units to support individual forces. The last person to do similarly was Maragret Thatcher, to smash striking workers. Labour have labelled these protests as ‘far right’ and seem to have a cognitive impairment when it comes to calling these rioters racists who tried to carry out a racist pogrom towards people based on skin colour, religion, and cultural differences.

While many of these protesters have been stirred up to come out onto the streets by fascists and neo-Nazis online, many of them have no alignment with any defined right-wing political groups other than to target migrants and refugees who they see as the source of their downtrodden position. Donna Jones, the Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners went one stage further in her statement on 3^rd August 2024 where she said: “I’ve spoken to people from both sides of the spectrum and the only way to stem the tide of violent disorder, is to acknowledge what is causing it.” No controversy there, however, she then went on to say “…. the commonality amongst the protest groups appears to be focused on three key areas: the desire to protect Britain’s sovereignty; the need to uphold British values and in order to do this, stop illegal immigration.” And further on she says “The government must acknowledge what is causing this civil unrest in order to prevent it. Arresting people, or creating violent disorder units, is treating the symptom and not the cause. The questions these people want answering; what is the government’s solution to mass uncontrolled immigration? How are the new Labour government going to uphold and build on British values?”

Many years of hollowing out manufacturing and public services and the neglect of investment of infrastructure has led to growing inequality and the atomisation of communities, which has created fertile ground for the far right to resonate with their blame game. It is no coincidence that 7 out of 10 of the areas affected by these race riots have been in poverty-stricken areas. The statement by Donna Jones makes no mention of the deliberate economic programme that created this community destruction, other than to blame the victims themselves for this racist pogrom. This is a sordid attempt to downplay racism and rehabilitate racists. The government and media propagandists have also attempted to deflect blame in fuelling of these race riots by claiming that ‘Russian disinformation’ created the spark to inflame the streets. The truth is that the radicalisation of these people in creating a potential domestic terror problem lies squarely on the shoulders of British politicians, the British press acting as an arm of imperialism, British political commentators, and other foreign actors aligned closely to Britain, such as US and Israeli politicians and political commentators.

In 2011 riots gripped Britain, which were an eruption of anger against poverty and targeting those with money. There was no call for any understanding, the rioters were immediately condemned with calls for heavy sentences. Despite the arrests of ‘far right protesters’ during the recent events, many of whom were responsible for violent disorder that included rioting, targeting mosques, attacking minorities and their businesses, arson with the burning of vehicles, two hotels with refugee families inside, and a library, the sentencing so far has been far more lenient than the sentences handed out to climate activists for simply holding a Zoom meeting to discuss tactics. There is also a class element to this. Many of the protesters were from a working-class background, some who have been arrested and convicted for inciting unrest or racism by their social media activity. No politician has currently been arrested or stripped of Parliamentary privileges due to incitement on social media and other platforms that contributed to this social unrest because most politicians agree with the underlying sentiment shown by these protesters.

Immediately after the riots a We Think survey showed that 39% of people surveyed agreed that violence towards refugees was the only means to get the attention of British politicians with 36% of people agreeing that xenophobic acts of violence are defensible if it means fewer refugees settling in their towns. The acceptance of these views has not appeared in a vacuum. This is the result of years of racial stereotyping and othering. These race riots are the most serious since the 1958 Notting Hill riots when the West Indian community were targeted in a racially motivated attack. This hatred towards refugees is entwined with rampant prejudice against Muslims, Islamic culture and religion in the West, which is not only designed to avert the gaze from domestic policy but also to support the West’s imperialist foreign policy towards the Middle East and sanitise Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinians. This manufactured ‘clash of civilisations’ is nothing but pure racism directed towards Arabs and Muslims. The colonisation of the Palestinians and the unfolding genocide is steeped in white supremacy.

Islamophobia and Al-Aqsa Flood

Since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which took place on 7^th October 2023, when Palestinian freedom fighters broke out of Gaza, Labour has fully supported Israel’s genocide toward the Palestinians. Starmer made this clear beforehand with his “I support Zionism without qualification” statement in February 2020 during the leadership election. This was a deliberate manoeuvre to distance himself and the party from the previous Corbyn years and pander to the bogus anti-semitism charges levelled against many socialists within the party, disproportionally affecting Jewish socialists who found themselves expelled. This was to ensure the continued protection of Israel and Britain’s imperialist interests in the region. It was a Labour government that handed over Palestine to Zionists at the end of the British Mandate in 1948 and has continued to support Israel unconditionally with its oppression of the Palestinians ever since, which was brought into question under Corbyn who declared that a Palestinian state would be recognised. Immediately after 7^th October, Starmer defended the withholding of food, water, and fuel, despite it being a war crime as Israel laid siege, which he would have been fully aware considering previously being a human rights lawyer.

It was no coincidence that Hamas codenamed their breakout ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’, it was a deliberate attempt to send out a message and remind particularly the world’s Muslims of the attacks on Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, which is under direct threat from Israel with regular incursions from settlers. It is also no coincidence that the West refuses to even acknowledge this making no reference to it, while showing their complete contempt for Muslim suffering in Gaza by supplying material support and political cover for a genocide. The West has its sirens with an audience ready and willing to receive their songs of anti-Muslim hate. Figures like Yaxley-Lennon, Farage, and Fox constantly preach their poison from their pulpits. There are others across Europe such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the AfD in Germany, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and individuals like Trump, Pamela Geller, Robert B. Spencer, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali across the Atlantic in the US. Not only do they all have a rabid hatred for Muslims, but also a common like for Israel. Much of the intensification of recent anti-Muslim rhetoric is to counter the pro-Palestine movement and demonstrations in support for the Gazans facing up to systematic murder. This is evidenced with constant accusations of anti-semitic ‘hate marches’ and the ‘two tier’ policing of demonstrations despite the Stop the War demonstrations being totally peaceful.

Who funds Robinson and the far right?

Funding for these individuals has been well documented by Professor David Miller and the British rapper and activist Lowkey, with connections documented between Zionism and the far right made by the Jewish anti-Zionist and a founding member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Tony Greenstein. There is a flow of money across the Atlantic from wealthy Zionists to amplify Israel’s policy objectives towards the Palestinians wrapping it up with immigration and Islamophobia. Wealthy benefactors such as Robert Shillman, Robert Mercer, and Nina Rosenwald, fund various projects such as the Shillman Foundation, the David Horowitz Freedom Centre, The Rebel Media, Stop Islamization of America, and Project Veritas. The now-bankrupt ‘Tommy Robinson’ had received funding from the Rebel Media, where Robert Shillman reportedly financed a fellowship that paid for a position for him in 2017. Daniel Pipes and the Middle East Forum bankrolled a demonstration to ‘Free Tommy’ in London in 2018 as well as provide funding for his legal defence after being sentenced to 13 months in jail when he was found guilty of being in contempt of court. Evidence to support these claims and how the Zionist lobby operate are here:

Lowkey EXPOSES Tommy Robinson’s Links to Israel (youtube.com)

Palestine Talks | British rapper and activist Lowkey unravels the UK’s Israel lobby (youtube.com)

Palestine Talks | Professor David Miller reveals how Zionist lobbies fuel Islamophobia (youtube.com)

Confronting racists

Racism is tied up in capitalism, an integral part of dividing of the working class to undermine solidarity in the workplace. Ultimately to justify the expansion of capital, the seeking of profits, and its imperialist forays abroad. It is capitalist competition that is the cause of the decay in living standards and the attacks on the workplace, filtering down into competition between workers, creating racialised competition. Therefore, to be a true anti-racist or anti-fascist one has to be a revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. Angela Davis, Fred Hampton, and Malcolm X all understood this. The problem with anti-racist or ‘race awareness’ programmes within the workplace or bourgeois parliamentary politics is that they attempt to channel this ‘anti-racism’ into support for capitalist ‘parliamentary democracy’ – capitalism being the cause of racism in the first place. It is another tactic of reformism. Starmer has attempted to take the credit for the fizzling out of the race riots by way of arrests. Thatcher also attempted to take credit for defeating the National Front after adopting racist rhetoric when in January 1978, as leader of the then Tory opposition, she gave a television interview on the World in Action programme when she said “People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people with a different culture.” Farage when defending himself against accusations of inflaming tensions ahead of the riots, claimed to be attacking the far right. Jason Cowley, the editor in chief of the New Statesman, claims that Farage said to him “No one did more to beat the far right in this country than me. If I wasn’t here, somebody with a bit more brain than Nick Griffin would emerge.”

This adoption of right-wing politics and rhetoric when moments of crisis rear their ugly head is exactly why no one should be under any illusion in liberal politicians, parliamentary democracy, and the police to tackle fascism. The defeat of fascists and racists has always come from counter movements organising and directly confronting them on the street. This is borne out in practice; Cable Street in 1936, Lewisham 1977, and Southall in 1979, when fascist marches were met with organised counter protests consisting of large numbers of counter-demonstrators to protect the communities being targeted. After the initial riot in Southport and the following few days, racists organised the targeting of refugee support services, charities, and immigration solicitors. Lists were published online. Large numbers of anti-racist counter demonstrators and anti-fascists organised themselves to protect those communities. Brighton, Bristol, and Walthamstow in East London had turnouts of 10,000 or more, which demoralised the rioters, who in the end were being protected by the police. The police have historically protected far right marches on the street and given that the UK police have been found to be institutionally racist as outlined in the Macpherson Inquiry, it is hardly surprising that the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities have a deep distrust of the police, who have often been on the receiving end of ‘over-policing’ and ‘under-protection’. The only defence that communities have from the far right is through establishing workers’ defence guards and protecting themselves. Ultimately it will be the dismantling of capitalism through socialist revolution that completely removes the scourge of racism.