With media sources blaming “anarchy” for the unfolding violence in London and across England, the North London Solidarity Federation felt a response from an anarchist organisation active in the capital would be appropriate.
Over the last few days, riots have caused significant damage to parts of London, to shop-fronts, homes and cars. On the left, we hear the ever-present cry that poverty has caused this. On the right, that gangsters and anti-social elements are taking advantage of tragedy. Both are true. The looting and riots seen over the past number of days are a complex phenomenon and contain many currents.
It is no accident that the riots are happening now, as the support nets for Britain's disenfranchised are dragged away and people are left to fall into the abyss, beaten as they fall by the batons of the Metropolitan Police. But there should be no excuses for the burning of homes, the terrorising of working people. Whoever did such things has no cause for support.
The fury of the estates is what it is, ugly and uncontrolled. But not unpredictable. Britain has hidden away its social problems for decades, corralled them with a brutal picket of armed men. Growing up in the estates often means never leaving them, unless it's in the back of a police van. In the 1980s, these same problems led to Toxteth. In the '90s, contributed to the Poll Tax riots. And now we have them again - because the problems are not only still there, they're getting worse.
Police harassment and brutality are part of everyday life in estates all around the UK. Barely-liveable benefits systems have decayed and been withdrawn. In Hackney, the street-level support workers who came from the estates and knew the kids, could work with them in their troubles have been told they will no longer be paid. Rent is rising and state-sponsored jobs which used to bring money into the area are being cut back in the name of a shift to unpaid "big society" roles. People who always had very little now have nothing. Nothing to lose.
And the media's own role in all of this should not be discounted. For all the talk of the “peaceful protest” that preceded events in Tottenham, the media wouldn't have touched the story if all that happened was a vigil outside a police station. Police violence and protests against it happen all the time. It's only when the other side responds with violence (on legitimate targets or not) that the media feels the need to give it any sort of coverage.
So there should be no shock that people living lives of poverty and violence have at last gone to war. It should be no shock that people are looting plasma screen TVs that will pay for a couple of months' rent and leaving books they can't sell on the shelves. For many, this is the only form of economic redistribution they will see in the coming years as they continue a fruitless search for jobs.
Much has been made of the fact that the rioters were attacking “their own communities.” But riots don't occur within a social vacuum. Riots in the eighties tended to be directed in a more targeted way; avoiding innocents and focusing on targets more representative of class and race oppression: police, police stations, and shops. What's happened since the eighties? Consecutive governments have gone to great lengths to destroy any sort of notion of working class solidarity and identity. Is it any surprise, then, that these rioters turn on other members of our class?
The Solidarity Federation is based in resistance through workplace struggle. We are not involved in the looting and unlike the knee-jerk right or even the sympathetic-but-condemnatory commentators from the left, we will not condemn or condone those we don't know for taking back some of the wealth they have been denied all their lives.
But as revolutionaries, we cannot condone attacks on working people, on the innocent. Burning out shops with homes above them, people's transport to work, muggings and the like are an attack on our own and should be resisted as strongly as any other measure from government "austerity" politics, to price-gouging landlords, to bosses intent on stealing our labour. Tonight and for as long as it takes, people should band together to defend themselves when such violence threatens homes and communities.
We believe that the legitimate anger of the rioters can be far more powerful if it is directed in a collective, democratic way and seeks not to victimise other workers, but to create a world free of the exploitation and inequality inherent to capitalism.
North London Solidarity Federation
Comments
i totally agree with your
Excellent statement, and one
good piece. Going to put it
I feel that the statement is
Solidarity from Greece! Lets
This is not Anarchy. This has
Anarchy has nothing to do with removing state oppression of the working class with mob rule. This is not propaganda by deed, it is just violence for the sake of violence.
The TSG don't seem to hold back when beating the crap out of political protestors, and yet seem reticent when dealing with the current riots. The cynical amongst us might think this is being allowed to play out as a pretext for more repressive laws to come, which real anarchists and other political activists will be the main focus for.
i am one of the cynical among
Cause the same kind of riots
Apologies, I know it's not
We have seen riots in
Great statement!
I think the response-
This creates- among other things- for us as anarchists a major problem, does it not? Orderly anarchy- what we mean (unlike the mass media) when we say anarchy- must be nurtured, it must be built. It requires community, it require solidarity, it requires all of the things destroyed by the atomized, dislocated society that state and capital have worked to bring about (intentionally and unintentionally). We are seeing all sorts of reactions- from the Tea Party here in America to riots in London to various sorts of uprisings in the Middle East. We shouldn't kid ourselves about the deep potential of these movements- there is so much deep dislocation, so much destruction at the systemic level. A prolonged reaction that ends in fascism or something similar is just as likely as any thing of a more libertarian/socialistic end. At least that's my take, which is perhaps overly pessimistic. I hope so.
Spot on! I perceive that all
You can find below your text
thanks!
thanks!
The best analysis and most
The "massive, pervasive
Better analysis and statement
Until the unemployment, the
Great post From North London
Is there a democratic way of
Perhaps the term 'democratic'
Perhaps the term 'democratic' was the wrong one to use in this statement. To anarchists, the only true form of democracy is direct democracy (mass meetings, federal, delegatory structures) not the "democracy" practiced by the bourgeois state. While most of us in SF wouldn't object to looting shops (and, in fact, view it as a part of the class activity of expropriation), we believe the anger of the rioters (very real and very justified) would be far more useful when directed specifically against the agents and institutions of working class oppression--capitalism and the state, bosses, bureaucrats, and politicians.
Also, really, do you think the British state gives a toss about the civil rights of those in the Arab world? Is that before or after they bomb them, kill them, and torture them? Or is it only after they then allow Western corporations to take control of Middle Eastern oil?
There is a German translation
Hello companions It is
A dangerous piece! This
with respect... there is no
It is being addressed
We disrespect no-one except
We disrespect no-one except those who attack the working class. That includes gangsters who hurt other working class people, and it includes the rich, who have been coming up with more and more inventive ways to snatch wealth from the very poorest for over 30 years now with no-one complaining in the slightest. You want sympathy for the likes of Tescos you won't find any more here than we have for the meanest piece of shit on the streets.
I live in Hackney and from what I saw, there were ordinary decent people out there looting after the thugs had been in and that didn't surprise me - I wonder, you ever spent a day hungry in your life? Political dialogue requires understanding. Maybe you should try it before you cast your wisdom down from your high horse.
Kid owning Boris -
Make that guy the PM!! In his
Some of the comments here
Comrades, thanks for this
Cameroon announces new Police
FIT will be polishing their zoom lenses tonight.
As it happens, I am opening a
As I would not recommend
As the upper still needs the
Excellent article full of
Total solidarity from
Who's job is it to uphold
Who's job is it to uphold working class solidarity?
They do. But it is not the job of any government to preserve working class solidarity. This is our job, the job of the working class in general and of working class activists in particular. The question is therefore: Why haven't we been able to preserve solidarity? Could we have done something or was it inevitable? What can we do now?
Hi I used to be involved
Ant, please try to keep
Ant, please try to keep comments relevant to the original post.
OK, but I linked to the ICT
In
In French:
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La Position de la North London Solfed à Propos des Emeutes de Londres.
Alors que dans les médias les dénonciations volent à tous vents, accusant «d'anarchie» les violentes émeutes qui se sont déroulées à Londres et à travers l'Angleterre, la North London Solidarity Federation (Fédération de Solidarité de Londres-Nord), en tant qu’organisation anarchiste active dans la capitale, a cru approprié de formuler une réponse.
Au cours des derniers jours, des émeutes ont causé des dommages importants dans plusieurs quartiers de Londres. Des devantures de magasins, des maisons et des véhicules ont été incendiés. La gauche, comme à l’habitude, désigne la pauvreté comme cause principale des émeutes. La droite insiste que les gangsters et les éléments antisociaux profitent de la tragédie. Tous deux ont raison. Les pillages et les émeutes des derniers jours sont un phénomène complexe et accusent de nombreuses dimensions.
Ce n'est pas un hasard si ces émeutes se produisent maintenant: au moment où le gouvernement démantèle les filets de sécurité de l’Etat providence dédiés aux plus démunis, les laissant tomber dans l'abîme, sous les coups de matraques de la police métropolitaine. Mais cela n’excuse ni la mise à feux de maisons, ni la victimisation de membres des classes populaires. Ceux qui commettent de tels actes n’ont aucune cause pour les soutenir.
La fureur des cités est ce qu'elle est -- hideuse et sauvage -- mais elle n’était d’aucune manière imprévisible. Le Royaume-Uni dissimule ses problèmes sociaux depuis des décennies, les contenant derrière un rideau de fer policier. Le plus souvent, grandir dans une cité veut dire ne jamais la quitter, sauf à l'arrière d'un fourgon de police. Dans les années 1980, ces mêmes problèmes sociaux ont mené aux émeutes de Toxteth. Dans les années 90, ils ont contribué aux émeutes anti-Poll Tax (impôt local par tête). Aujourd’hui, ces mêmes problèmes sont non-seulement toujours avec nous, ils s'aggravent, et les émeutes sont de retour.
Le harcèlement et la brutalité de la police sont le pain quotidien des jeunes des cités partout en Grande-Bretagne. Le gouvernement actuel s’acharne à éroder et retrancher un système d’aides aux plus démunis qui déjà leur permettait à peine de survivre. Dans le quartier de Hackney, les travailleurs sociaux, qui pour beaucoup avaient eux-mêmes grandi et vécu dans les cités, étaient ainsi munis d’une connaissance intime du terrain, et étaient donc les plus à mêmes d’adresser les problèmes de leurs jeunes protégés, ont été informés qu'ils ne seront plus payés. Les loyers augmentent, et les emplois fournis par l'État qui écoulaient de l'argent dans ces zone économiquement délaissées ont été réduits au nom d'une transition à un programme dit de "Grande Société" (“Big Society”) basé sur le bénévolat privé. Les habitants de ces quartiers, déjà très démunis, n’ont aujourd'hui plus rien. Et ils n’ont plus rien à perdre.
Le rôle des médias dans cette affaire ne doit pas pour autant être écarté. Malgré toutes les références à la "manifestation pacifique" qui a précédé les événements de Tottenham, les médias auraient sans doute à peine touché cette histoire si les évènements s’étaient restreints à une simple veillée devant un poste de police. La violence policière et les protestations contre celle-ci sont lieu commun. C'est seulement quand l'autre côté répond par la violence (sur des cibles légitimes ou non) que les médias se sentent obligés de donner à ces affaires toute leur attention.
C’est donc sans surprise que des populations condamnées depuis des décennies à vivre dans des abîmes de pauvreté et de violence déclarent enfin la guerre à la société toute entière. C’est sans surprise que des gens s’adonnent au pillage de téléviseurs à écran plasma et autres biens à haute valeur ajoutée -- biens qui leur permettront de payer plusieurs mois de loyer -- et ignorent les livres non-monnayables assis sur les étagères des grandes librairies commerciales. C’est la seule forme de redistribution économique que beaucoup d’entre eux verront pour des années à venir, pendant qu’ils continuent leurs vaines recherches d’emploi.
Beaucoup d’attention à été portée sur le fait que les émeutiers ont attaqué "leurs propres communautés." Mais une émeute ne se produit pas dans un vide social. Les émeutes des années quatre-vingt avaient tendance à être plus ciblées -- de manière générale, les émeutiers évitaient de s’attaquer à des innocents, se concentrant sur des objectifs plus représentatifs de l'oppression raciale et de classe: la police, les commissariats de police, et les grands commerces. Qu'est-ce qui a changé depuis cette période? Les gouvernements successifs ont fait de grands efforts pour détruire toute notion de solidarité entre travailleurs, et toute notion de solidarité de classe et d'identité. Est-il donc surprenant que ces émeutiers, à leur tour, s’attaquent aux autres membres de notre classe?
Le travail de la Solidarity Federation se fonde sur la résistance contre le Capital et l’Etat sur le terrain du travail. Nous ne sommes aucunement impliqués dans ces émeutes et actes pillages, et contrairement aux jugements-réflexes de la droite, ou même à ceux des commentateurs sympathiques-mais-condamnateurs de la gauche, nous refusons tout autant de condamner que d’excuser ceux qui n’en savent pas mieux pour s’être approprié d’une partie des richesses dont ils ont été privés toute leur vie.
Mais en tant que révolutionnaires, nous ne pouvons d’aucune manière soutenir des attaques contre les travailleurs et les innocents. La mise à feux de magasins en rez-de-chaussée d’appartements résidentiels; le saccage de moyens de transports en commun employés principalement par les classes populaires; les agressions sur personnes et autres formes d’injustices, sont tous des atteintes contre les membres de notre propre classe et doivent être combattus avec autant d'énergie que nous investissons dans notre résistance contre les politiques «d'austérité» du gouvernement, contre les loyers abusifs imposés par les propriétaires, et contre les patrons qui nous exploitent. Ce soir et aussi longtemps qu'il le faudra, les gens doivent s'unir pour se défendre quand de telles violences menacent leurs maisons et leurs communautés.
Nous somme convaincus que la légitime colère des émeutiers serait beaucoup plus puissante si elle était dirigée collectivement et démocratiquement, de manière non-seulement à éviter la victimisation des classes laborieuses, mais aussi dans l’objectif de créer un monde libre de l'exploitation et des inégalités inhérentes au capitalisme.
North London Solidarity Federation, Fédération de Solidarité de Londres-Nord.
I was present on Tottenham
I was present on Tottenham High Road on 6th August. I cannot comment on the riots that followed, but what I witnessed was not people looting for fun, but an explosion of anger, initially directed at the police and the police station, and then at property. When the first property was set on fire (interestingly a firm of criminal solicitors), I was immediately concerned about residential property above. A well known anarchist (who may not want to be named), risked his life to check whether anyone was trapped. This first riot had been brewing for some time, and has to be seen in the light of great anger about the death of young black men in police custody, culminating in the death of Mark Duggan, the alienation of the local youth with the police, mass unemployment in Haringey, especially amongst young people, and the closure of 70% of Haringey's youth services. Also I have to say that the anger in Tottenham has not abated. At a recent meeting between the police and local residents there was an atmosphere that the Police Federation described as "hatred" against the police. Tottenham could explode again at any time.
interesting comment, thanks
interesting comment, thanks