The Metropolis

Talk of ‘rioters attacking their own communities’ misses the point

Josh Hall | Tuesday 9 August, 2011 12:18

Hackney before any riots. Neil Clifton photo

I spent most of yesterday in Hackney, at the centre of the worst violence I have ever witnessed. I don’t want to romanticise what I saw. I eventually managed to leave after having been pursued down a road by 30 teenagers, masked up, on bikes. It wasn’t pleasant.

Inevitably, and entirely unsurprisingly, the political class has chosen to focus in minute detail on the horrors of the last few days, while refusing to address the causes of the simmering, potentially lethal anger that has been ignited. This is what our politicians do; it is all they are capable of. But now, more than ever, it is patently clear that this is dangerously insufficient.

Some brief thoughts on yesterday.

1. This isn’t just about a new pair of trainers
Anyone proffering an explanation that ends with “It’s as simple as that” or some other such reductionist formulation should not be trusted. It isn’t as simple as that, whatever ‘that’ is.

More than 12 per cent of economically active people in Hackney South are unemployed. The total number out of work is likely much higher. At the same time, groups of young men find themselves stuck in sprawling yet claustrophobic estates, out of sight but often right next to areas of extreme wealth.

We have managed to build a society that has a Prime Minister in a Tuscan Villa and families that can’t feed their kids. This is not a cheap shot: it is as stark an illustration as one can imagine of the extraordinary disparities in wealth, opportunities, and day-to-day realities that exist in this country.

We have also built a society that relies on an increasingly militarised police force to keep down dissent, and which has allowed that police force to systematically harass and mistreat minority groups with impunity. Yet still people are calling for more money, more firepower, more freedom for the police. If your argument hinges on the implied necessity of force to keep poor people down, you need to think again.

2. Talk of ‘attacking their own communities’ misses the point
I have lost count of the number of people I have heard exclaiming, in open-mouthed wonder, that “these people” are “destroying their own communities.”

This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of social relations in London and across the country. Many of the individuals who are committing these “mindless” acts of violence have no stake in the communities in which they live. We should be asking why they feel so disconnected from their environment, and how we have come to live in such a dangerously fractured society.

3. Trying to understand is not the same as condoning
Last night I was briefly on 5 Live, talking about what I had seen in Hackney. When I was asked how the riots made me feel, I explained that I wanted to understand what it is that makes people do these things; to understand the chain of events and web of circumstances that have generated this anger. In response, the presenter asked me, “Surely you’re not condoning what happened?”

The longer we perpetuate this fallacious binary choice between good poor people and bad poor people, between those who put up and shut up and those who lob bricks at police vans, the smaller our chances of preventing this happening again become. It is in the government’s interest to pretend that the issue here is the riots. It is not. The issue is the appalling way in which our society, and capitalism generally, has treated such vast yet hidden swathes of the population.

4. This might not have been political – but it has its roots in politics
The rioters weren’t carrying placards bemoaning the scrapping of EMA, or successive governments’ inaction on poverty, or the systemic discrimination that they suffer. But this does not mean that the events we have seen in the last three days do not have politics – or, more accurately, the failure of politics – at their heart. Just as importantly, we must believe in the ability of politics (and that doesn’t just mean Parliament) to solve these problems. Politics is everywhere, and in everything. We must recognise that these events have causes and antecedents, and that we can prevent them happening again through cooperation and thoughtful engagement.

5. This isn’t the end
It seems all but certain that there will be further violence tonight, despite the presence of extra police on the streets. But this will not end with the putting down of riots. It will not end until we are prepared, as a country, to consider what we have done to get to this point. This will require an engaged, inquisitive population – and a mature, adult political class. I fear we lack the latter.

@JoshAJHall

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