Riots in UK -No Surprise!

It is truly astounding and really ridiculous the way the popular media and politicians portray the riots in UK as a surprise and an abberation in social behaviour. We might ask "what did you expect?" This is really astounding and I suspect deliberately crafted this way. Surely no one should be taken by surprise as if these events erupted out of nowhere!

Outrage and fear on the part of the privileged elite we surely can expect - but surprise -I don't understand or believe that at all - not for a moment. Riots like these are ineviteable . When you turn the heat up on a pot of water you cannot be surprised when it it erupts from a simmer to a disquieting boil.

When thousands of youth who feel they have no place in their society, no future , no chance of getting a good education , of finding a good job, finally get to a place where they see that they are being robbed blind - why the surprise when their justified anger turns outward? After decades of collective abuse and degradation, decades of economic and political disenfranchisement – years of being beaten down, violent racism and oppression and seeing that the small crumbs that the rich and privileged have thrown down are about to be swept away – what can we expect in the vacuum that exists in this society.

What choices are left for these young people? Should they just bow their heads and whimper, take more abuse It is hard to imagine the depression and anger they feel. But if we take away the anger what is left – just passive, deep despair and depression- immobility and collective paralysis.
We counsel individual victims of abuse to reframe their experience, to develop an understanding that they really are victims, that they are not the cause of their own abuse and pain and misery. We teach them to point their fingers at their abusers and refuse to continue to be crippled and passive, to just lie down and die a psychological and emotional and sometimes physical slow death. We encourage and support them in their painful struggle to learn to see themselves as persons of worth who do not deserve the beatings and deprivations- and we help them generalize their experiences- to understand that there are systemic reasons they are treated this way. We help them and ourselves along the way to see that they are not just victims of fate, constantly thwarted like characters in a Greek tragedy no matter what they do.

It is clear that the purveyors of this misery, the greedy profit seeking, stinking rich global capitalists and their life sucking lackeys in government would like nothing more than compliance and submission on the part of the poor , the youth and working people. First they mess up and create a crisis in their own economic system, demand to be bailed out with public money- money that belongs to us, make trillions in the process, refuse to invest back into the real economy and when that does not work – turn again to thievery and rob working and poor people of our public services and infrastructure. Our jobs, our pensions, our dole, our housing, our health care, our education, our libraries and community and youth services. What a perfect little storm for these greedy profiteers.

IMO there is nothing innately “criminal” about rioting and looting. After all for decades the poor, the young and working people have had their jobs, pensions, public services and entitlements, their assets both private and public plundered. Looking on the history of imperialism and the horrors of colonialism the rich elite have killed, maimed and starved millions upon millions of poor and working people through the “normal “ workings of capitalism and imperialism , including wars. We must be very clear about this, about who the thieves and plunderers and killers really are.

Any form of moral and self righteous criminalizing of chronically disenfranchised youth and poor people who riot is just plain incorrect. Once again – how do we criticize the inevitable result of a huge vacuum in society? Of course we must turn our rage and our anger and resistance against the capitalist system – point directly to cause of our oppression, exploitation, pain and misery. But again this is like blaming a mad dog for being a mad dog and being surprised and shocked when it bites. It is what it is- and cannot be permanently changed through rioting.

History and events are a process of struggle and conflict between social classes as classes. It is the relationship of these economic and political forces that will determine events. Clearly the imbalance between the organizations of the working class, the trade unions and the political parties that represent and fight for ordinary working and poor people has created the political vacuum that leads to confusion and feelings of powerlessness and alienation. This is what we are seeing in the streets of London now.
Who can these angry youth turn to? Where can they find the leadership that will articulate and embody their justified rage in organized struggle? Surely the trigger, the catalyst for the deep social unrest was the killing of a yet one more black man. But this state sanctioned racist violence happens routinely not only in the UK but in Canada, Europe and the US as well. Where have the so called organizations of the working class been for years, why have the trade union leaderships not seriously mobilized their activists in turn to educate and mobilize our memberships to insist and demand investigations these racially motivated state sanctioned murders? And why do these same leaders not demand and build organized resistance in the workplaces and in the streets with allies in communities to follow up when our demands are not met –when these murders and other racially motivated “crimes” inevitably happen. Where are the political organizations built by and supposed to represent working and poor people?

So again we have to ask why is everyone surprised and shocked. I think we know who the real ‘criminals” are. There is more than one way to be an exploiter /oppressor .Oppressing and beating down poor and working people is part of the process of a system based solely on profit for a few. This is a fact. But should we not also be pointing our fingers at our own so called representatives in our own organizations, our unions and our so called political representatives – our so-called political parties of working and poor people –who long ago sold us out?

Certainly these issues are complex. And I will admit that this blog is probably more my individual expression as a worker, activist and trade unionist of anger and frustration at what is nothing more than an appalling and dangerous response on the part of most of the mainstream media and politicians – deliberately refuse to accept responsibility for these riots and protests and like the devils that they are dare to call these youth who are victims of their system and their draconian hope and life destroying policies “criminals.”