Reason for Dissent (Artwork)
UK Carnage. The Why. By Universal Dissent
Do these riots have anything to do with broader social and economic problems in Britain? Are they perhaps connected with a high rate of unemployment among young people? Could they perhaps be related to the vicious cuts imposed by the Con-Lib-Dem government, which are causing a sharp reduction in living standards and which fall disproportionately on the shoulders of the poorest layers of society? What about the racist stop and search operations of the police targeting Black and Asian youth?
The political leaders are unanimous. This is “sheer criminality” and the perpetrators must feel the full weight of the Law. Here we have the police mentality in its crudest and most ignorant expression. The idea that thousands of youth could take to the streets and attack the police just because they wanted a new pair of trainers is the height of stupidity. And if they were all criminals, they must have been criminals before. Why did the riots only occur now and not two, five or ten years ago?
Let us put the question very simply, so that even a Tory Home Secretary could understand it. If a young person has a job that is reasonably paid, he has no need to break into a shop in order to obtain a new pair of trainers. That is the reason why very few bankers are convicted of shoplifting.
The bankers have no reason to break into a shop and steal money from the till because they have their fingers in a far bigger till – the National Exchequer, which has shovelled billions of pounds of public money into their coffers, while informing poor communities that there is no money for schools and housing.
Our society is a sick society, and it breeds a moral sickness that is the poisoned soil on which crime of all sorts flourishes. There are the big criminals who prosper and grow fat and rich and who end up in the House of Lords, and there are the small criminals who live in slums, who try to better their lot by individualistic actions, and who end up as guests of Her Britannic Majesty in rather less comfortable surroundings.
Solon the Great of Athens once said: “The Law is like a spider’s web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up.”The media fulminates against the rioters who are allegedly motivated by an insatiable greed for a pair of new trainers. But wait a moment. Is there not some flaw in this logic? If a poor black kid wrecks a shop in Brixton, he is sent to prison. But if the bankers wreck the nation’s economy, they are rewarded with billions of pounds.
The political class fulminates against greed and criminality on the streets of Britain. But what right do our politicians have to give lectures on moral rectitude to the young people of Britain or anyone else? These are the same people who were exposed not so long ago for lying, cheating and swindling. They stole large amounts of public money to refurbish luxury flats, pay for non-existent premises and even repair moats around castles. What is this, if it is not greed and criminality?
And the same prostitute press that is now howling and baying for the blood of the “criminal” youth of Britain? Is it not that self same press that is now on trial for hacking the mobile phones of murdered teenage girls, of bribing police officers, and of suborning and blackmailing the holders of the Highest Office in the Land. Compared to the greed and criminality of the press gang, the average rioter in Hackney and Lambeth is like an innocent little lamb.
Do we condone rioting, looting and vandalism? No, of course we do not. We do not condone cancer, either. But as everybody knows, it is not enough to condemn cancer. It is necessary to discover its causes and find a cure.
We reject rioting and looting utterly. But our rejection has nothing in common with the stinking hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. We reject them because they are a pointless and destructive exercise that does nothing to solve the problems of young people and actually make them worse. How does the wrecking and burning of shops and businesses help provide more jobs for young people?
We reject them also because the main victims of the riots are poor people, like the rioters themselves. The shops and businesses that are looted and torched are mainly small concerns run by local people. The rich do not live in Brixton and Hackney.
The real criminals are not threatened by the breakdown of law and order, which they observe from a safe distance, well protected by the police who were conspicuous by their absence last night in the poorer areas of London. It is poor families who have lost their homes and possessions because of the mindless madness of the arsonists. And that is certainly a crime.
Most of all we reject these methods because they provide the ruling class with powerful ammunition for their propaganda machine. They help to blacken the name of all who are fighting for a new and better world. They enable the poisonous media to criminalise the youth of Britain, making them collectively responsible for the stupidity of a mindless minority and a small number of actual criminals who always take advantage of any social disturbance to loot and burn.
Already the reactionaries are taking advantage of the situation to press for more repressive measures. Prime Minister David Cameron held a press conference this morning in which he promised that those responsible would receive “the full force of the law” and that the “courts would be speeded up” to send many of them to prison. Sky News is running a vicious campaign demanding that the police be allowed to use tear gas and rubber bullets, that the Army should be brought out on the streets.
Rioting is actually an expression of impotent rage. For a few nights the rioters are filled with false sense of power. They become intoxicated, not just with the effects of stolen booze, but with that rush of adrenaline that always accompanies mass action. The kids think it is fun: “this is better than a football match”, they will say. It is certainly a lot cheaper.
But like the after effects of a drunken binge, the fumes of exhilaration soon wear off. The state’s apparatus of repression, which has momentarily been thrown off balance, will recover its poise. Plans will be laid to retake the city, area by area, street by street, house by house. Arrests will be made. Trials will be held, and many of those youngsters who seemed to be masters of the streets last night will be made to pay a heavy price for it.
The capitalist crisis has already produced mass demonstrations, strikes and general strikes in one country after another. It was the real cause of the Arab Revolution, which led to the downfall of two dictators and is still raging. In Greece and Spain it has brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. Even Israel has been rocked by mass demonstrations.
The riots in Britain must be seen as part of this general picture. They took the establishment by surprise. But in fact they were entirely predictable. The dead end of capitalism has condemned whole layers of youth to the living death of unemployment. Millions live in slums and inadequate social housing, while millions of homes stand empty or under-occupied. Social housing is not being built, but only the rich can afford to buy even the most modest house in London.
Beneath the surface of calm and order, a seething anger was building up in the depths of British society. For decades society was content to close its eyes to the ugly reality of what are really ghettoes where the poor fester in ever deeper poverty and debt, and where drugs and guns are more easily available than decent health treatment, education or leisure facilities.
There is plenty of money for the parasites in the City of London, where the bankers award themselves lavish bonuses paid for out of public funds. But there is no money to provide even the conditions of a semi-civilized existence for the people of Brixton.
The riots in Britain are only a symptom of the general crisis of capitalism. The crisis is deepening all the time, and the bourgeoisie has no way out. Every attempt to restore the economic equilibrium only serves to undermine the social and political equilibrium. That will not be solved by speeding up the action of the courts and filling the already crowded prisons.
New explosions are being prepared. Tomorrow there will be new upheavals. The youth is trying to find a way out of the blind alley to which capitalism has condemned it. They will soon find that rioting is just another blind alley. They must find a better and surer way of freeing themselves from capitalist slavery.We will follow the sound advice of Spinoza: “Neither weep nor laugh, but understand.” Our duty is to find a road to the youth, to help them to find the right road.
By Universal Dissent. A Facebook Society/Culture Page.
Other Links
The Bloodshed of Ascension. Human Rights. Love. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/07/bloodshed-of-ascension-human-rights.html
The Business of Money and Claiming One's Birthright. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/07/business-of-money-and-claiming-ones.html
For Good Men and Women To Do Nothing. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/08/for-good-men-and-women-to-do-nothing.html
Courage. The Joy of Living Dangerously. Osho
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/07/practical-wisdom-courage-osho.html
The New Dream. Heaven On Earth. Don Miguel Ruiz
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/06/toltec-book-of-wisdom-don-miguel-ruiz.html
Thoughts on God Pt l. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/08/god-pt-l-amera-ziganii-rao.html
The Way of The Warrior. Eric Montaigue
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/06/warriors-amera-ziganii-rao.html
Individuation. Becoming Soul and Passion as Compassion. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/05/film-plots-individuation-becoming-soul.html
Reputation. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/07/reputation-amera-ziganii-rao.html
Female Intelligence. The Final Chapter. Amera Ziganii Rao
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/06/female-intelligence-final-chapter-amera.html
Amera Ziganii Rao's Well Endowed Mind. Mikal Konali
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.com/2011/08/amera-ziganii-raos-well-endowed-mind.html