London Riots: a cry of despair?

DIANE ABBOTT

Sunday, August 14, 2011

WHEN I saw buildings on fire in neighbouring Tottenham and rioters on the street late last Saturday evening, I knew that it was only a matter of time before the disorder spread to Hackney. Tottenham is less than a mile from my home in Hackney. The two communities have the same ethnic mix, the same poverty lines and the same history of poor relationships between the community and the police. Less than 48 hours later Hackney youths were looting shops in broad daylight.

Jamaica has seen riots in the past. They are also often a feature of politics in Africa and the Caribbean. However, Britain has seen nothing like the riots that occurred in the last week. They were more widespread and involved more communities than any before. In a matter of days they had spread from inner-city communities in Hackney and Tottenham in London to as far afield as Manchester.

Some people have argued that they were very different from the riots in the 1980s in Tottenham, Brixton and Toxteth, but I would argue that the similarities outweigh the differences. Similar to those in the eighties, the background to the riots was a poisoned relationship between the community and the police, and the spark that lit raging riots was the fact that the community believed a black person had died at the hands of the police. Other similarities include: the riots spread from the black community to the wider white community where youths had similar grievances; all types of hooligans and criminal elements got involved; and political elites resolutely refuse to believe that there are any underlying political issues at all.

The rioters are universally condemned as criminals. It is true that most of them were thieves, opportunists and "recreational" looters. However, just because the individuals involved did not have political motives that they could articulate does not mean that political issues do not underlie the disorder.

It is too simplistic to argue that government cuts caused the riots. Cuts do not turn you into a thief. But government policies have been very disillusioning for the youth. Educational allowances, that many of them relied on to stay in school, are being scrapped. University fees have been tripled, effectively putting higher education out of the reach of the youth. These policies have been a slap in the face for aspiring young people in the inner city. The government is planning big cuts in government, but the majority of people who work in communities like Hackney, work for the government. These are communities without hope, and young people are becoming more bitterly alienated than ever. And, as I pointed out in Parliament this week, we are looking at the third generation of black boys who have been failed by the British educational system.

The most pressing need is for the government to regain control of the streets. When the current crisis is over, we all need to try to understand what the dispossessed of the inner city were trying to tell us.