Far-right violence can’t be blamed on social media alone
From Canberra to New York City and across the globe, outbreaks of violence in UK cities have grabbed the attention of politicians and media commentators. How is it possible that a stabbing incident on Merseyside could spark riots in distant parts of the country? How can the horrific deaths of three innocent children, killed by a knife-wielding youth whose motives only he can know, provoke attacks on police the like of which the country has not seen in decades?
Much of the reporting has rightly described the trauma and anguish of the community in Southport who have seen three young lives cruelly extinguished, only to have their streets trashed by rock-throwing mobs. Dog-whistle politics brings more violence to a hurting community, as iPolitics put it.
However, we have read, watched and listened with grave concern as coverage by the BBC and other media has placed most of the blame on social media reports, exploited by far-right extremists suggesting, without evidence, that the Southport killer is an ‘illegal migrant’ and Muslim.
The baseline assumption appears to be that if this were true, it would be sufficient explanation for attacking a mosque in Southport and a centre for asylum seekers in Greater Manchester, for rioting in central London and for several hours of streets battles in Hartlepool town centre. Gatherings of large crowds, whipped up in many cases by fascist agitators, are described as “protests” by people understandably angry about the Southport deaths. Such an attitude is symptomatic of the way anti-Muslim sentiment has been rendered widely acceptable by comparison with other forms of racism, including antisemitism, in our social discourse, and of the populist anti-immigrant politics evident during the recent general election.
The people of Southport have led the way by coming together in all their diversity to grieve their loss and repair the damage caused by the anti-Muslim violence. On the national stage, however, pointing out how dangerous and divisive the mainstream narrative is has been left largely to committed antiracists commenting on social media, or forthright individuals such as Baroness Warsi, who told BBC Radio4 that rioters have used the Southport attack as a reason to ‘perpetuate hatred’ towards the Muslim community, and it’s ‘been a long time coming’ due to misrepresentation in the media.
Keir Starmer has rightly objected to the far-right mobilisations being called “protests”, but he has treated the outbreaks of violence as a law and order issue to be resolved by tough policing. By referring to people’s “understandable fear” he gives credence to the idea that there is a connection between so-called illegal immigration and violent crime.
Far-right street demonstrations such as the huge manifestation in Whitehall last Saturday (July 27), before the stabbings on Monday, do not arise out of thin air. Media, including the BBC, persist in platforming inflammatory figures such as Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage, normalising and empowering extreme racist views. “Common sense” opinions about “too many immigrants” destroying “our” culture and stealing jobs and houses meant for native Brits are rarely challenged.
We have just said farewell to a Conservative government which popularised attacks on asylum seekers, emboldening racism through pronouncements by prominent figures several of whom are in the running to lead their party following its election defeat. The Labour Party in opposition failed to stand up against “Stop the Boats” mania, taking a managerial approach which did nothing to challenge the divisive rhetoric scapegoating brown people for society’s ills.
Our question to Labour in government is, will they now face down the growing threat from the right by offering people real solutions to their daily struggles and offering genuine hope to members of the grieving community in Southport?
Starmer courted racism – never calling out racists, wrapping himself uncritically in the flag, promoting xenophobia and nationalism, junking Ford, failing to address Labour’s hierarchy of racism, taking no action against the racism directed against Black MPs, actually directing attacks against Black and minority socialists, rigging selections, blocking, suspending and expelling active anti-racists, depoliticising the Party, promoting his own racist candidates, and ignoring racism whenever he was presented with evidence …. he was warmed repeatedly that his relentless attacks on the Left would empower and embolden the Right – while Starmer was withdrawing resources from Labour’s black in Clacton – and telling him to campaign in the Midlands – he was pouring money into Islington to defeat Corbyn
The ‘blame the immigants’ frenzy has been brewing for decades. It was first utilised by the Tories prior to every general election after the war in an attempt to create a problem which they said they could solve. Since then it has escalated and been exploited by prominent racists to whip up support from thugs and ‘low information voters’ as they are known in the USA. Politicians such as Farage used this whipped up racism to drive his right wing Brexit campaign, to the detriment of Britain and those who could least benefit from it.
I note all these Right Wing protests are timed to coincide with the massive Stop Genocide marches in the UK on Saturday.. The stabbing of those tiny innocent children is heinous but the speed at which These right wing protests were organised rather suggests they were already being organised but they now have an excuse..
Yes ‘stop the boats’ by making so many countries uninhabitable and by stoping destruction of country after country in the illegal and injust wars UK always takes the leading role in.
I hope that the pushback against Fascists and their political enablers in Parliament, builds momentum
Labour has been whipping up Islamophobia with its claim after the election that in previously strong Labour seats which Independents took or nearly won, there was a campaign of abuse against their candidates. There was no evidence that this was true. This is part of the ‘blame the Muslim’ narrative. Starmer is a disgrace, allowing these attacks on Muslims to happen.
Sadly, the Muslim Collective Guilt Narrative can be tracked right the way back to the racism that Blair & Brown’s New Labour used to justify its wars on predominantly Muslim Homelands.
Muslims are presumed to be homogenously people-of-colour. Try taking Blair & Brown’s ‘Radical Islam’, ‘Militant Islam’ rhetoric and applying the same language to Jews and Judaism, who are presumed to be white in our media narratives. The issue of anti-Semitism would soon be raised to object to this same collective guilt narrative, when applied to a ‘white ethnic group’. Yet Muslims have had to put up with this for decades and even domestically it has resulted in copycat violence and even deaths.
The same media that have portrayed Muslims universally as fanatics refuse to rightly identify Blair & Brown’s New Labour’s as the source of this racism.
Western Imperialism had long been defined as racism. Blair & Brown’s racist scapegoating was a cynical attempt to sidestep this critique. And look where it has brought us.
Labour both promotes Islamophobia to help justify its imperialist wars, but then claims it can fight fascism, which it never includes itself a part of, if we vote for them, usually done from one of its front organizations like HNH.
In this current moment, Labour is hoping to frighten the Muslim working class, many of whom have been very pro Palestine, into supporting Labour and staying silent about Gaza, bringing in some repressive laws, and keeping the country divided.