As the riots reached more and more town centres, including my own, those previously apathetic woke in rage and fear at burning buildings, smashed windows and looted shops. When a riot is around the corner it is hard not to be fearful whatever your political view point. Yet, anger and condemnation will not get us anywhere in the next few days.
These riots were not ‘mindless’, as they had been described time and time again by media commentators. They are symptomatic of wounded communities that never truly recover from the last disaster. Whilst the individual motives of those involved may not have been that of a political message, there is always a politics behind these things, and as some have pointed out there has been a long history of socio-economic problems in many of the communities that have flared up in anger; a poignant backdrop to the disturbances that has been ignored for too long.
The Arab spring revolution was sparked by the death of a single Tunisian street vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, after sustained attacks on his livelihood by local officials he took his life in order have a voice. Riots, looting and wide spread civil disobedience quickly spread throughout the Arab world and was met with international solidarity. People were finally making a stand for true democracy and this country offered both military and diplomatic support to revolutionaries all over the Middle East. Yet, as the riots moved closer and closer to home through Greece, Spain and now our own streets, it has been all too easy to let fear and shock stop us from making the same judgements that we have again and again the last few months; austerity did not work there and it certainly isn’t working here.
In fact, there is little difference between this scene filmed earlier this year in Egypt and this scene filmed in Brixton on Sunday evening. Even more similar are the root causes. Austerity and inequality are issues that would be recognised in Sidi Bouzid, Bouazizi’s home town, just as they would in Tottenham and, though months apart, both communities have come to the same realisation: if the world shan’t listen, we must give them something to listen to.
One young man from Tottenham asked an ITV journalist ‘You wouldn’t be talking to me now if I didn’t riot, would you?’ The sad truth is that the journalist certainly wouldn’t be. Nor would the police or the IPCC, and for that fact, neither would his democratic representatives in parliament. Talking to disenfranchised communities in Tottenham, Enfield, Hackney, Peckham, Ealing and Croydon is something that stopped many decades ago as MPs and the police have been less and less accountable. Something that was increasingly obvious as journalist after journalist expressed their shock at how ‘affluent’ Ealing could see rioting, ignoring the poverty many of its residents live in only minutes from the centre.
But as people realised they did’t have to wait for those in power to listen to them, community organising took over. Through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, people were able to play their role in the healing process and organise when and where to meet to clean up after the nights of rioting.
Just as Egyptian’s formed groups to take over where the government had left them during their revolution, many in the UK , still angry that much of the government remained on holiday through the weekend,took to their streets to claim back the concept of ‘community’. No longer is it acceptable that someone else will help the neighbours clear up the glass, or that the scared old lady is left on her own. No longer is it acceptable that our press, politicians and police have been unaccountable for far too long. No longer is it acceptable to not be political. Communities are instead turning fear into positive action.
