By William Briggs
The riots in Britain have captured headlines around the world. News screens have shown the damage, the boarded-up mosques, the burned-out police cars. The rallies led by extremist right-wing activists have targeted immigrant communities and are intensely anti-Islamic. These rallies and marches quickly spread across the country and were quickly met with counter demonstrations from a range of progressive groups.
The government has responded by putting increasing numbers of riot police on the streets. Misinformation about the stabbing and murder of three children lit the fuse. It certainly raises questions but the news behind the headlines and behind the images on television screens does not answer the questions of why and why now?
The far-right certainly used the moment and manipulated it. For them it was a golden opportunity to build a base for a resurgent fascist movement in Britain. Fascism can only grow and flourish when alienation, despair, fear and economic decline reach a critical point. At the height of the anti-immigrant protests, fascist grifter Steven Yaxley-Lennon drew a crowd of close to 30,000 in Trafalgar Square.
Jeremy Corbyn spoke at a nearby anti-racist rally. Banners read “No to racism, no to hatred.” The crowd chanted “we won’t be silent.” The size of the anti-racist rallies has grown. Sheer weight of numbers might push the far-right protesters off the streets, but it will not be a conclusive victory.
This violence that has erupted on the streets of British cities ultimately has nothing to do with anti-immigrant feelings. It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with economic collapse, disadvantage and a profound loss of legitimacy by the state and the government.
The crisis of capitalism is very clear in Britain. Real wages in Britain are now lower than they were 18 years ago. The US Foreign Policy magazine described these figures as “unprecedented in peacetime economic history.” It has been estimated that by the end of 2024 household income in Britain will be lower than Slovenia.
Twenty percent of the British population and 30 percent of children are now living in poverty. There is a crisis in health and in housing. Unemployment has risen. Government austerity policies have made the situation more and more intolerable. All fuel for the fascist ideologues who offer the most simplistic of answers to problems that are symptomatic with the failure of capitalism. The Nazis in Germany blamed the Jews. It was simple, manageable and easily sold to people who were suffering from capitalism’s failures.
It’s not only fascist chancers who pick on foreigners. Mainstream political voices such as Tory MP Donna Jones, Crime Commissioner for Hampshire, blame “mass uncontrolled immigration” as a reason that her country has erupted into such violence, while her party has been encouraging xenophobia for years.
The appeal to a struggling working class by fascists is not a peculiarly British problem. Europe has swung to the right and the tactic of blaming immigrants, refugees and the “other” have paid dividends for conservatives. Far-right extremism in Europe and the rise of right-wing populist political movements across the world are all reflections of a global crisis in capitalism.
Stronger policing, riot squads, teargas and pepper spray might clear the streets, but it will not cure the disease. Progressive forces are rallying, and their numbers are impressive. Even so, their actions are in response to a mobilized extreme right wing that is driven by an ideological perspective.
Fascism grows in a climate of decay and despair. The progressive forces and the organized left, socialist and communist, must win the streets, but that cannot be an end unto itself. A positive ideology must meet and defeat a negative ideology. The working class deserve better than a failed system in which to eke out an increasingly precarious existence. They deserve far better than the empty clamour of fascist slogans.
Guardian (Australia)
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