Burning Britain: Riot Fever as a Symptom of Systemic Failure

[reprehensor]

http://nafeez.blogspot.com/2011/08/burning-britain-riot-fever-as-symptom.html

Burning Britain: Riot Fever as a Symptom of Systemic Failure by Nafeez Ahmed

"...it would be gravely mistaken to assume that the rioting and violence erupting throughout London was motivated fundamentally by opposing police brutality exemplified in the killing of Mark Duggan. Police brutality almost certainly played a role in sparking the initial rage. Early inaccurate media reports claimed that Duggan had fired first at the SO19 police officers who were tracking him, and that the officer who was hit was only saved by the bullet lodging itself in his radio. Forensic analysis later confirmed that the bullet was in fact police-issued, throwing doubt on the whole story...

...Then the fires started. What began as a peaceful but angry demonstration against Duggan’s killing by members of Tottenham’s local community was quickly overrun and overtaken by hundreds of youths, who exploited the circumstances to cause havoc and loot local businesses. The scale of the violence on Saturday alone, and the inability of police and emergency services to respond and contain it effectively, was instrumental in inspiring youths all over London’s suburbs to mimic the violence and, quite literally, use the opportunity to take what they wanted.

Unfortunately, some activists have been confused by these events. Jodi McIntyre described the riots as an “uprising”, and suggested it should “continue in an effective manner” with better “organisation” – “Random looting”, he explained, “is not going to overcome police injustice. But until then, the language of the unheard will continue to be spoken.” But to what end should such admittedly pointless random looting therefore continue? How does exhorting its continuation in any way fit into a genuinely progressives agenda for the inclusive, community-led, radical systemic transformation necessary to overcome our converging social, political, economic and cultural crises?...

...There is no binary moral choice between support for the ‘corporate establishment’ and ‘young people’ – as if the riots somehow manifest young people challenging corporate power in a genuinely progressive way. The riots, the looting, the plunder, did not in any way constitute an “uprising” against corporate or even state power. On the contrary, the violence represented the most regressive manifestations of corporate and state inculcated values of crude materialist, market-driven hedonism. The looters and vandals were not politically-motivated, let alone progressively-inspired. On the contrary, what precisely illustrates the entirely self-destructive nature of this phenomenon is that its main victims were not the government, nor large corporates shielded by the promise of insurance pay-outs – but simply ordinary working people. If this was an uprising, it ended up targeting the very communities from which these young people came, even if these are communities from which they feel ostracized."

Continued...
http://nafeez.blogspot.com/2011/08/burning-britain-riot-fever-as-symptom.html

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http://nafeez.blogspot.com/

Dr Nafeez Ahmed MA DPhil (Sussex) is a bestselling author and international security analyst. He is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development, and has taught international relations theory, contemporary history, empire, and globalization at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex and Brunel University's Politics & History Unit. His latest book is A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (Pluto Press, 2010). Previous books are The London Bombings (2006); The War on Truth (2005); Behind the War on Terror (2003); and The War on Freedom (2002). He has been an expert commentator for BBC News 24, BBC Radio Five Live, BBC World Today, BBC Asian Network, Channel 4, Sky News, C-SPAN, CNN, FOX News, Bloomberg, PBS Foreign Exchange, Al-Jazeera English, among others. Dr Ahmed’s terrorism research was used by the 9/11 Commission, and he testified in US Congress in summer 2005. He has also advised the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; and the UK Parliamentary Select Committee for Communities on its Inquiry into 'Prevent'.

[OHdem10]

1. Austerity is at the root of Rioters grievances and Austerity

cut the Police Force which rendered them weakened
in a Crisis.

Anytime there is a riot, there will be some hooligans
who jump in and take advantage of the situation.

In the Uk there had been many Peaceful Protests.
The people esp. the Middle Class feel they are bearing
the brunt of a Crisis caused by Bankers and Elites.
Yet, they feel they are having to pay for everyone
while the Bankers and elites go free.

This cries were unanswered. Riots are the next step
when people's complaints are ignored. Understanding
these dynamics does not necessarily means one condones.

It is not unusual that the damage is done in their
own neighborhoods. This is the turf they know. If
unquelled it will move to upper class neighborhoods.

Look at places in South America. The eleites live
in gated homes and have to have body guards for the
kids to go to school. We seem to want this for our
Country, BTW.

[leveymg]

2. Dr. Ahmad should look at his History of the French Revolution. The early events were not political

or led by revolutionaries. For more than a century there were outbursts of violence that signaled the declining authority of the Old Regime and the rising frustrations, desperation and rage of the population. A series of uncoordinated intrigues and revolts by various sectors of society against the monarchy in the 1660s -- the Fronde -- are much studied precursors to the Great Revolution of 1789. It was many years before the power and authority of the Ancien Regime had declined to the point where the mass revolt of the peasantry and organized urban uprisings -- mostly young, unemployed men with effective leadership by insurgent elites -- succeeded in overthrowing the King.

The history of the Russian Revolution is similar, being characterized by a episodes of unfocused violence and isolated rebellion. Rebellion is not revolution, it is a necessary but not sufficient precondition. Revolution requires broad organization by the opposition as well as a declining old order.