Racist killing sparks rebellion in Britain
By
Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Published Aug 10, 2011 6:51 PM
In the past year the British government has announced and implemented huge cuts
in education and social service programs in the face of growing unemployment
and poverty. Now Black and working-class youth are responding with direct
action and mass rebellion.
Beginning on Aug. 6 in Tottenham, North London, thousands of youth
demonstrated, attacked police cars, buses and businesses in response to the
police’s unprovoked killing of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old Black man and
father of four. Duggan was travelling in a vehicle on Aug. 4 when he was pulled
over by police and shot dead.
Outrage spread throughout the Tottenham community. Residents demonstrated
outside the police station on Aug. 6. It was reported that soon after the
protest, several youth hotwired two police vehicles and drove them to the
center of the nearby business district, where they were set afire.
Later, according to media reports, hundreds of others began to pelt police,
empty stores and eventually burn down numerous establishments in the area. News
of the rebellion spread throughout the city and the world.
The next night, other sections of London and its suburbs erupted in similar
unrest. In Brixton, Enfield, Chingford Mount-Waltham Forest, Dalston, Edmonton,
Islington, Oxford Circus, Ponder’s End and Walthamstow, youth attacked
the police and symbols of exploitation. In various areas affected by the
rebellions, youth hit the Kingsland Shopping Center in Dalston, Curry’s,
William Hill, Nandos, Morley’s Department Store and T-Mobile in Brixton
along with Blockbusters, Vision Express, JD Sports and other businesses in
Tottenham. (London Telegraph, Aug. 8)
During the following day in Hackney, youth clashed with riot police after
taking over a lorry full of building materials that were used as defense
against the cops. In Peckham and Lewisham, youth reportedly fought running
battles with the police and at least one bus was set on fire.
Police escalated their patrols and aggressive tactics in response to the youth
unrest. It was reported by Scotland Yard that more than 200 people had been
arrested by Aug. 8.
The police and the media immediately began to portray Mark Duggan as a criminal
and a gangster. He was blamed by the authorities for causing his own death by
firing first at the cops. (Daily Mail, Aug. 8)
Duggan’s family said he was unarmed and that the killing was totally
unjustified. Rather than accepting responsibility for Duggan’s death,
police called those involved in the protests and rebellions
“criminals” who now face arrest and prosecution.
Despite past rebellions, gov’t fails to address national question
Observers in London have compared these rebellions to those that swept the
Black and Asian communities in England from the late 1970s through the
mid-1980s. In 1981, rebellions swept Brixton and other sections of Greater
London and spread to the rest of England.
In Tottenham in 1985, a rebellion erupted after a Black woman died during a
police raid. A white police officer was later stabbed to death during the
unrest, which lasted several days and resulted in significant property
damage.
Since 1958 in Notting Hill, when white racist mobs invaded Black communities
attacking homes and residents, the British government has failed to adequately
address the national question. In recent years as the economic crisis of world
capitalism has impacted urban areas throughout Europe, rebellions have
re-emerged as a form of resistance and protest.
Faced with worsening unemployment and social conditions for the working class,
mostly young people in the suburbs of France, where many African and Arab
immigrants live, erupted in rebellion in 2005 and 2006 in response to police
brutality and institutional racism.
In Britain there have been some cosmetic changes to the labor market since the
rebellions of the 1980s, with more Black and Asian people in media and
business. However, police brutality and misconduct remain a major source of
complaints in the country’s urban areas.
The onslaught of the economic crisis of 2007-2008 has hit Britain hard,
prompting the central bank and the government to shore up the financial sector.
Meanwhile, the conservative-led government of David Cameron has mandated
massive social service cuts. With dissatisfaction spreading among workers and
youth, the situation is volatile.
Significance of the rebellions
Such rebellions could occur anywhere in the industrialized capitalist states.
Rising unemployment and impoverishment of oppressed and working-class people
provide fuel for social unrest. The regime implements its economic decisions
without consulting working people and youth.
The growing agitation and unrest within the imperialist West are coupled with
the rising tide of struggle, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. The
U.S./NATO wars against Afghanistan and Libya have only provided more defeats
for world imperialism in its desperate attempt to maintain its dominance over
the majority of humanity.
Workers and the oppressed must strengthen the existing mass organizations and
trade unions in their fight to end the system of exploitation and oppression.
To many it is becoming quite obvious that capitalism and imperialism have
nothing to offer working people and the nationally oppressed throughout the
world.
People want and need jobs, incomes, health care, pensions, quality education
and life without political and state repression. When these movements and
organizations come together they can bring about major advances in the fight to
end exploitation and oppression and to realize a socialist future for humanity.
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