.
While it was unquestionably heartwarming to see crowds of anti-racism protesters on British streets greatly outnumbering the racist rioters of recent days (and I thank them all warmly), I must confess that the subsequent triumphalism and military-march language of many leftist commentators has rather turned my stomach.
The Morning Star led the tub thumping before the night had even began urging citizens to MOBILISE in big letters!
Now I understand that words like ‘mobilise’ and ‘defeat’ do not necessarily imply violent conflict, but in the context of race riots, is it helpful to print pictures of riot police and burning cars alongside such language? Could other language have made the same rallying cry in a less inflammatory way?
As I posted on Facebook in response:
“You see this is all very well, but when you start using military language like ‘mobilse’ and ‘defeat’ and ‘smash’ you aren’t trying to make a moral argument or engage, you are pushing the language of violence yourself.
and what are the ‘mobilised’ going to do anyway? Stand in the streets chanting ‘nazi scum off our streets’ while stood safely behind a police line? This will only give the rioters something to bounce off.
There are those on the left who would love to use opposition to fascism as the pivot of a new revolutionary uprising themselves. All fine as far as it goes – but if we go down this route of various groups in the UK ‘mobilising’ against each other then be careful what you wish for – because summer bricks and bottles can soon be replaced by winter guns and bombs.
Anyone in Northern Ireland can tell you how this sort of language can spiral out of anyone’s control into decades of violence – and who started it soon gets forgotten as one atrocity begets another.”
This was perhaps something of an over-reaction on my part (the ‘far right’ just stayed at home anyway) and flows from my long held dislike of moral arguments for socialism and peace (the Morning Star’s tagline) being associated with violent revolution, to put it bluntly I dislike people posing as Che Guevara.
The language of moral arguments and peaceful protests ought not to be muddled with the throwing of socialist guerrilla shapes and bandanas; if you ache for a violent overthrow of capitalism then at least do so honestly, pick up a gun and get on with it.
I am a peace activist and I seek change through moral education and debate, thus I have no love of the language of ‘uprisings’ and ‘resistance fighters’, not least because nothing ever comes of it except a lot of shouting, going home and then on to Aldi the next day.
As it became clear that the rioters were going to stay at home and watch telly, a propaganda battle began between the centre-right and leftists as to who had ‘defeated’ the far right, with leftists giving (deserved) credit to the protesters and the centre-right giving (deserved) credit to the police.
As I said yesterday, nobody has defeated the far right much less any of the dynamics that give rise to them, moreover I am suspicions of this abrupt declaration of victory. I took to Facebook again as rival camps of back slappers flooded social media in celebration.
“Those celebrating the alleged ‘humiliation’ of the ‘far right’ last night would do well to remember that fascism by definition is a condition of nation states and that OUR nation state continues to provide political, economic and military support for genocide via the crypto-fascist state of Israel.
The battle against fascism lies in preventing its shadow morality and preconditions from taking root in a populace and then the government, that battle isn’t won by outnumbering a few thousand yobbos amongst a population of 70 million. The racism problems in the UK are hugely bigger than that and have powerful backers.”
Owen Jones was disappointingly (given his superb witness over Gaza) unable to join up these dots. He called the riots ‘a pogrom’ which is deeply unhelpful and gives many of the rioters waaaaaay too much credit.
While there were some very nasty racists doing very nasty violence in the mix, the truth is that a lot of the rioters just like the excitement of running around the streets in gangs, throwing stones and setting fire to wheelie bins, they have no ideological convictions and will take any opportunity to be the centre of attention (more than a quarter of them were little more than kids, some as young as 11). That is not a ‘pogrom’ so much as a certain kind of (often drink fuelled) toxic machismo, shallow narcissism and bored indolence.
Jones was quick to post a video on Youtube announcing the complete humiliation of the ‘far right’. This daubing of all the rioters with the term ‘far right’ is dishonest both when the centre-right do it and when leftists do it.
Britain has these riots every few years, always during hot weather and when the football has finished, they have different causes and flash points but always seem to feature many who jump on the band wagon for kicks and others who loot shops. I fail to see what is ‘far right’ about gangs of unmasked thieves stealing iphones and budget shoes from smashed shops.
The riots are a gift for the media and for people who make a living as celebrity pundits on social media (you could always taste their disappointment as the riots failed to spread,) they are a spectacle and for many of those not at risk – marvellously entertaining.
While spectacle, entertainment and social media memes have long since crowded out the space for serious moral dialectic, I will wave my somewhat forlorn flag for just a tad of basic common sense anyway.
I will celebrate the ‘defeat’ of the ‘far right’ when we close all the tory hate rags like the Daily Express, Daily Mail and Telegraph, when GB News is closed, when Palestinian children can sleep without fear of starvation / death, when the moral argument against the widespread casual racism within British society has been successfully won and the spectre of an elected fascist police state averted.
We are long way from winning any of these things and I frankly feel no cause to overly celebrate the sullen withdrawal of a few thousand bored yobbos from our streets.
A lot of people are getting what they need behind spectacle and make believe, but weight of numbers and triumphant declarations of victory are neither a coherent moral argument against racism nor any way of reaching the many millions of people who we urgently need to hear it.
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