London Riots

I'll be honest and say that there's only one thing that has truly surprised me about the riots across London over the past few days.

And it's not:

~ that, following the police shooting of a 29 year old father of four (who it now seems may have been carrying but did not fire a gun wrapped in a sock), people in Tottenham felt angry;

~ that, in a borough with over 10,000 people unemployed and 54 people chasing every job vacancy which has (like most communities in Britain) been under sustained attack since this government came to power, that anger swiftly tipped over into violence;

~ that, with the closure of 75% local youth centres (which youth workers predicted would lead to violence on the streets) and 100% of young people losing access to EMA, young people felt angry and betrayed and wanted to get back at 'the system' which has let them down;

~ or that the riots have quickly spread to other areas of London.

It's that the official response of the Labour Party, delivered by Shabana Mahmood, drew attention to none of this, instead condemning the violence as 'appalling and unacceptable' and saying that it 'must not be tolerated'. Now I am not suggesting that these riots are an answer to the issues facing our communities.

But the people of Tottenham deserve more than a simple condemnation. There needs to be an attempt to understand WHY this happened and neither the failure of policing in Tottenham nor the role of government cuts, which have ripped the heart out of communities across Britain, should be brushed under the carpet.

I don't believe it is any coincidence that we last saw riots on this scale under a Tory government, in the 1980s and the 1990s. This is an anti-people government and it is bound to generate anti-government feeling amongst the people, however that is expressed.

Even the Guardian is not afraid to draw the links between cuts, social deprivation and riots, referring to Tottenham as a 'a social tinderbox waiting to ignite' and drawing parallels with Toxteth in the early 1980s. And yet from the Labour Party, there is silence on the issue of why.

The notable exception has of course been Ken Livingstone, who has not been afraid to call a spade a spade.

'The economic stagnation and cuts being imposed by the Tory government inevitably create social division,' he said. This is a point that must be rammed home over the next few weeks as we will undoubtedly see the riots being blamed on a 'small criminal element' and calls for tougher policing.

Cuts have consequences and we need to make that clear unless we want to see our communities ripped apart and then blamed for their own self-destruction.

Demonstration @BMW 6am Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Unite will be holding a demo at 6:00am outside gate 5 BMW Plant Oxford in support of the 68 dismissed BMW workers in Ontario.

The company intends to dismiss almost 100 workers on 31st August then immediately re-open the parts distribution centre, employing cheaper, less-experienced workers. They will have a similar demo at Southampton Docks.

I know it is very short notice but please pass this on to as many people as you can.

In solidarity,
Gawain Little
President
Oxford & District TUC

Support BBC Journalists

Date: Aug 1, 2011 12:20 PM

Just come back from a lively determined picket at BBC Oxford where NUJ members are fighting compulsory redundancies across the country as part of national strike action.

The current round of cuts are likely to be only the first wave and there is real concern that, when the Delivering Quality First report comes out in September, it will mean many more redundancies across the service.  Though it looks like BBC Oxford will be retained, after a vigorous campaign by journalists and the viewing public, there are likely to be compulsory redundancies in Oxfordshire, which will lead to a drop in service.

Cutbacks at the BBC will mean a loss of democratic accountability as we will find it harder and harder to access high-quality news which reports genuine issues and holds politicians to account. The recent scandal at News Corp (owners of the News of the World) shows what happens when news provision is left to the likes of Rupert Murdoch.

We should stand together with journalists at the BBC, locally and nationally, to demand an end to cuts and no more compulsory redundancies.