This month’s far-right riots brought chaos to communities across the country, perhaps most notably in parts of the North East. The pattern of locations might initially have seemed random, but it quickly became clear that there was a concerted effort to seize upon some of the country’s most deprived areas to drive a racist agenda.
Towns like Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, and Darlington have been systemically abandoned throughout more than a decade of Conservative rule. This process might have begun with deindustrialization, but it has continued through the demise of a multitude of social institutions and, more recently, with deep cuts to local government. There has been precious little by means of investment or provision of decent jobs to fill the gap. For many, especially young people, this means little hope, and no sense of the future. A recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, using figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions, found that a massive 41 percent of Middlesbrough’s children were living in poverty. It should come as little surprise that the far-right riots occurred in seven of the ten most deprived areas in the country.
This is the space in which a resurgent far right is building. The riots on the street now appear to have simmered down, but the circumstances that created them endure.
Often when socialists talk about the need for “class unity” in these moments, it seems like we’re reciting a passage from scripture or making a demand detached from realities on the ground. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Class politics is the only way that this latest iteration of fascism can be defeated.
We must offer a vision of community that offers the prospect of a better, more meaningful life for our people. That means tackling low pay and destitution, deteriorating public services, and hollowed-out high streets. It means putting names and faces to the profiteers who tear apart our social…
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Auteur: Declan Mulholland
