Tariq Ali on British riots: Why here and now?

At the end, Ali is too cynical. This crisis is of an historical piece with the student riots and the Murdoch meltdown, it is not isolated from the current juncture. The rulers have a serious crisis of legitimacy on their hands. The post-Thatcher class playing field is tilting. If the cynic argues that history simply repeats itself over and over, a rejoinder would be that, at this historic moment, it is an ascending spiral.

"Might it have something to do with race and class and institutionalised poverty and the sheer grimness of everyday life?" RUBBISH! Simply an excuse for bad behaviour in my opinion! For example, Jews have been subjected to 100's of years of racial and religious discrimination and have been persecuted out of many countries, yet they are known to work hard, abide the laws and the majority do well; financially, educationally, as a family and community-minded group. How many ethnic immigrants have come to the UK and worked all the hours god-sends to provide for their families and have built up businesses and community links by their boot-straps, through sheer hard work. Mostly doing work/jobs that our British "underclass" wont touch because its too hard, too long, too dirty, too "menial". These people mess about in school, come out with zero qualifications, live generations on the dole and will only even contemplate a job if its easy and starts at 50k! Yes, of course thats a generalization, but whole generations live on Estates around me thinking like that. This Country cant afford, either financially or morally, to encourage people to see that a life on benefits is better paid than working, is more profitable so why bother? We have very little genuinely "poor" people in the UK and I dont wish benefits to be at such a miniscule level to ensure that either, but I dont expect people to be labelled "poor" because they cant afford yet another take-away, another giant plasma TV or to smoke more than 20 fags a day either! Frankly some of the Estates are pretty grim. The kids have been allowed, certainly not disallowed, to sh*te in their own back yards, destroy their surroundings, adults choosing to deal drugs and get that Mercedes car and designer gear rather than earn some money and self-respect doing a legit job. Who'd want to invest in jobs in that area, creating a business to employ others? Some are the product of their own doings. Then people get home and go through their own front door, where they have total control over their environments. They can smoke less fags and cook their kids a proper dinner instead, they could miss bingo and stay in and play games with their kids, they could help with homework instead of having their mates round playing games on the X-Box. They could teach their kids respect of others instead of selling on stolen goods from their kitchen and mouthing off about the "Pigs". These are their own choices, but with that brings a certain sad future for the next generation. I live on benefits due to being disabled and I live a "good" life. My kids arent hungry, they have a fair home around them. But they are encouraged at school, expected to go to college, to get part-time jobs to support themselves whilst doing this and then get a good job later on- be that in McDonalds or wot, they'll have the respect of earning a wage for work they have done themselves. For their own self-respect! Do you think those living in the 30's Depression taught their kids these lessons, rioted and burned businesses employing local people? No, they taught them hard work and respect to get themselves out of that situation. And now they WERE poor! So, yes, these are just excuses, not real reasons which can be legally demonstrated against to those in Governments who could actually do something. Not a small firm working in a London suburb!

We live in a consumer society that teaches us "you are what you buy". You are worth the sum of your posessions. Yet this same society condemns whole sections of the working class to unemployment or precarious unemployment and grinding poverty. So we should not be surprised if opportunists go out during a riot and pinch some expensive consumer goods. It is hypocritical to condemn them for supposedly attacking the moral fabric of society. The whole fabric of consumer society is immoral. Crimes against property are always demonised, but what looks like an outrageous police execution of Mark Duggan, and the brutal treatment of his family and friends, is the greatest crime that has occurred here. Poor and particularly black communities are frequently harassed by the police. Deaths at the hands of the police happen on average once a week in the UK, but no police ever get convicted for any of these. Plenty of the young "rioters" have pretty well explained to various journalists that their "riots" are a desperate protest against this system. If no-one protested or responded at all, that would in many ways be far more worrying than the chaotic and destructive events we've just seen.

As Right and Left resort to the usual cliches, it's noticeable that many of the shopkeepers were themselves poor and hard working. Or that until late 2007, migrants from eastern europe, with very little language skills, were able to come to the UK and found employment, often in jobs that were dirty and unpleasant - the type of jobs local people were unwilling to do, preferring to stay on benefits. Poverty and deprivation are only part of the causes - but they should not be offered as an excuse - there are simply too many examples of the marginalised who manage to overcome both.