Letter From London
By Wright Lewis
Yes, the riots are bad but – and I’m not trying to be smart here – they are entirely predictable.
Fifty years of neoliberalism coterminous with the decimated economy of a former empire, sold off to global capital. The result is a largely under-educated, de-unionised, self-identifying ‘white’ working-class, prey to fascism via the Murdoch/Rothermere media empires and the simultaneous thinly-disguised scorn of the liberal establishment. This isn’t new. It was the Blair government, Thatcher’s heirs, that began the demonisation of the working class and was responsible for the adoption of draconian anti-migration policies.
Currently, one of the most worrying confluences is the nexus between – Far Right figures and the Israeli state. So, we have fascists on the streets here marching under the same flags as the IDF against Muslims. You can see where this came from and is going. And why the British state, in hoc to Netanyahu and the Israeli government, could never allow an internationalist who supported a Palestinian state anywhere near power. Into that vacuum created by charges of antisemitism championed by people like Jonathan Freedland et al at the Guardian has rushed a really well organised pan-European fascist movement (Italy, Hungary etc etc).
It’s framed by the Right as a civilisational conflict – (see for example, Modi’s India,) but then also reflected in the liberal establishment media still drenched in Cold War-isms that is being played out in proxy wars like Ukraine (which was already stuffed with real Naz*s). The issue of course – as demonstrated especially by the Guardian’s coverage of Gaza – is that the Overton Window has moved significantly rightwards on both sides of the Atlantic. This is possibly the end game of Globalisation in its current form, and I’m not sure where we’ll end up.
Starmer, an establishment asset by any measure is shitting it. I’m hearing that only hysterical voices in his party have stopped him going abroad on vacation and making a puerile statement (I’m not making this up). This is what happens to ALL liberals that cloak themselves in nationalism (see the SDP in 30s Germany). They get eaten.
I’m going to bed. It’s up to Gen Z now to fight this. I have confidence they will. But having lived through the NF in the 70s I can’t pretend I’m not worried. We learn from the past – just not necessarily fast enough.
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For more information on what is happening in Britain:
Ella Baker School of Organizing: After nearly a week of racist violence across the country, the School has produced a statement based on our analysis of the causes and the steps that need to be taken to defeat the narratives of division which have fueled these shocking scenes.
