by Eugene Walker
Van on fire during the Southport riots. Photo: StreetMic LiveStream, CC BY 3.0
Racist riots have been spreading in England. They began in Southport, where, after a youth stabbed and killed three girls, lies were spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim immigrant. More racist disinformation spread like wildfire. Soon a mob gathered in Southport. Supporters of the English Defense League, a largely defunct extremist anti-Islamic organization, were part of a larger group that attacked a mosque in the city. A suspected neo-Nazi, who is also spreading anti-Semitic messages and prompting people to attack Jewish sites, was reportedly a key figure in organizing the Southport riot.
ANTI-MUSLIM VIOLENCE SPREADS
The following days have been chaotic in several cities in England and Northern Ireland with anti-immigrant rioting. The Guardian reported:
“The grim consequence is devastation. In Sunderland, a Citizens Advice office was destroyed by fire. In Liverpool, a library is a burned-out shell. In Rotherham and Hull, hotels housing asylum seekers were targeted. In Hartlepool and elsewhere, mosques were attacked. Dozens of officers have been injured and more than 100 people have been arrested. Both the extent and the explicitly racist, anti-Muslim nature of the violence have made this a terrible week like no other.”
In London, a far-right demonstration outside government buildings turned violent, with protesters clashing with the police. The group chanted, “We want our country back” and “England ’til I die.”
The UK, which finally rejected Conservative rule after more than a decade, faces a stark reality of empowered anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim racism even as Labour heads the government.
England has come a long way –and it’s in stark contrast to the English textile workers during the US Civil War who refused to work on Confederate-grown cotton and its own anti-slavery movement. Despite these movements, slavery was tolerated in Britain’s colonial empire.
This see-saw progression of defending racial and working-class movements and upsurges of far-right racism continued. In the 1930’s British workers prevented the success of thousands of English Nazi sympathizers who had planned a march in London.
As more people of color came to Britain after World War II the racist right maintained a steady but less visible presence, although racism against the Irish Catholics, which had never abated, led to the divisions, and the violent civil war of the
1970’s (“the troubles”) . The British National Front, has increased massively in recent years, as fascism is on the rise world-wide. It’s important to remember the history of anti-racism in Britain, though it is nearly invisible today.