Aug 09
Hal Austin, a Barbadian, lives in London and is a leading journalist and social commentator from the Black community.
It is too early to give a definitive assessment of the London Uprisings over the weekend, but there are nevertheless two key lessons that have emerged. The first and most important is the social breakdown that can take place when the police force has become an invading army, using paramilitary tactics, and has lost the trust of the people it is meant to serve…
Very interesting seen from Beijing. China owns one third of US debt and has been buying Greek and other euro bonds to help sustain the EU. China and the other BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia and India ) have been carrying the US and Europe throughout the last few years after the American and European neo-liberals killed the global economy, through sheer greed and arrogance.
We now face a second time round, as the debt crisis in the US escalated politically and the EU countries struggle to find a sense of unity that could help solve their problems. Spain and Italy are now both in the frame. If Italy goes down, then that would be the first of the six founding member countries to be hit. The euro would collapse back into national currencies.
I remember when I worked for the British TUC (1993-2003) that we all knew that the euro has not been shock-proofed for crises, with a access to considerable funds to spend on supporting member states or even the whole body in a severe crisis. Blair and Brown kept the UK out of the euro – Brown especially, but they ran the UK on empty as well, deregulating financial controls in Britain, just as thatcher and Reagan had done before them. they refused to take any warnings from us or anyone else (and we made them) about the instability then appearing in financial capitalism.
The Governor of the Bank of England recently summarised the post 2007/8 shock period by saying that those who had caused the crisis had not paid while those who were NOT responsible were now paying.
Excellent summary. I am up late and see that the street protests have spread to other parts of London as well as Liverpool and Birmingham. The Home Secretary called it the work of criminals but other commentators ““ on CNN (Richard Quest of all people) not BBC ““ have referred to the social crisis of unemployment, poverty and the growing gap between the rich and poor. He also referred to the street protests in Israel over food price increases ““ is this a first for Israel? ““ as another sign of the instability in the world. And the stock markets are falling rapidly in Asia to be likely followed by more of the same in the west.
Where do we see things developing over the next few weeks?
David
Very difficult to predict exactly how all this will work out this time. The riots in the UK, Greece and Spain are all related to the austerity measures imposed there, especially affecting the young unemployed and school leavers who cannot find work; this will feed into the instability we see in world markets. what happens to both of those areas will depend on how the G7 finance ministers, EU and the US government respond. Italy has asked for a G7 meeting but Berlusconi cannot deliver another round of austerity measure, as his credibility as a leader and that of his government is rock bottom – realdangers there, as the Germans do not want to fund the kind of solidarity measures that are needed – which they did when re-integrating Eastern Germany, by the way – and that was long and expensive.
In the UK, there is not much left in the tank; my feeling is that the coalition government have already extracted more than they could get away with and you know the Brits, a passive bunch. the turning point came with the TUC-led demonstration in March involving p to half a million people. At present there is no political solution being advanced, although Labour has made somesuggestions, their credibility remains very low.
As for the US, the political system is grid-locked between the Republicans now being driven by the right-wing tax-cutting ‘tea party’ types,with around 80 new hardline members elected to Congress last time. It remains to be seen whether the US can achieve a lull in the political division long enough to work out a viable package, but this does not look likely.
I would say that most of the developed economies will enter another deep recession with the world folllowing if the BRIC and other countries cannot maintain their growth rates. At the moment, China, India, Brazil especially are able to do that and have enough in the tank to do so for some time,but their economies will be undermined to some extent by another western recession. Japan will survive as it has done, with huge debts by further battening done the hatches and exporting less with a high cost yen penalising them. Australia is joined at the hip to China through its mineral exports and NZ is supported by its two biggest trading partners, too – Aussie and China, but is more vulnerable than Aussie.
Re political alternatives, it is hard to see any strong left of centre goernments taking control in the short term; where there are any, they are in crisis, too, as in Greece.
We need to be careful in evaluating the British riots, which I feel may well escalate to a point where the army willbe sent in to intervene, as the police have not been able to regain control; the Met especially are very discredited after being caught in the phone-hacking scandals , with a quarter of their press staff appointed from News International/Murdoch papers. If the riots take hold in other cities, then I think we;ll see army on the streets of britain,
dave
Very good analytsis by Hal Austin. He rightly criticises Diane Abbott and David Lammy two MPs who should remember history better. During the 1981 riots in 60 towns and cities across the UK there was also considerable looting and many shops were burned out. However, the new situation is more dangerous, as the unemployment in those days was artificially exacerbated by Thatcher’s policy – later admitted to by Alan Budd her economic adviser, to undermine the power of organised labour. That worked and so, too, did the continuous depression of real wages for the majority but especially the young.
The share of wages in developed country economies has fallen substantially in the last ten years and share has been passed or taken by financial capital. These ‘surplus’ funds were invested in a whole slew of crazy, risky financial instruments as well as pocketed by the top 10% of income earners. And the rest is history. The critical issue for the young is their relatively wageless state, followed by an inability to buy. Their actions this time were not so much violent towards others, except when pursued by the police, but directed at taking what they could not buy normally. Because the problerm is a national one, it was an easy lesson to follow, even without Blackberry Messenger.
The consequences will also be serious but it seems that Diane has now joined the law and order party and left thinking behind.
Good analysis. I wish Mr. Austin had explored this statement on the New Britons’ success more fully:
“In the finally analysis, the Tottenham uprising has not only exposed our black community political impotence in the UK, it has also emphasised the gap between us and the New Britons ““ Eastern Europeans, Asians, West Africans, Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and others ““ all of whom have left us behind in terms of developing their own business cultures, community cohesion and political organisation…”
Pat
Here are some revealing statistics from a statement on the riots issued by the Socialist Worker
“In n Haringey, the London borough that contains Tottenham, 54 people chase every job vacancy. Eight of the 13 youth centres are due to close because of the government”™s cuts.
“Last year the government took Education Maintenance Allowance from 630,000 young people and tripled university fees, putting up a great ” No entry to education” sign to most.
“Britain is already less equal that at any time since the 1930s. While many of those who left school last month face a future without hope, the combined fortunes of the 1,000 richest people in Britain rose £60 billion in 2011 to nearly £400 billion.
“The £81 billion of cuts decreed by David Cameron”™s government will mean hundreds of thousands of job losses, devastated communities and services destroyed.
“At some point people pushed to the wall will turn and fight back That is what is happening now, just as it did during Margaret Thatcher”™s reign in the 1980s, the great slump of the 1930s and the great depression of the 1880s””all periods which saw riots in Britain.”
A brilliant piece Al and glad reassuring that I’m not the only one who thinks like this. Also spot on with your critiue of David Lammy who should be called Lame Lammy and so obvious the shift in Dianne Abbot’s politics since her promotion to the shadow post. The criticism of the black church leadership is soooo spot on. Lastly, how true about your final comment on the disconnect of the political toffs and disenfranchisement of the black community and youths.
Finally, the beneficiaries in the rebuilding of these destroyed communities are those who have capitalised from the 1981 and 1985 disturbances and those whom you’ve said are doing much better than those who get scapegoated.