What happened?
On July 29 at a dance class for Taylor Swift fans in Southport, a young man killed three young girls with a knife. Eight other children and two adults were seriously wounded. Axel Rudakubana, a teenager from the village of Banks, was arrested. “Within hours of the attack, far-right accounts on social media spread a fictitious Arabic-sounding name for the killer and claiming that he was a Muslim asylum seeker who had illegally arrived in the country by boat.”
The following night, right-wing extremists held a rally in Southport, attacking a mosque with fire and hurling bricks. Fascists amplified false allegations including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson). “He posted on X, criticising Islam and saying that rioters in Southport were “justified in their anger”… his name was regularly chanted by rioters… misogynist Andrew Tate, wrongly claimed the attacker was an “illegal migrant” and told people to “wake up”. (They) had previously been deplatformed on X (formerly Twitter) but were given their accounts back after Elon Musk took control of X.”
On July 30, many other cities were attacked, including central London, where rioters chanted slogans like “Enough is enough” and “Stop the boats.”
On August 2, right-wingers surrounding a Liverpool mosque were countered by huge crowds defending it. In Sunderland, violent right-wing mobs looted and burned shops and cars. The conflagration spread across the UK and Belfast, with far-right rallies attacking police and counter-protesters. Businesses owned by non-whites, libraries and food banks were set alight.
Notwithstanding previous attitudes indicating racism, the police forces defended both non-whites and their businesses & mosques. By August 4 Prime Minister (PM) Keir Starmer labelled the riots as “organized, violent thuggery”.
Leader MPs of the neo-fascist ‘Reform party’ – Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson, fanned the flames:
“Farage questioned whether police were withholding information about who was responsible for the murders…”
Farage challenged Keir Starmer’s argument that the violent protests were the fault of the far right, saying it was “a reaction to fear, to discomfort, to unease that is out there shared by tens of millions of people”. Lee Anderson, the Reform MP and former Tory deputy chair, wrote on X: “This problem has been caused by smug politicians who have refused to listen to the concerns of British people. It has festered and now it has boiled over.
In contrast, on August 5 independent MPs including Jeremy Corbyn pointed out that
Starmer has not “gone “nearly far enough in identifying the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hatred […] We feel his words do not go nearly far enough in identifying the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hatred driving this violence […] Government references to ‘understandable fears’ send mixed messages and only give succour to those seeking to sow hatred and division.”
Elon Musk added by claiming on X that “civil war is inevitable”. Keir Starmer replied “the violence came from a small minority of people and said he did not share the sentiments of the billionaire, who has previously been criticised for allowing far-right figures back on to his social media platform.” Elon Musk responded with “Two-Tier Keir” – alleging that police treat white far-right ‘protesters’ more harshly than minority groups”. Essentially repeating Nigel Farage. This claim was refuted by The Guardian on August 6.
On August 7 social media listed asylum and immigration centres as targets. Thousands of anti-racism protesters held counter rallies “forming human shields to protect asylum centres, and waved placards saying “refugees welcome” and “reject racism, try therapy”… While 100 far-right gatherings were threatened, few occurred as 6,000 riot officers mobilised… The messaging app Telegram said it will be “removing channels and posts containing calls to violence” in the UK. (It) was one of the last places that the “English Defence League (EDL) founder, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) was allowed to post.. a go-to app for the far-right.”
The outpouring of anti-fascist protests, largely ‘spontaneous’ and from below, have impressively pushed back fascists. The counter-protesters stopped the fascists for now. Inevitable comparisons arise to the Cable Street demonstrations of the 1930s against Sir Oswald Mosley’s National Union of Fascists.
Why did this happen?
Two intertwined core reasons – the fall in living standards of the working class and the “normalisation” of racism – formed the dry tinder that Farage and neo-fascist groups danced and lit fires upon.
Recall fourteen years of racism sanctioned by the ousted Tory Government. That ensured a fascist equation of fall in living standards and immigration. Dame Sara Khan vividly exposed the Tory “setting of the tone”. She was PM Sunak’s independent adviser for “social cohesion”, and counter-extremism commissioner to PM May and PM Johnson. Khan explained that:
“The Conservative government left the UK wide open to the far-right violence erupting… ignored red flags and stoked fires with a culture war agenda … (she) said the recent administrations had failed the British people. Repeated and urgent counsel that far-right extremists were exploiting gaps in the law to foment violence on social media had been ignored while top rung politicians in a series of administrations sought to gain advantage by waging culture wars…
“The writing was clearly on the wall for some time… All my reports showed these extremist and cohesion threats are worsening; secondly, that our country is woefully unprepared. We’ve got a gap in our legislation which is allowing these extremists to operate with impunity. ‘
“Previous governments have astonishingly failed…”
But even more fundamentally, the Tory government disinvested and ran simple profit-ransacking schemes. This resulted in economic stagnation.
In turn real wages fell. Workers in Britain suffered more than their international co-workers:
All this resulted in what doctors in the British NHS identify as a ‘shit life syndrome.’ Adam Tooze explains:
“Shit life syndrome”.. is a folk diagnosis.. that describes mental or physical health problems …. the causes are a tangled mix of economic, social and emotional problems that they (doctors) … feel powerless to fix.”
Will Labour solve the problem?
Just as in the European elections, the far right led by Nigel Farage won big with five parliamentary seats. True, Labour won a ‘landslide’ in the first-past-the-post system. But Rosenberg described this as misleading, since:
“Starmer won his landslide: 64% of the seats in Parliament but, astonishingly, on less than 34% of the vote share… (But) the far-right populist Reform Party, led by Nigel Farage, which collected more than 14% of the national vote share and won five seats in Parliament, taking votes from both former Tory and Labour supporters…. In absolute numbers, combined votes for the Tories and Reform outstripped Labour.”
This even facing a discredited Tory Party in power. Academic pollsters suggest that voters felt “unsure” about the Labour Party, and the population distrusts “politicians”. The working class of Britain are quite right to distrust the Labour Party. Especially under Starmer-Blair. Of course it is perceptably nicer not to have David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak etc – as Prime Minister (PM). What are the Labour omens however?
If the Labour Party were to substantially change Britain, it needs to move against the ruling class. It has denied any wish or need to do so. Starmer himself is a staunch upholder of British traditional power. He is simply a staider version of Blair PR flashiness. His previous ‘form’ puts his much-praised legal skills into a proper context:
“Throughout his legal and political career, Mr. Starmer has displayed a deeply authoritarian impulse, acting on behalf of the powerful…. Mr. Starmer was hired to run the Crown Prosecution Service in 2008, putting him in charge of criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. Professional success brought him closer to the state, which he repeatedly sought to shield from scrutiny. He did not bring charges against the police officers who killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian migrant who was mistaken for a terrorist suspect and shot seven times in the head. Nor did Mr. Starmer prosecute MI5 and MI6 agents who faced credible accusations of complicity in torture. Nor were so-called spy cops […] held accountable.
He took a different tack with those he saw as threatening law and order. After the 2010 student demonstrations over a rise in tuition fees, he drew up legal guidelines that made it easier to prosecute peaceful protesters. The following year, when riots erupted in response to the police killing of Mark Duggan, Mr. Starmer organized all-night court sittings and worked to increase the severity of sentencing for people accused of participating.”
Starmer’s Treasurer made it clear that she aims to boost the ruling class profit margin since for her they are the source of prosperity for workers. She will follow “supplyside economics” or policies of the United States secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen.
Supply-side economics is infamous as Reaganomics: “attempts by the Reagan administration to control the money supply by an aggressive fiscal approach (cutting welfare spending and public administrative spending ) were combined with “Supply side” economics. This entailed cutting taxes to enable a so-called “encouragement to business to invest” which would allow some riches to “trickle down”, to the less wealthy.” Reeves also follows so-called Bidenomics: “The US president’s vast package of subsidies and tax breaks for industry has been dubbed “Bidenomics”… She claimed this will insulate the country against “global shocks.” Reeves even coined the word “Securonomics” to describe her approach: “Much of my securonomics approach has its roots in Yellen’s modern supply-side economics… She is also influenced by the Harvard economist Dani Rodrik, who calls for “productivism,” a partnership between governments and businesses to create more productive jobs”.
What does this actually mean? Firstly no rise in taxes and secondly inducements to ‘private sectors”: “Ms. Reeves.. vow(ed) not to raise Britain’s three main taxes… Labour is relying on economic growth to improve the public finances, and it is depending on wave of private-sector investment.” Reeves “ruled out a lot. She said a Labour government would not introduce annual wealth and land taxes; raise income tax; equalise capital gains rates and income tax (something the late Nigel Lawson did as chancellor); rejoin the European single market and customs union; change the Bank of England’s inflation target and reform its rigid mandate; or take private utilities into public ownership, except for the railways.”
But the UK has a problem as US companies have free reign on the UK markets. Economist Michael Roberts notes:
“In Vassal State – how America runs Britain, Angus Hanton shows the dominant role that US companies and finance play in owning and controlling large sections of what remains of British industries. This US takeover was accepted and even encouraged by successive British governments from Tory Thatcher to Labour’s Blair.”
Astonishingly, Reeves noticed this herself:´“In a New Statesman essay, “Our search for a national story”, in March 2021, she wrote: “No other Western country has allowed so many of its strategic assets, great companies and public services to be captured by overseas interest.” But Reeves announced an alliance to Yellen and Biden in May 2023. The Chartered Institute for Export and International Trade summarised:
“The UK Labour Party yesterday (24 May) set out a detailed vision for the UK economy if it wins the next general election. The plan, titled “A New Business Model for Britain: Building Economic Strength in an Age of Insecurity” was announced in a speech in Washington: “…the plan draws very heavily on president Biden’s economic model and in particular his huge Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)”. In the “foreword, Reeves adds that Labour’s new approach… inspired by… “modern supply side economics” as per Janet Yellen, would see the state take a more active role in the economy “making and shaping markets that are essential to a nation’s resilience and future prosperity”. Reeves adds this approach relies on “productivism”, asking both the public and private sectors to boost productive capacity.” Perhaps we can see where this is going? Asking both the workers and industry” to share struggles… means – screw the workers.
The British Labour Party chooses again to even more firmly attach Britain to the USA’s coat-tails. In Marxist terminology – they adopt a ‘comprador’ position towards the USA.
Recently we noted the wave of right wing support in the European elections. Despite the superficial appearances and the Labour Party propaganda – similar considerations also apply to the British general elections. In these elections while the Labour party won the absolute majority of seats, their electoral base was weak and reflected intense disillusionment. And the neo-fascists made great strides. The root cause of these riots is the enormous crushing of working-class living standards under neo-capitalist norms. This is not going to change under Starmer.
The ruling class was well aware that the “austerity” merchants of the Tory party were completely discredited in the eyes of the population of Britain. The ruling class needed a a new face to exert its political power. The re-moulded, newly purged of ‘too left wing radicals’, newly obsequious Labour Party under Starmer – only a newly cast Blair – was the ideal fit. The neo-fascists, now “officially” under Nigel Farage’s leadership of the ‘Reform’ party – are a back-up for when the Labour Party will become completely exposed. In due course this will happen.
Lastly, police actions in the UK defended mosques and community centers from right-wing neo-fascist attack. That should be the normal function under democracy. But on the heels of these events, have come calls from Starmer, for further militarisation of the police. Starmer’s call for further police powers, comes after the police force was already ‘steeled’ after having crushed the great Miner’s Strike of 1984-1985. Such a force will not only be directed at the neo-fascists, Starmer makes that quite clear. The left will be targeted in the months and years to come.
Conclusion
The British working class has seen off the fascists for now, in an epic reprise of 1936 Cable Street. However the situation remains fraught as the economic and political crisis in the UK is not at an end. Without a Marxist-Leninist party, and without a solid and united Anti-Fascist United Front that brings together all progressives – the threat remains.
This is an adapted and shortened version of an article on MLRG Online