After reading this truthful report, I've just realised how out of touch people and politicians are with the determination of the younger generation to route out Globalisation. The riots have finally been attributed to "the weather!"

Excellent report, repeats what a friend who was in Bradford at the weekend said... and more important excellent work all those in Bradford!

However, the last bit about education seems unfair. Who needs to be educated? Everyone. The ruling class need to be educated about the fact that we're not going to take all their shit anymore so they'd better watch out. The working class need to see that there is an alternative to the bullshit system we're forced to live in.

They also need to know about the breadth and extent of the shit that's going on. Does everyone know about GM, climate change, privitisation plans etc etc etc ? Does everyone know that all these issues have a common root ? Does everyone know that the powers that be are powerless if the people just stands up together and says NO! I hope not because if they do and they're not doing anything about it what chance have we got?

I agree with "off your knees" except on the education part. Popular education(free education for the masses outside the hierarchy of the school) is a form of direct action. I'm not saying that popular education is the only form of direct action but it's an important one.

It took 80 years of education, propaganda and experimentaion(a large part of the population was illiterate) to get to the point of the Spanish revolution. I think the Ferrer schools played a significant role. Also, during the civils rights movement in the U.S "Freedom schools"definetly played a significant role.

Anyways, keeping fighting the fash

hmm, I guess I've been relatively new to indymedia, and was just wondering about the first comment- debate on indymedia. I think it would be much better if more people commented- its obviously not a reflection of the number of people who read the comments. Or, I guess we will just end up with the kind of people who are rather bourgeois making blatant anti-working class comments, yeah? But you're all smart kids, I think it would be so much better if more people commented, everyone has something to add to the debate. Okay? Good. I hope so for the future.

i see all this stuff on uk.indymedia.org but i never see anything said about the orange order, the unionist death squads or the uprising last night here. double standard? only anti-racist when they want to remain a part of the uk?

just wondering.

I wonder if there are any asian voices on this discussion. So far I haven't heard anyone who is a self-described Asian, so I'm led to think this discussion is just white folks preaching to the choir, of which I too am to blame. If you are asian or non-white, please say your two cents!

I don't doubt racism, economic and social, exists in the Bradford area and works in favor of the whites, but I think other folks earlier comments on how both sides can be exclusionary and monocultural has a lot to do with the tensions. It's all too easy to say one side is to blame, but that's just as vulgar as racism itself.

I suggest both sides in this conflict start educating their communities about xenophobia and prejudice much more. I am white and I have asian friends who say they won't date whites because they feel they would be betraying people of color. All the while, this white boy is one of the best friends they've ever had. Confusing? Yes. But that's what we have to deal with.

As far as solutions: the local government can start by forcing a racial quota on every school: half-asian, half-white with complete separation of religion and state. Yes, a lot people in both communities will hate that proposal arguing that they are "losing their culture". But right now, what you got isn't working.

Fair comment there wondering Joe, the battle in the Ardoyne was superb and a great example of a community kicking an armed militia out of their area. Unbelieveable bravery. Comments about the connection between the Orange Order and the C18 etc spot on. But the people on the streets fighting back would not really appreciate being seen as part of the UK, maybe there is an "Irish" indymedia site with discussions. Excellent to see the cops flee from an area though as a result of working class anger.
Long live the Heroes of Ardoyne!

I wrote an article similar to the one above about the Bradford riot on the urban75 website in the direct action forum and got flamed like mad for being an agent provocutuer. So who ever wrote that aticle could you please go to urban75 and tell them to stop being such twats for shouting down anyone who supports violent fight back.

i'm new to this whole internet thing but i'm passionate about these causes so i will now very slowly type my thoughts. I agree with the responses advocating alternative education programs. How are you supposed to join the struggle if you've no idea what it is about? While it seems like a huge task it is essential to try to include anyone willing to listen, regardless of class. Secondly, i agree with the call to bring the protests back to home but at the same time the G8 and the like are perfect opportunities to really unite on a large scale. I believe greater co-ordination and downright jamesbondcunning could maybe be breaking that concrete and metal, my only reservation being how the police would react.

I'm responding to the request for Asian voices. I am not Asian. I am a working class Jew from San Francisco. I live in East LA, and my partner is a working class Jew from Chile.
But I did want to ask a question. How much of the population is Asian in England? How much is Black? I think I read somewhere that it was less than 10%. I can tell you that when I went from living in multiracial working class neighborhoods to living in all white working class neighborhoods I had to deal with anti-Semitism for the first time in my life. Why is the non-white population so small in England? Does it have something to do with the citizenship laws, and with the way immigrants are treated? Perhaps you will hear more Asian voices if you go to the protests against the racist citizenship laws and the ghetto-ization and criminalization of asylum seekers.
As we say over here, "Papeles para todos".

On the subject of working class local actions, and the elitism of middle class leftist, I totally agree with the first comment. Y'all are hella more advanced then we are over here on that front. But you definitely need more color, more cultural diversity and awareness, more mezcla, more shiluv.
As far as the thing about not dating a white guy, I can understand that. When people are a minority, when they have to deal with prejudice and when they feel intense pressure to conform, to talk and act like everyone else (even when I was over there I felt like I had to sit on my hands all the time, and when words popped out of my mouth in Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish, there was a lot of intolerance and negative reaction), they need a place of their own where they can speak their language, practice their rituals and be themselves. If the majority culture was more tolerant and more accepting, if the pressures to conform weren't so heavy, then I don't think you would see as much identity politics.

Over here there was a lot of intense politicking around identity politics in the 1970s and 1980s. I was involved in it too. But today, people are beginning to see how their own ethincity and culture was cooptated and sold back to them, and how the universities cooptated the Women's Movement, the police destroyed the Black Power Movement at the same time that the unversities set up Afro-American Studies departments, and the Democratic Party cooptated local leadership. Meanwhile class differences are busting out all over the place in all kinds of different groups, women, gays/queers, Latinos/Mexicanos, and Blacks and African Americans. Even fights over names show a difference in class. Racism exists as ever before. But it is blattant, it is institutional, it comes from the police and the courts. Meanwhile working class people are beginning to realize that they all have some very fundamental things in common. People from the marginalized groups had to go through the nationalist stage and come out the other end, and see with their own eyes how people from their own community, once they got into power, betrayed them. And people from the majority culture had to give up a great deal of their power, including the privileged place they had in the job market and wage inequality. Perhaps you all are going through a similar process that we did back in the 1970s and 1980s. People from the majority culture, even working class people from the majority culture do need to educate themselves about other groups, and they need to learn to be more tolerant and open.
Don't expect the Asians to open their mouth and come to you. You need to go to them and stand with them to defend their communities, and fight against housing segregation and job discrimination. And fight the racist immigration laws. And in the process of the struggle, you'll be amazed how much you'll learn.