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Corporations and the London Riots

Loukanikos the riot dog | 09.08.2011 15:13 | August Riots | Policing | Workers' Movements | World

The rioting and looting which followed the shooting of Mark Duggan by the police has been called an 'outrage' and an 'atrocity', terms usually reserved for murder and genocide rather than the burning of department stores.

Some of the anger of the riots has focussed on chain stores and department stores such as Carpetright, Starbucks, Boots, Comet, Footlocker, H&M, Cash Converters and Halfords.

The corporations have been robbing us blind, controlling every aspect of our lives. Corporations have unprecedented access to the corridors of power and violence by the police is invariably carried out to protect private interest and corporate profit margins. However, police violence is not the only form of state violence perpetrated on the behalf of the corporations: the bloody conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been carried out, in the face of public outrage, to secure resources and markets for corporations. Our culture is controlled by the corporate media and PR companies who tell us what to think, what we need and how to live our lives while what we eat and the ground we walk on is owned and controlled by multinational corporations.

In the face of all this, is it surprising that people have vented their anger and frustration on the corporations and the police who protect them? The looters are simply taking back a little from the very people who have been taking everything from us all of our lives.

There have not only been attacks on the state and capitalism and have burnt down working class homes (above shops), cars and looted local businesses. One answer to this is through communities self-organising to ensure this does not happen and to support a wider sustained resistance against the state crackdown to come

Nick Clegg and David Cameron have appealed to the BBC not to make excuses for the rioters by linking them to the cuts. However, the systematic attack on public services and benefits and the propping up of multinational corporations, as part of a wider system of exploitation and control by the ruling class. Enfield, the scene of intense riots on Monday and Tuesday, is a stark example of a community who have borne the brunt of a crisis which was not of their making. In 2009, as a result of the economic downturn, Ford motors decided to jettison Ford Visteon as part of a downsizing drive. Visteon was closed down in the cheapest way possible, by being allowed to go into administration. This left Visteon's 600 workers out in the cold, given just one hour's notice, little redundancy pay and no pensions.

It is clear that the riots will continue and that there is repression coming, with police talking about using plastic bullets and the media crying out for the troops to be called in. We need to support those arrested and prepare for the inevitable state attacks on these communities.

Loukanikos the riot dog

Comments

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Solidarity across oceans and generations.

09.08.2011 17:31

I'm an old red living in California and wondering why nothing like what we're seeing in Britain, or have seen in Greece, is happening here, where the poor, and even previously middle-class sections of the working class, are being shafted. Of course, I want to see the anti-capitalist violence, in Britain and elsewhere, intensified, generalized, AND targeted better.

BTW, when I see Cameron complaining about violence, it reminds me of my ongoing desire to see him, and a few thousand of his most important supporters, targeted the way he and his NATO thugs have targeted Qaddafi and his supporters. If Tripoli can be bombed, why not Downing Street and The City?

Aaron Aarons
mail e-mail: ukriots@aarons.fastmail.net


Carpet Right?

17.08.2011 18:44

What the fuck have they ever done to anyone?

Dan Factor


CarpetRight has...

17.08.2011 19:42


....made Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham a fortune of over £200m. He is on the board of Arsenal and has a few Academies to his name.

Of course it only takes one person to start a fire, and it's impossible to know what they were thinking at the time.

Rich List