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UK August Riots Newswire Archive

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Corporations and the London Riots

09-08-2011 15:13

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.

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Life after riot?

09-08-2011 14:55


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More London uprising.....

09-08-2011 13:48

Revolution
Its only eight months ago, December 2010, since British students rioted in London and other places, against the David Cameron government introducing educational fees etc. As it isn’t enough, that students has to finance there daily life’s, books, transport etc., when students rioted it was due to al this and other cut downs on the educational sector.

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Britain’s riots: A society in denial of the burning issues

09-08-2011 13:41

The Times, The Independent, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2011
Britain saw its third consecutive night of widespread burning of properties and looting as riot police failed to contain gangs of masked youths marauding several parts of the capital, London. There were reports too of violence fanning out to other cities across Britain.

Britain’s social decay has been seething over several decades, overseen by Conservative and Labour governments alike. The burning issues that need to be addressed to explain the outburst of arson, looting and rioting are endemic racism endured by Britain’s black community and, more generally, the deepening poverty that is increasingly racking British society.

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Police tonight will be different - be warned

09-08-2011 12:55

Just come off the phone with an activist friend whose father is a copper (not her fault).  She has talked about what the tactics will be tonight.

It seems the filth have had instructions to "take the gloves off" ( I guess from Cameron now back from his tax payer funded Italian holiday and photo op) and that they will be using two new tactics to a greater degree.

Road clearing - so called 'Sentinal Surge' - this involves the use of a tight line of police vehicals side by side simply driving head on at people who fail to move.  Obviously a criminal offence but hey it's the filth right so they can get away with it.  People need to be very, very careful as it is easy to assume they will stop - they will not !

Snatch squads - they call this 'carp fishing' an individual is targeted for snatch, he or she is then given a good kicking in the back of a van but rather than taken to the station is released back into the street.  The individual will then stagger back to his friends who the police believe are intimidated by seeing somebody so badly beaten.

 

All of the state media operation is hard at work bigging up the damage to 'private' property, threats to little old ladies etc etc so that the police actions will be defendable tomorrow morning after the likely high casulties and maybe even deaths among the innocent on the streets.

 

Be warned, stay together, stay safe.

This revolution can be won

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Rioting spreads to New Basford?

09-08-2011 11:55

Local media have made much of the news that rioting which has swept London now seems to have reached Nottingham. There were a number of apparently serious disturbance in St Anns, including an attempted firebombing of the polcie station. There was also an incident in New Basford which the police are claiming is connected. While it is possible that they have access to some intelligence to support this, I am not sure it is an obvious conclusion.

Map key:

  1. Shipping container targeted last night
  2. Car park, used on a number of occasions for dumping and torching stolen cars
  3. Building burnt down a couple of years ago

In their official statement, Notts Police describe the incidents in St Anns in some detail, but have only one sentence about New Basford: "At a few minutes past midnight, in an incident believed to be linked to the other violence, a container of some 200 tyres were set alight in Gowthorne [sic.] Street, New  Basford."

In fact they mean to refer to Gawthorne Street. The spelling mistake (obvious to anybody who bothers to consult a map) is replicated by both the Post and the BBC giving some insight into how little actual journalism is being focused on the story, despite the inevitable interest it has generated.

As a somebody who knows this area quite well I was surprised that the police seemed to be jumping to the conclusion that arson here was connected to activity on the other side of the city when there has been a long-running spate of arson incidents only metres from last night's fire.

The shipping container of tyres which was set fire (1 in the map above) is located in Northgate Place, a small industrial area which also houses local renewable energy cooperative V3 Power. Part of this is a car park (2 in the map) which while busy during the day is both largely empty and unlit at night and has on a number of occasions been used for dumping and torching stolen cars.

Meanwhile, perhaps a 100 metres away, there is a old warehouse building which was burnt down a couple of years ago (3 in the map, subsequently restored/rebuilt). There were also a number of smaller incidents (one of which briefly disrupted power to local homes) and these are only the ones I can recall. I assume the police and fire service have much better records of such incidents.

None of this precludes the possibility that some local firebug was inspired by recent events in London to go out and set another fire. But it is possible that it was simply a coincidence, part of a long-standing local problem. A possibility which Notts Police should be well aware of. Walking past today both the fire service and police scientific support were in attendance so perhaps they know something further, only time will tell.

With some commentators queuing up to advocate that the riots be dealt with by some kind of de facto martial law; putting the army on the streets (to do what? shoot people? because that did such a good job of reducing tensions in Tottenham) it is important that we make a serious effort to understand what is going on. Grand conspiracies make nice stories and compelling headlines, but the real world is often a much more complicated place.

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London Riots: God Save the Queen's Ass! (by Latuff)

09-08-2011 11:55

God Save the Queen's ass!
Copyleft artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff.

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Video of last night riots

09-08-2011 10:55


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St Pauls and Stokes Croft Riots

09-08-2011 10:55

705422_photo_1.jpg

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The UK Riots and Capitalism's Decay

09-08-2011 09:55

Parts of London are still burning after an enormous third night of riots, during which the flames have spread to Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol and Liverpool. There is huge controversy over the conflagration, and the media establishment is doing its best to condemn, rather than try to understand. As a communist, this is not enough for me. These riots are the sudden bursting to the surface of social tensions that have been building up for many years - tensions that are rooted in the crisis of capitalism.

Amongst all the TV footage of buildings engulfed in flames, it's easy to forget that those flames were sparked by bullets from police guns. Last Thursday, cops shot and killed Mark Duggan on the streets of Tottenham in North London. The nation's biggest armed gang - Metropolitan Police - claimed that Duggan had been a "gangster", and it was reported that an officer had been shot during the incident. It later emerged that the bullet had embedded in the cop's radio, and it was police issue. This added credence to eyewitness statements that Duggan had been pinned down when he was killed.

On Saturday night, friends and family of Duggan gathered at Tottenham police station, demanding answers. Cops then set upon a sixteen-year-old girl with batons, for reasons which remain unclear. The stage was set for a nocturnal showdown between an angry community and the agents of the state. The violence seemed to be the living embodiment of Martin Luther King's quote that "A riot is the language of the unheard."

That was day one. On day two, the idea of rioting appears to have spread by word of mouth and - of course these days - on Twitter and Facebook. Doubtless many of those rioting had the notion that they were settling old scores with the police. Others seem to have seized on the opportunity to loot shops while the police were distracted. This pattern spread yet further on day three. There were also reports of violence against people who had nothing to do with the police.

But those paragraphs only take us so far in understanding what happened. Like any major event these days, it has to be analysed in the context of the economic crisis, which was touched off by the ultra-rich, and their losses have been steadily passed down the food chain, with the poorest suffering most. As even a Daily Telegraph article admits, this socio-economic vandalism has created the conditions in which such tumult was certain to happen sooner or later.

Two weeks ago I a visited a small exhibition at Liverpool's International Slavery Museum, commemorating the Toxteth riots of 1981. Temporal distance had added understanding to the statements which lined the walls, though they went on to complacently claim that Liverpool was a very different place now. Last night, there was rioting in Toxteth's Upper Parliament Street once more.

But in a sense the exhibition blurb was right; Liverpool of 2011 is very different to the Liverpool of 1981. Back then we'd only had six years of the neoliberal assault. Now it's thirty-six. The latest crises of capitalism have created a generation of ghetto children with even less to lose.

The problem isn't that oppressed working class people are breaking the law en masse. The problem is that - justified anger at the police notwithstanding - so much of it is ostensibly 'apolitical', and many of the victims are entirely innocent politically speaking. As yet, there has been little leadership from the working class in the workplace. This apparently directionless outburst of rage and destruction is the inevitable result.

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Tonypandy Riot 1911

09-08-2011 09:29

Theresa May making a fool of herself on the BBC prompted a phone call to BBC saying 1911 Tonypandy were followed in 1912 by the Minimum Wages Act.

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The UK Riots and Capitalism's Decay

09-08-2011 09:17

London's burning...but why?
Parts of London are still burning after an enormous third night of riots, during which the flames have spread to Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol and Liverpool. There is huge controversy over the conflagration, and the media establishment is doing its best to condemn, rather than try to understand. As a communist, this is not enough for me. These riots are the sudden bursting to the surface of social tensions that have been building up for many years - tensions that are rooted in the crisis of capitalism.

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Police shooting of Mark Duggan in London and subsequent riots

09-08-2011 07:55

As at midnight monday/tuesday 8/9th August reports are coming in of serious rioting and widespread looting in several areas of London and in Birmingham.

Below some sources of info/ analysis

UPDATES

read more

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Another Night of Unrest in London

09-08-2011 01:55

Last night saw an incredible spread of what some call, rioting, looting, mindless thuggery, or anarchy in the uk. What is certain is no-one is quite sure what it actually is or means. Even anarchists are watching but not quite sure how to respond, but as more and more analysis begins to make its way through the non-stop twitter updates, and hysterical media wank, were now for UKPLC? and how does the violence of a disenfranchised, un-politisized youth, be made to reflect to the bourgeois middle classes that just because rioters do not have political aims does not mean the causes of the riots do not lie in politics.

links here

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London Riots: Only the Rioters to Blame? (by Latuff)

09-08-2011 00:11

London riots
Copyleft artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff

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bristol liverpool birmingham following london

09-08-2011 00:00

cars torched in toxteth liverpool, police station on fire handsworth birmingham, riot police blocking st in bristol

in london more fires being reported including large one back in enfield (maybe sony distro centre) smoke visable on m25

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Hackney photos

08-08-2011 23:55

Photos taken earlier this evening.

Cops attacking kids in the Hackney Central/Pembury Estate area

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Anarchist response to the riots

08-08-2011 23:55

Where is the anarchist response to the riots? A few thoughts...

While the most exciting wave of civil unrest unfolds in front of our eyes, anarchists across London seem to be failing at actively supporting this immense expression of anger and frustration. We believe this expression to be totally legitimate and should be encouraged and supported. But how? The writers of this are not sure themselves but here are a few ideas and we hope people will think about and act out their response to this situation.

Create a visible and directed anti-authoritarian presence - we should be on these demonstrations with banners and literature but perhaps most importantly facing down the police. Think black-bloc, barricade roads, don't run when the pigs come.

Legal advice - we should be making people aware of the importance of masking up and the presence of CCTV. Distributing bust cards is also important (note: many people wary of receiving legal advice from perceived outsiders. we are not completely sure how to overcome this and it needs thought.)

Pick your targets - the rioters so far as doing a good job of redistributing wealth by attacking large corporations. what else can we go for? police stations, courts, other government buildings, banks, CCTV cameras

Think about safety - we should be aware that some people are using this as an opportunity to mug others. stay safe, move in groups and think seriously about who you trust with your physical safety.

This is just the beginning of what we should be doing and we hope a dialogue is formed between all protesters across the city and the country who are tired of the police harassment and exploitative economic systems.



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Chapeltown?

08-08-2011 23:39

In Leeds.