These far-right riots and the ensuing racist and Islamophobic violence are unparalleled. Yet the government’s response is to focus on ‘violent disorder across the ideological spectrum’. This dissimulation cannot go unchallenged.

You can’t solve a problem unless you name it. How is it possible to deny, after far-right rioters exploit the horrific killing of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged 6 to 9, at a Taylor Swift- themed holiday club in Southport, Merseyside, that the problem we face today is a fascism with its seed bed in racism and Islamophobia, societal fragmentation and breakdown, divisive policies and the mainstreaming of hate.

And yet the prime minister, at a Downing Street press conference on 1 August, where he twice refused to condemn Nigel Farage’s YouTube mischief, chose to do exactly that.  While acknowledging that today’s issue was the far Right, Starmer quickly changed the subject to the more nebulous threat posed by ‘criminality’ and ‘thuggery’. Having misidentified the problem, on the advice of senior police officers, he announced the creation of a new national ‘capability’ across police forces to combat violent disorder across the ‘ideological spectrum’.

Coddling the far Right

Perhaps we should not be surprised at the prime minister’s response given that   politicians from across their ideological spectrum, as well as the media and the police, have, for decades, chosen to nurture (in one way or another) the far Right. Extraordinary indulgence was shown to the likes of the English Defence League – and continues to be shown towards Tommy Robinson – who were allowed, for over a decade, to terrorise Muslim communities in northern towns and beyond with provocative marches and ‘counter-jihadi’ incursions that forced communities, in the face of police indifference, to defend themselves in 2015 and led to the arrest of the Rotherham 12.  For so many years, Labour and Conservative strategists alike vied for the vote of the ‘left behind’ white working class, amplifying far-right narratives about a ‘failed multiculturalism’ and helpfully handing the national megaphone to a puffed-up Nigel Farage. Meanwhile, the Conservative government pressed ahead with austerity policies that not only further marginalised the multicultural working class, whether in London or Bradford, but also created today’s multi-dimensional social crisis.

Challenges ahead

As we come to terms with the horror of the Southport stabbings and their aftermath, deeper questions have to be addressed, about the fragmented and warped nature of society, deadly violence against women and girls, and how we meet new challenges. I reiterate the danger posed by a government that chooses to downplay the explicit racist violence of the last week in favour of the ‘thuggery’ narrative, now compounded by the reprehensible suggestion from Home Office minister David Hanson, that some of those who joined the far-right protests might have ‘genuine concerns’, that could be raised with their MPs. As ever, it is the politicians who make the irresponsible headlines and the communities that feel the brutal effects. We should be grateful to people like Taj Ali, Lila Tamea and Nadine White who have used their social media accounts to ensure that no act of racist violence goes unrecorded.  We have also seen the resilience and generosity of communities, as people flocked to defend mosques and asylum seekers, also clearing up after the far-right mayhem – a welcome revitalisation of past anti-racist/anti-fascist traditions rooted in community defence, solidarity and care. Those of us with long memories, or indeed those attending the Spy Cops inquiry today, with its revelation that MI5 officers considered ‘smearing’ anti-racists as part of its job, will know that the state has long treated anti-racists and anti-fascists on a par with fascists, when it comes to resistance and protest. Starmer’s reliance on facial recognition technology, already called out by Big Brother Watch, will do nothing to stop the spread of fascism, which has deep roots. On the other hand, the police’s latest powers, the national ‘capability’ to combat violent disorder across the ‘ideological spectrum’, could open up a new era of mass surveillance and criminalisation. The Violent Disorder Unit has the potential to drastically curtail the right to protest (including the right to defend communities from racism). As anti-racists and anti-fascists, we will need to approach this dystopian new dawn with great agility, imagination and determination.