In part 1 of this article pointing out the neglect of larger social issues it was argued that blaming the victims of the hierarchical mass society system has become a default position of all political tendencies within the neo-liberal phase of the capitalist mode of production. The mainstream media’s parroting of the ‘Thugs’ and ‘law and order’ narrative emanating from all sides of the political spectrum over the summer of 2024 ‘Riots’, is now being replicated from a different angle – this time from the reformist left. Yet again with regard to civil disturbances and citizen unrest, the social and economic context of the current neo-liberal phase of the global economic system is being either largely or totally ignored.

This socio-economic amnesia is emanating from many of the left who occasionally posture as radicals is similar to the centre and right. It seems that some powerful motive prevents many people from blaming the way we humans are enforced by current circumstances to live collectively. The left, right and centre of the established elite political system will not countenance any serious internal criticism and opposition to the system which privileges them. Their narratives are selected to eliminate any of the problems arising within these societies. Here is another example produced this month by a left liberal campaigning group based in the UK;

“The street violence that has gripped much of England and Northern Ireland since 30 July instead tells a story of who the modern far right are, how they organise, what they believe, and the coalition of hard-right politicians, commentators and influencers who have empowered this hateful movement to inflict widespread violence against families fleeing fear.”

As they openly confess, “instead“, of socio-economc facts it’s a story of the “modern far right”.  For these left liberals the street violence in the UK is a “story” about the “hateful” far right movement of individuals. So in fact it is a ‘story’ which deliberately misses out the facts of a socio-economic system which for many decades in the UK and Europe has increased the wealth and privileges of the rich and decreased the wealth and well being of the working and non-working poor. In this left liberal ‘establishment‘ mindset, the economic, social and political reasons for the rise of right wing beliefs and whatever experiences have made them “who they are”, are apparently not even worth mentioning, let alone seriously considering. I suggest this neglect is because this reformist section of the British establishment and its political representatives in the British Labour Party and assorted NGO’s have for a generation utterly failed to adequately or seriously represent the interests of the lower middle classes, the union organised working classes and the precarious and unemployed working people of the UK and elsewhere.

As a consequence of this failure of the soft ‘left’ to ‘represent’, the interests of a significant sector of UK society, a small section of the latter’s victims of the system have broken away from the ‘established’ reformist wings of the British class system and are seeking alternatives. Disgusted with the two or three generations of three (or two) party establishment pattern, they are choosing to follow what they mistakenly consider are alternative radical means to hit back and disrupt the current established elite ideas, practices and policies. But the above noted mediocre middle class, think-tank intellectuals, rarely start from reality.

So the lefts, typically for intellectually trained individuals, conveniently reason that it is not the actual experiences of the working classes in the UK and Europe which inform what ideas they are expressing, they prefer to assert the opposite. To most intellectuals, their mental  ‘camera obscura’ turns reality  upside down. They follow the mistaken philosophical proposition; ‘I think; therefore I am’, when in fact the real world operates according to the observation that; ‘I am; therefore I think’. Just seriously and self critically reflect on your own intellectual process or watch any new born baby for confirmation that ‘being’ (experiencing) always precedes thinking. Hence these trained liberal reformist inverters of reality  think that it is simply the ideas and messages that the rioters have been given and are expressing which determines how they behave. Thus they write;

“These messages have gathered pace over the past four years as the former Conservative government ramped up messaging to “stop the boats” and accused migrant people of abusing the system while being “child rapists” and “threats to national security”. In the same time period, growing anti-immigrant rhetoric and a failing policy to house asylum-seeking people in hotels has repeatedly triggered real-life violence and intimidation, mainly outside the hotels housing families.”

So the decades of living through austerity and measures undermining the living standards and security of millions of working class citizens administered by Conservative, Liberal and Labour governments is being ignored. Also being ignored is the undoubted ability of the masses to deduce for themselves the overwhelming unfairness of the current system which rewards the few and punishes the many – even during a Pandemic. All these decades of complicity by all wings of the British political establishment is being ignored and instead they want the rest of us to believe that it’s the ideas of the right wing fringe political tendencies which are stirring things up and causing the unrest. It is perhaps inevitable that the manufacturers of so-called politically correct ideas about who is allowed to define themselves as feminine and who is not, would also manufacture ideas which conveniently omits their own class-based complicity in the reality of decades of British and European life.

In this inverted way, the left liberals conveniently avoid dealing with the part of the British ‘establishment’ socio-economic reality they are actually part of promoting, whilst living at the expense of it and protecting it. They are simply adding their influences to the law and order campaign orchestrated by the latest Labour Government’s left liberal ‘benighted’ ‘establishment. The spectacle of an antiquated ‘knight of the realm’ (arise Sir Keir) repeatedly urging the criminalisation of confused and serially angry young teenagers for loudly protesting and wildly throwing office and street furniture about the streets, actually indicates the existence of an alternative story.

The alternative is a story about the experiences of more than one generation living throughout their lives with a lack of adequate school buildings, disappearing youth clubs, few decent skilled jobs, adequate social housing and decaying community environments. The targets these indigenous victims chose (immigrants) as the catalysts for the current riots and disturbances, as confused and as mistaken as these expressions are, are nonetheless the limited and distorted expressions of something deeper. In the UK, Europe and elsewhere there are increasing numbers of exasperated human beings who are now refusing to be treated like sheep and who are refusing to be silenced. Mentally herding (or physically kettling) them toward or within whatever ‘story’ or space seems convenient to the established elite, is no longer working. So long term imprisonment in a prison estate which is already failing and close to collapse is to be tried

Another crucial missing chunk of reality from the current establishment narrative in the UK, Europe and the West, is the ‘story’ behind  how come so many foreign countries have become so inhospitable to their own people? Why is it that those born into them are so desperate to get away that they will risk life and limb in a overcrowded piece of boat shaped plastic and pay out all the money they possess to escape the clutches of their systems and its governing elites? How come many regions of Asia, Africa, and Oceania, which have historically supported large numbers of resident peoples and whose societies literally lasted for thousands of years whilst doing so, with only a relatively few Marco Polo type intrepid travellers venturing beyond their own shores? Why have Asian and African people in the 21st century, suddenly wanted to urgently leave their homes in such huge numbers?

Could this neglected alternative prequel ‘story’ have anything to do with the period of colonial history in which the European elites conquered and subdued these foreign regions? Did the deliberate European ruining of their local indigenous social systems and economies perpetrated in order to obtain possession (or control) of their ample natural resources, not have anything to do with current problems? Could the increasing exodus of people from these now rapidly failing puppet state regimes, be anything to do with the 20th century installation and ongoing 21st century manipulation of them by European and North American country elites? Indeed, the installation of those regimes were deliberately set up by the UK, European and US elites so that they would become long term enablers and agents of the west who would comply with European and North American elite economic and financial requirements.

We need to ask why are the UK and European establishment voices of all political tendencies of left, right and centre, remaining silent on this undeniable Do they think that the modern descendents of these ravaged communities don’t know this colonial and imperial back story to their present urgent need to become immigrants? The Hey Day of the Colonial and Imperial period is in the past but there is still continuing foreign military, financial and political interference, subjection and displacement behind the current wave of immigration. In reality, rather than racist myth, the majority of immigrants, are not raiders of our reduced social funds, they  the current victims of economic, political or military oppression by regimes still supported, fully armed añd equipped by the UK, Europe and the West.  Could it be, that the silence by all these ‘established’ well educated sectors concerning, the impoverishment and oppression of the European working classes and the poverty and oppression of the foreign immigrants trying to get into the UK and Europe, is actually a lack of knowledge of the colonial period of capital accumulation, its horrors and assumptions? I doubt it!

Or is it perhaps a decision to deliberately ignore some highly embarrassing past histories upon which knighthoods, privileged forms of parliamentary living, reporting and ongoing foriegn investment returns (private and institutional) are still fully based upon? So much silence in 2024 on any possible alternative motivational ”stories’ concerning riots and disturbances from the professionally trained chattering middle classes of modern societies, must have a powerful reason to explain it. You normally cannot turn their verbal X, tik tok, Facebook, Radio or TV dihorea off, it normally keeps on gushing out. Commodifying sentences and selling them whether they are repeatedly banal or not is keeping thousands of them in the salaried means to purchase, consume and pollute the planet locally and internationally. Words are cheap to produce, particularly now there are AI sub routines to expedite the recycling of banality; however, corrective humane actions are what is needed.

With regard to the many victims of the current hierarchical mass society systems it is to be hoped that the stoked up frustrations and anger of the current suffering populations in Europe and elsewhere, will soon be re-focussed on the real problem for life on earth and the suffering sections of humanity. I suggest the focus of anger and frustration should be calmly redirected onto the current nature of the elite governed socio-economic system itself. And not just on its latest capitalist based mode of production. Non-capitalist elites are just as problematic as capitalist ones in regard to authoritarianism, oppression and the exploitation of humanity and nature.

Anyone who doubts this only need to read about the reality of Leninist Russia, Maoist China and North Korea under the Kim dynasty. As an alternative to repeating past mistakes, individuals and groups of concerned individuals need to begin thinking and seeking to actually implement alternative, more ecological and humane ways of living now. Being a supportive, cooperative part of the humann species rather than a competative warring section, would not only be preferable in particular but also more in line with the evolution of life on earth in general. Of the millions of species existing on the planet, throughout their millions of years of evolution, no other species has systematically treated other members of their own species with so much hostility and aggression, nor destroyed the environmental resources they needed to lived upon.

Roy Ratcliffe (August 2024)