These are texts written after/during the recent riots all across London and especially in Hackney. They are NOT Hackney Anarchist Group statements! They have been written by individuals and are just published here out of interest.
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ANGER
August 2011. Riots in Hackney.
Already we hear from everywhere people trying to find THE explanation of these events. How weird is it? How can there be one single main
explanation for something that involves so many diverse people in so many different parts of London and UK? We heard them all, from “sheer
criminality” to “that’s what happens when tories cut public services” and “working class revolution!” or “disenchanted youth”. Maybe it’s just
everything. How can we know what was in the mind of thousands and what dictated their actions? What exactly is the point of trying to pinpoint WHY this happened?
One thing for sure is that there was, amongst a lot of very different things, confrontation. And some of this confrontation was directed towards the state, the police, the authorities. Those of us who find ourselves falling in the trap of thinking we are some sort of political elite/social change experts, that we should “educate people” and drive their anger towards the right target, quickly lose our patronizing tone and realise that there are people out there also very experienced and skilled in being confrontational. Smashing bank windows, going on strike, looting a chainstore, opening a squat, throwing empty bins at the police, bringing cakes to workers pickets, burning some cars, growing tomatoes collectively… which is more “political”/”radical”? which makes more sense? who gives a shit? We want everything!
Sometimes, some of us (who spend a lot of times in meetings) wonder: but where is the anger? why isn’t there more anger amongst and around us? Is anger important? is anger “political”? Are people less angry than they used to be? Is anger control a capitalism and state issue? Could one of the welfare state function be to shut down people’s anger? If there is any kind of truth in these, and if it’s agreed that there was quite a lot of anger in the streets of London and Hackney during these riots (anyone disagree?), then maybe these were some very interesting events.
They’ve happened, they’re there, they’re part of the history of Hackney and they might well bring us some hope for the future!
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We keep hearing the words ‘pure criminality’ and ‘sheer criminality’ because the police and politicians are desperately trying to make sure that nobody can claim that the riots are political but, of course, they are.
It’s no coincidence that the riots kicked off in Tottenham following the murder of yet another black guy who just happened to get on the wrong side of the police and it’s also no coincidence that Monday’s activities kicked off in Hackney, one of the five Olympic boroughs with a long history of insurrection and large black and homeless populations. A Hackney resident interviewed by one of the news networks said ‘This is an Olympic borough. There’s a lot of money been spent here recently but none of it is trickling down’. There’s a video on YouTube right now where a masked up woman coming out of a shop is asked what she’s doing and she says ‘Just getting my taxes back’.
It’s also no coincidence that the majority of the people involved are from the generation that are suffering most from the cuts to government spending. They’re the same kids that got politicised last year when they marched to demand the re-instatement of the Education Maintenance Allowance, the money allocated to poor families to help teenagers study for university entrance exams, which was one of the first casualties of the cuts. People have been tweeting that they don’t understand how this could happen less than a year before the start of the Olympics but what they are really not understanding is that these kids couldn’t care less. Support for the Olympics was manufactured in the first place. Since then, the most vulnerable people have been the ones to suffer most. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you see services being cut all around you and you or members of your family are suffering while a huge Olympic park is being built in your neighbourhood which you, indirectly, are paying for but which is completely irrelevant to your life then you are going to take action to take back some of that wealth right from the source, ie., the corporations that will be the only ones to benefit in the long run.
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Seen on The Commune website
http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/08/09/london-riots-quick-report-from-hackney/
London riots – quick report from hackney
One of a few Commune members who has been observing the events in Hackney gives a brief report. For updates, follow our twitter. More reports and analysis to follow.
Yesterday in Hackney there was an air of anticipation and waiting, some kind of word had gone round that “Today’s Hackney”. People were hanging around on corners and shopkeepers were standing on the pavement outside their shops. There was some running backwards and forwards, then the flashpoint came when the police stopped and searched two black men on the Narrow Way. A big crowd gathered and surrounded the police, and people were shouting that police harrassment was the cause of the riots in Tottenham. Reinforcements quickly came with riot gear and started chasing people around and trying to block people in.
The crowd ended up on Mare Street and a pattern soon developed where the police had a strong line to the north of the street, slowly advancing, and also blocking some side streets, and the crowd were gathered and moving slowly south. Whenever the police advanced people panicked and ran but in general the police were not trying to make arrests or charge seriously. Possibly their main priority was keeping people away from the shops in the Narrow Way.
The businesses that were damaged on Mare Street were fairly targetted: businesses seen as parasites like the bookmakers, the Cashconverters pawn shop and so on; a bank; and places with valuables such as a sports shop and a jewellers’. The petrol station was also looted for drinks and people handed out bottles of water to strangers. The only cafe looted was one which is a big chain and also has no atmosphere and really crap tea so I had no problem with it. Quite ridiculously one of the few arrests early in the day was a kid who had looted a packet of crisps from there. A man with a good grasp of targetted looting was shouting to the crowd “if it ain’t gold, don’t be bold!” The atmosphere during the day was pretty friendly and open, the crowd was very multiracial and of different ages and there was lot of passive support. The line between spectators and participants wasn’t clear. There was only one attempted mugging which was broken up quickly by the crowd.
Later on in the night people were gathered around Clarence Road, next to the Pembury Estate. Possibly the police were trying to keep them there away from the shops and main roads or maybe people felt comfortable there. There were quite a few burning cars and a line of riot cops that every now and then someone threw a bottle at. The atmosphere there was pretty different, heavier and nastier. There were some robberies of people in the crowd and I didn’t feel as safe as I did earlier. The convenience store on Clarence Road was looted for drinks which was upsetting and today I can hear lots of people objecting to: “He’s been here twenty years”, “we all shopped there” and so on.
Today walking around that is the only small shop attacked that I have seen apart from one optician, the rest are electrical goods shops or big brand stores. Contrary to what I’ve heard I didn’t see any houses burned but there were a lot of burned out cars. One thing that I keep hearing people say is “What’s the point of cleaning it all up when it’s all going to happen again tonight?”
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see also on Indymedia London
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9857
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9819
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9749
and on the Workers Solidarity Movement website
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