Riots and Political Protest by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781317909989
Google: IqnwCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-06-19T02:47:34+00:00

Question: ‘Have you ever been on any of the EDL protests?’

Young Mike:

Aye, me and Bren went down with a bunch of others. Fucking coppers everywhere.

Young Bren:

It’s a right good laugh as well. I like it. Fuck them cunts, you know what I mean? Send them all back, that’s what I’d do. This is a Christian country.

Paul:

I’ve never had the time, but I would go. Fucking right I would. Why not? It’s just showing people we’re still here and we’re not going to take any more shit. We’re going to stand up for ourselves . . .

David finishes Paul’s sentence:

And fuck anyone who says any different. Police, politicians, in the newspapers, who gives a fuck? They can all fuck off. We’re not going nowhere.

Paul reflects on the changes in working-class politics:

My Dad was a shop steward down the pit [a union organiser in the coal-mining industry]. He wanted to stick up for people like us. He used to say that if we all stood up together no one could touch us. Everyone used to love me old man. He could hardly read and write but he was a smart bloke. That’s what the EDL is doing now. It’s about standing up for what you believe in. It’s about looking after your own. It’s saying we’re not going to take any shit.

Question: ‘What do you make of the left today?’

Paul:

The left are a fucking disgrace. They’ve got nothing to do with looking after the working class. All they care about is looking after immigrants.

Like many others we spoke to, Young Mike assumes that the UAF (United Against Fascism) and other groups who form counter-demonstrations at EDL rallies represent the contemporary Left. He has no understanding of the historic connection between the working classes and the Labour movement in the north of England. He sees the far Right as the natural representatives of the working classes and the radical liberal Left as his opponents. For Young Mike, the political Left represent the urban, liberal middle classes who attempt to instruct the working classes how to live and what to believe in.

Young Mike:

They’re mostly Pakis. They come to the protest [as part of a counter-demonstration]. Not all of them. Calling us Fascists and hiding behind the police. Proper brave they were, shouting all sorts at us with fucking five hundred coppers behind them. Soft cunts.

‘But the Left used to be about defending the working class . . .’

Paul:

They’re fucking against us mate, believe it. They fucking hate us. They’ve got no idea. They’re soft as fuck. They’ve got fuck all to do with the working class. They’re all immigrants and just look after their own.

Young Bren:

Isn’t it them [the left] that’s trying to bring in gay marriage?

David:

The left, you mean the Labour Party and that lot? What have they ever done for the people round here?

‘You’ve had a Labour MP and a Labour council for years . . .’

Paul:

No wonder things are fucked. No one gives a fuck [about us], that’s why people are going out protesting.

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