This Monday, on 29 July, three young girls – Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9; Bebe King, 6; and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7 – were fatally stabbed in a knife attack at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside. A number of others were hospitalised with injuries.
The local community came together the following day for a vigil to mourn this tragedy, and to pay their respects to those who had been killed and injured.
But not far from where the vigil was held, a gathering of an entirely different kind took place. A riotous, reactionary mob stirring up Islamophobic hatred ran rampant through the town.
Sparked by false rumours that the attacker was Muslim, this hate march centred around the local mosque, where eight terrified worshippers were barricaded inside.
Bins and a police van were set ablaze. Bricks, petrol bombs, and pieces of scrap were hurled at the police, injuring 50 officers. Cars were flipped over, and thick smoke clogged the air.
Chants of “we want our country back” and “stop the boats” were taken up by the 300-or-so knuckle-draggers present.
Reportedly, fascist groups like the English Defence League (EDL) and Patriotic Alternative (PA) led this rampage. The rioters almost entirely came from across the wider region, not from the local community.
Evidently, this beer-fuelled pogrom had nothing to do with mourning the loss of the children, and everything to do with stirring up racial hatred.
Just two days later, copycat riots took place in Manchester and Hartlepool, the former of which targeted a hotel where asylum seekers were staying.
A large demonstration also gathered outside of Downing Street, where 100 far-right ‘protesters’ were arrested.
Today should’ve been about those innocent little souls in Southport.
Not this: pic.twitter.com/cyEWeQBEtw
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) July 30, 2024
Local community
One thing must be made absolutely clear: the actions of this small, vitriolic rabble do not represent the people of Southport.
Not only did actual residents of Southport make up a small minority of the mob, but the real working-class community of Southport showed an outpouring of solidarity with the targeted Muslim community.
Locals came together to clear the streets after the carnage. And one group of builders arrived to rebuild the mosque’s damaged wall at break-neck speed.
People help to repair damaged wall at #Southport Mosque after violence last night. Latest in @BBCNWT at 1.30 pic.twitter.com/5W6rDg91qY
— Andy Gill (@MerseyHack) July 31, 2024
During the riot itself, a lone local woman bravely faced down the far-right thugs, forcing her way to the front with an anti-racist poster and resisting threats, in order to show her message of solidarity.
Amidst the chaos, this woman held up a sign saying: ‘Hope not hate. Racism not welcome here’. pic.twitter.com/1Z7GihnoL7
— The Post (@liverpoolpost) July 30, 2024
Merseyside trade unions have also called for an anti-racist demonstration this Saturday at 13:00 outside St. George’s Hall. Liverpool Communists will be attending.
A further demonstration has been called under the name ‘No Racism in Our City’, on the same day at 14:00, at the Pier Head.
Establishment to blame
These events did not fall from the sky. This monster has been in the making for over a decade.
Far-right figures such as Nigel Farage, Lawrence Fox, Katie Hopkins, and Tommy Robinson have clearly played a direct role in whipping up this xenophobia and violence.
But these people are merely the most extreme examples of the prejudice that the entire establishment has been spewing for years.
For their entire time in government, the Tories used the most vile migrant-bashing and xenophobia to appeal to their rabid base, and to distract from their lack of policies to improve ordinary people’s lives.
This runs right from Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policies, through to Sunak’s Rwanda scheme and ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric. And let us not forget Boris Johnson’s abhorrent comments comparing veiled Muslim women to “letterboxes”.
Now the Tories are out of power, the baton has passed on to Starmer’s Labour, who are more than happy to continue the Tories’ attacks on the Muslim community, and nationalistic flag-waving.
All the while, the bosses’ media has marched in lockstep. Not a week goes by without the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, or The S*n running an atrocious headline about migrants and asylum-seekers.
The fact that reactionary views are on the rise – as part of a general polarisation in society, to the right and the left – is no coincidence. The establishment is consciously whipping up a culture war, to divide the working class and detract blame from their system.
This has in turn emboldened fringe far-right elements, who draw upon the complete rejection of the establishment that many people feel following years of austerity and decline, and distort it for their own reactionary ends.
Now these same hack journalists and establishment politicians wring their hands in horror when their culture war spills out onto the streets.
Starmer and co., for example, were quick to visit Southport in the wake of Monday’s atrocity, in order to lay down wreaths and distribute canned condolences for the cameras.
The hypocrisy is sickening. The blame lies entirely on their doorstep.
Overthrow their system
To fight the far right, we can’t rely on moral appeals from the very same liberals who caused this mess. Nor can we rely on the police, the capitalist establishment’s ‘armed bodies of men’, to protect us. They themselves are racist, reactionary, and abusive to the core.
Instead, the labour movement must mobilise workers and youth to drive this reactionary menace off our streets, and to defend against their racist attacks.
Above all, such efforts must be linked to a political struggle – to bring about socialist policies that can tackle the festering wounds of unemployment, deprivation, and homelessness that plague our communities, as a result of capitalism’s decay and decline.
In short, we need to wage class war, to overthrow the rotten ruling class and their system.
