After the Riots: The Council must face the ‘real Manchester’

Article published: Thursday, August 11th 2011

In Manchester on Tuesday night thousands descended upon the city centre: some to loot, some to fight the police, some for the thrill. What happened in Greater Manchester and across the country showed the ugly end-point of the political and economic project of the last 30 years. The Mule Editorial Team give their perspective on the Manchester riot…

The town centre was a scary place on that evening. The rioters and looters were often reckless, acting with little care for the safety of themselves or others. A few were just out to hurt other people, and as it got dark hardened gangs prowled the streets to take advantage of the situation. Nobody wants this.

But those who watched in horror from afar would most likely have misjudged the atmosphere early on. There was an odd sense of humour to it. While there were no clear political targets or obvious message, this didn’t mean those involved were wild animals fighting one another for each and every trinket. They were largely groups of friends acting with universal abandon, high on a sense of control and nothing to lose.

Not all took part in the destruction and stealing, many were there for the spectacle in a place where without money they are normally so unwelcome. Nearly all shared a passionate hatred of the police, who they perceive to unfairly harass them, their friends and their families every day. Some would explain how the cuts were affecting them and limiting their aspirations, and how people were “frustrated” and “angry”. They didn’t necessarily condone what was happening, but they understood it. Others openly said they were just there to make money – a reflection of the values extolled by social elites.

No Return to ‘Business as Usual’

Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Peter Fahy said, in a myopic and revealing statement, “Nothing in Manchester has happened to provoke this behaviour”. He and other leaders in the city making similar claims are trying to avoid the difficult questions which these events have raised. Manchester’s elite do not want to take responsibility for any part of this social crisis, and are failing to address the reality of the country’s and the city’s social and economic situation. The riots engulfing cities up and down the country were predictable and predicted, but the political establishment has willingly ignored the signs for years. Anyone who didn’t see this coming really wasn’t paying attention.

So why has this happened? What makes a young person willing to wreck a city centre, risk their physical safety and potentially gain a criminal record which would scupper their employment prospects? The sad truth is these kids don’t believe they have much of a future in our present society: their actions were of people with little to lose, the actions of those without a stake in society. Councillors may not like to admit it, but these too are “real Mancunians”.

In the aftermath councillors, both Labour and Liberal Democrat, have been talking about a return to “business as usual” – a call to keep calm and carry on, grass up your kids and get to work. But the usual business in this city is vast inequality and the exclusion of a substantial proportion of the youth from the limited political, social and economic successes seen here.

Thousands of rioters did not materialise out of thin air, but were drawn from some of the most deprived parts of the country. 27 per cent of children in Manchester grow up in severe poverty – the highest level in the country. It also has the lowest life expectancy in England, and has had an unemployment level among 16 to 24 year olds of around 30 per cent for over 20 years. As of April this year, the figure stood at 28 per cent, as opposed to the national average of 20 per cent. Two thirds of these youngsters are males. In a city with a student population of 10 per cent, 16.9 per cent of people have no qualifications.  This is the “real Manchester” for so many young people, and it is the reason why returning to business as usual is unacceptable.

A Systematic Silence

The only attempt by any of the political leaders in Manchester to account for the causes of what has happened is to point to the supposed weaknesses and tactical failings of the police. The best the Manchester Evening News could manage was to point the finger of blame at parents. All are keeping a systematic silence on the poverty and inequality which blights the city when it’s staring them in the face. It seems now they have been caught up in the lie for so long they are literally incapable of comprehending what went on, even as one political or economic crisis after another strips the fragile legitimacy of their position. All these facts have long been public knowledge, but the Council refuses to acknowledge it, unwilling to stain the ‘Manchester brand’.

To create this brand a grand project of social engineering has been carried out in Manchester and throughout the UK since the 1980s. In Manchester this is born out most visibly in its urban geography: the poor existing in run-down estates or moved from area to area as regeneration projects bring demolitions, gentrification and rising house prices.

The city centre is a good case in point. It has been turned into a citadel of the rich, the domain of property speculators, bankers, elite culture and consumer capitalism. Marginalised youth are often moved on by police and private security guards unless they are spending money. They are at best expected to take up menial service sector jobs – of which there are not even enough – and catch whatever crumbs fall from the top table. It is no surprise then that people should turn to crime for both money and self worth, and that they should lose respect for ‘their’ city: the reality is it is not theirs. Pat Karney’s condemnation of those “trying to destroy our city” revealed far more than he meant it to.

Addressing the Real Problem

The embrace of neo-liberalism has created not just inequality but also an atomised, individualistic society, where self-seeking greed and a lack of respect for others are presented as virtues. In some respects, the rioters hold a mirror to the dominant values of mainstream society.

The austerity measures currently taking place are a continuation of a long running process of redistributing wealth from poor to rich, and they will increase this inequality further. There have been warnings that this would lead to rioting, even from the likes of Nick Clegg. Most notably in Manchester the Council decided this year to practically abolish the city’s youth services as part of its programme of spending cuts – the only local authority in the UK to attempt a 100 per cent budget reduction in this area. They were warned by local campaigners that it could lead to violence.

The question now for the Council is straightforward: do they have the guts to admit this and begin in a real discussion? The situation is crying out for a serious commitment to the future of the city’s abandoned youth and for a council and populous that listens to them. There are communities around Manchester who will be desperate for some sort of engagement. There will be many who won’t, feeling the political system has simply nothing to offer them, and at present they’re not far off the mark. None of these problems will go away unless the council in Manchester and the government in Westminster address the structural inequality, deprivation and exclusion in this city and across the UK. That will be an incredibly difficult and messy job. Are any of them prepared to stick their head above the parapet? If not, expect this to be just the beginning.

 

Tweet

More: Manchester, Opinion

Comments

1. The best opinion piece I’ve read on the riots so far. Thanks and keep up the good work.

   Comment by Alex on August 11, 2011 at 4:43 pm

2. I’m having to assume that the reporter was out on Tuesday night, because the article doesn’t seem to bear much resemblance to what was actually happening.

   It’s interesting that the article doesn’t mention the very very obvious involvement of organized crime–people who patently have the money to enjoy the city centre, even if your rather biased viewpoint were true (Primark doesn’t exactly make its money by being a ‘citadel of the rich’). And, of course, who mostly prey on the poor of their communities (article about that please?)

   Apart from the organized gangs, which became more prevalent as the night wore on, the vast majority were school-age kids out for a fun time, of which smashing windows and running around was the prime activity.

   And, actually, what we didn’t see was people wanting to fight the police. Almost everyone ran away whenever the Police arrived.

   “So why has this happened? What makes a young person willing to wreck a city centre, risk their physical safety and potentially gain a criminal record which would scupper their employment prospects? ”

   For the first parts–fun. For the latter, because they didn’t think it would.

   Comment by Sceptic on August 11, 2011 at 4:50 pm

3. This is so spot on. I am one of the youth workers disestablished from the council. Barely a skeleton workforce is left. The education department is the same. A city of this size with this many issues should never have made the decision to reduce its spending so drastically. I am all too aware of the poverty, inequality and desperation of our youth and their families. I visit kids who haven’t even a bed to sleep on. All this is kept quiet. And don’t get me started on young people in care in this city – how many of them will have been involved on tuesday night – many I suspect.

   Comment by excouncil worker on August 11, 2011 at 4:50 pm

4. Well done, sick of people trying to make out these teenagers are not in poverty. They shave their heads because they can’t afford £15 at the barber, thinking it looks neater than bedraggled hair (it does), wear trackies because you can get 3 pairs of trackies for one pair of jeans, and have a £10 cheap pay as you go phone, they probably got for Xmas. Should one or two happen to have received a nicer mobile for Xmas – even the liberal left can be heard moaning – they have CHRISTMAS!! They’re meant to have no money!!

   These teenagers got the chance to be powerful for a night, it let off steam. The vast majority of them will have been born into – and will ultimately die in poverty.

   That’s the truth of their lives (and they know it) and both the left and the right in this country like to take the p*** out of them and blame them.

   What civilised country ever blames children for the conditions they were born into??

   CM

   Comment by CM on August 11, 2011 at 6:04 pm

5. An excellent article; definately one of the best I’ve read so far. I think however there is also an issue of materialistic values that has propagated the desire for unnecesarry material wealth in all classes of society. This is damaging for both the individual and the environment. As a priority, everybody should be entitled to the minimum requirements of life: food, water, education, healthcare, shelter and clothing but there is a fundamental flaw in the values propagated in our media and education systems. Human life is not made rich, once the basic necessities of life are attained, by more material wealth. rather the knowledge of how to cultivate contentment with life itself in the individual brings true wealth.That great social reformer John Ruskin once put this well; ‘There is no wealth but life’. This doesn’t mean a cessation of struggling for justice: self development and societal improvement must go on hand in hand.

   Comment by Dave on August 11, 2011 at 6:17 pm

6. You can always rely on Manchester Mule to see the real angle of stories in the city. While others band waggon-jump Mules stops to analyse and report with intelligence. I’m glad of its excellent contribution to local news.

   Comment by unemployedhack on August 11, 2011 at 7:44 pm

7. This is an excellent piece of writing and analysis.

   In the year 2008-09, the police across England and Wales conducted over 1.2 million stop and searches on people, mostly the young and disproportionately black and Asian young people. This is the systematic harassment of a generation. The hated ‘sus laws’ have been reintroduced in the UK in all but name. It is also an example of how institutional racism remains a key aspect of policing today and offers an explanation as to why the police are despised by young people today. Like the widespread poverty in our cities and towns that goes unreported, this harassment is also an adjunct of neo-liberalism.

   As the grand policy of austerity is further rolled out across the UK because of the ongoing systemic crisis within the global capitalist system, this harassment will only sink its roots further into society.

   Let’s make no mistake here, the media and press with a few notable exceptions, support austerity. Because the consequence of poverty and blighted lives leads almost inevitably to these explosions of anger from below, the media and the BBC will also line up behind those who advocate a creeping authoritarianism. Privileged middle class BBC presenters and controllers fear ‘the mob’ as it threatens their privileged places in society. Yet an almost inevitable consequence of the knee-jerk reportage of the last few days will be the stigmatisation of all protesters as potential rioters and all protests as potential riots. Witness the disgusting smear tactics employed by the BBC news this week when respected African-Caribbean journalist Darcus Howe was branded a rioter by a BBC news presenter Fiona Armstrong for simply stating his views and seeking to provide a realistic analysis of the causes of the riots.

   We should not condemn the rioters but condemn the policies, the politicians and the those who benefit from a system that creates the poverty and social conditions for these eruptions of anger.

   Comment by Dr Gary Duke on August 11, 2011 at 7:52 pm

8. Have to say that while interesting and raising some valid points I can’t help but find some of the tone contained within this article very patronising given that it is council workers that deal on a daily basis with the reality of ‘real’ manchester and the challenges and struggles that exist in this great but deprived city. Who are the people working in inner city schools and children centres, in children’s homes and social work offices and homeless projects to name but a few? Who are the people working with some of the most socially excluded and sometimes violent families day after day? Surely they are in fact the people that know as well as anyone what is really happening out there and many are working damn hard to achieve positive change in the communities that many commentators sitting at their computer in nore salubrious areas have lots of opinions about but have rarely – if ever – ventured into. I do agree that there are social and economical issues that canot be ignored, that cuts are having an awful impact on already deproved communities (cuts not made by choice by the council but that’s a whole other issue!)and of course I know there are many other groups of people working hard in the same communities as well as council employees – but please don’t think the council workers don’t know their city, the good the bad and the ugly.

   Comment by tinydancer on August 11, 2011 at 9:16 pm

9. bad wording – it means Councillors, not Council workers!

   Comment by tom on August 11, 2011 at 11:04 pm

10. Anyone seen Simon?

    Comment by Ben on August 11, 2011 at 11:46 pm

11. Hi tinydancer. The article is referring to the leadership of the city, not the regular council workers who carry out their (frequently tough and thankless) jobs

    Comment by richard on August 11, 2011 at 11:59 pm

12. Maybe he got arrested trying to loot the offices of some public service.

    Comment by tom on August 12, 2011 at 1:08 am

13. […] AFTER THE RIOTS: THE COUNCIL MUST FACE THE REAL MANCHESTER […]

    Pingback by Riot aftermath: How citizen journalism is reporting it. « CitizenA on August 20, 2011 at 11:05 pm

14. WHEN A SOCIETY AS CORRUPT AS THIS TREATS ORDINARY PEOPLE LIKE SHIT , A FIGHTBACK IS INEVITABLE . EXPECT MORE OF THE SAME , AND IT IS SO DESERVED . THIS CORRUPT HELLHOLE BRITAIN WILL REAP WHAT IT SEWS .

    Comment by JEMMIE on November 1, 2011 at 5:15 pm

The comments are closed.