International Socialist League
7.30pm Tuesday 23rd August
Caledonia Pub
Catherine Street
Last weekend the streets of Britain erupted in anger and frustration across 15 cities and 41 places in London.
The spark for this began in Tottenham when the police arrogantly and disrespectfully failed respond to serious concerns about the shooting dead by police of a 29 year old father of four Mark Duggan. Initially lying, they said that there had been a shoot out in order to legitimate murder and went on to try and create the illusion that Mark was a ‘gangster’. Of course it all turned out to be a lie. What has happened to those police who murdered Mark and those who lied? Nothing.
The subsequent media and political response to the uprisings across Britain has been to depoliticise and criminalise the events and the young people. Those young people had had enough and out of frustration, lack of opportunity and lack of voice took to the streets. The daily experience of being criminalised, marginalised and disconnected, the abuse of stop and search powers and dispersal powers, cuts to youth services, the dereliction of their communities, mass unemployment, with nothing on offer to young people they took to the streets in their thousands and voiced their anger.
At the same a riot shattered the stock markets creating an escalation of the economic crisis in the USA and Europe. The shockwaves that spread though the financial markets following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 created a financial maelstrom which continues to sweep across the world causing chaos and resulting directly in attacks on the working class. That is why we are seeing our services being cut and privatised and this is the backdrop to and the cause of the youth uprisings which the politicians are too afraid to admit.
However politicians, bankers, police, and media all remain unaccountable and unpunished – we see their wealth increase and their powers extended. At the same time we are seeing a despicable response to the riots with outrageous sentences and penalties, and an increase in militarised powers of the police. This must be fought against and those subject to penalties must be defended. We will discuss how we can respond to the powerful and how we can defend those sentenced or penalised, the powerless.
The Socialist Voice is now available in News From Nowhere in Liverpool, Housmans and BookMarks in London
Or send £9 for six issues. ISL c/o News from Nowhere, 96 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY
