As I was saying: The Tottenham riot 12 years on
I posted this on 18th August 2011 a few days after the Tottenham riot which took place after the police shot dead a young black man Mark Duggan on 4th August 2011.
I was Secretary of Haringey TUC at that point, a post I no longer hold, although I remain a delegate.
I’ll have more to say about Tottenham 12 years on but I see no reason not to look again at the view I took then.
Can you predict a riot?
As Secretary of Haringey TUC, the local arm of the trade union movement that covers Tottenham, I have become increasingly fed up with those who argue that people in the area had no reason to riot on 6th August because circumstances are worse elsewhere.
According to the July 2011 figures the unemployment rate in Tottenham was 8.4%. That continues to be the highest in London, though certainly not the highest in the country. It might explain, for example, why there was not a riot in Chelsea [2.6% jobless] but it can’t positively explain what happened in London N17 just a couple of minutes-walk from where I am typing this.
There are two key points to make I think.
Firstly, historically speaking, it has never been possible to predict a situation that would definitely lead to a riot. To argue that such things are spontaneous is simply bad history. It just says ‘we don’t know’ who it was. As the two young men who tried to organised a riot via Facebook and got a draconian sentence as a result found out, simply proclaiming that one will happen doesn’t work either.
Historically, though works remains to be done on this, I’d say that ninety-nine situations out of a hundred where an angry crowd- or mob- has gathered and there is potential for a riot, it does not actually occur.
Usually the spark is an over-reaction by the authorities.
That may well have been the case in Tottenham on 6th August when a peaceful march to Tottenham police station to demand answers about why police had shot dead a local man Mark Duggan two days earlier, appears to have attracted the attention of an over-zealous officer who, according to video evidence, seems to have hit one of the protesters.
I wasn’t there at that moment and such incidents, historically, which perhaps take place over a matter of seconds are always difficult to fathom out.
That incident however might well have been enough to spark the burning of police cars that then took place. It probably would not account for the wider rioting along Tottenham High Rd.
The second point is that anyone active in the area should have known well enough that the potential for a spark to ignite a riot was there.
The unemployment total and very low level of vacancies is a statistical reflection of a situation where numbers of young and not so young people in the area feel they have little stake in society or hope that the current system will provide them with even the basics of a decent life.
It might be argued that unlike the pre-industrial riot where those involved had few other means of making their point, in 2011, there are political parties, trade unions, community structures etc. Indeed there are and all of them are active in Tottenham.
The issue is that they are seen as not being able to provide answers.
The Labour Governments from 1997 saw the problems Thatcherism had created in the area and took some action to address them. It was not enough because to really shift matters a much more robust attitude to market capitalism which has failed the area since the 1970s would have been needed.
On top of all this came more recently the removal of the EMA, giving young adults less reason to attend college, and huge cuts in youth services.
Anyone of these factors on their own would not be enough to create a riot, and even the combination of them does not guarantee it.
The fact remains that on 6th August a section of the population in Tottenham spoke out loudly and visibly about how they feel. The result was messy and pretty unpleasant for those who lost homes. Unfortunately when social tensions explode and an attempt to change society is made the outcome often is a bit messy and confused. That cant detract from the power of the statement
That doesn’t detract from the fact that even if nothing is solved by what happened in Tottenham on 6th August, questions are posed and issues raised that must be answered
Let’s hope someone is listening….
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