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England riots were a protest - and they will happen again
A Guardian and LSE study of the summer riots suggest poverty and cuts were major causes
AN EXHAUSTIVE study by The Guardian and the London School of Economics, published this week, claims that people involved in this summer’s riots in London and some provincial cities saw the unrest as a protest against austerity imposed by an elite who caused the recession. And they believe there will be a repeat.
The August riots were sparked by protests in Tottenham following the shooting of gangster Mark Duggan by police - but unrest spread throughout England in the following days. Researchers interviewed 270 people aged between 13 and 57 and living in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham. The Guardian believes their accounts afford a more nuanced view of the riots than has so far been available.
Here are some if its findings:
- A protest - not a riot
A Tottenham man tells The Guardian: "I still to this day don't class it as a riot. I think it was a protest." A thirty-something female rioter says some people wanted justice following the shooting of Mark Duggan, but the rest wanted "justice for themselves". These people were protesting against "the cuts, the government not doing the right thing".
- Rioters targeted the 'wrong' areas
Many rioters admitted their rage was misdirected. An 18-year-old man who rioted in north London said: "If you're going to smash somewhere up, go Chelsea or something like that. Go somewhere where it's got like, the richer people - the people that we don't really like, the people we're against."
- The morals of rioters
Fifty-six per cent of rioters believe 'moral decline' was 'important' or 'very important' in the summer unrest. Anecdotal evidence backs up the suggestion that some rioters see themselves as moral.
A Londoner who rioted in Clapham said: "I only looted shops that I knew were like major consumer brands... like international businesses that are just raping the world anyway." Another rioter from Birmingham told how he had saved a journalist who had his camera stolen from being stabbed.
Some rioters said they discouraged others from looting local, independent shops.
- Hatred for politicians
A young rioter from Liverpool says: "It doesn't really matter if it's Labour or Conservative because the people behind the scenes are always the same, but especially this particular Conservative government on the face of it. I hate them...
"It's in their eyes, you know what I mean? They hate the lower classes."
- Hatred for bankers
A 22-year-old Londoner says: "You get these bankers that have put us in this recession that are still managing to reap massive bonuses, while we can't get jobs. Literally, we can't get jobs."
- Rioters feel excluded
Half of rioters said they feel "part of British society" compared to 92 per cent of the general UK population. One 22-year-old London rioter told The Guardian: "All I can tell you is that me, myself and the group I was in, none of us have got jobs." Some spoke of attacking shops that had turned them down for jobs.
- Poverty was a factor in the riots
In the aftermath of the August riots, David Cameron said: "These riots were not about poverty." The Guardian found otherwise. More than half of those who appeared in court in connection with the riots lived in the most deprived 20 per cent of the UK.
Two-fifths of children who appeared in court in connection with the riots received free school meals. Of the rioters interviewed in the study who were old enough to work and not in education, 59 per cent were unemployed. Eighty-five per cent of rioters said poverty was an "important" or "very important" cause of the riots.
- Riots were not coordinated on Twitter
Initial analysis of a database of more than 2.5 million tweets posted during the unrest suggests the social tool was used mostly for reacting to the riots rather than coordinating them. The Guardian also found eight per cent of the tweets were used to organise clean-ups following the riots.
- Rioters say it will happen again
Four out of five rioters think there will be a repeat of the summer unrest, with two-thirds saying it would happen by 2014. However, only one in three said they would take part. ·
