From London
The attempt by the English far right to spread protests and riots this week failed at the hands of an unexpected confluence of the government, the judiciary, the police, anti-racist protesters and civil society. The far right had published the address of 31 sites in England linked to immigrants – such as accommodation centres, law firms, sympathisers – which were to be harassed and attacked in different parts of the country.
In these places on Wednesday there was a warlike atmosphere with businesses boarded up to prevent incidents and to alarm people directly threatened, but beyond some minor and isolated altercations, The day passed peacefully. On Thursday, businesses and streets returned to normal, as did the places vandalized during a week of protests, cleared and cleaned by residents as concrete proof of their rejection of the events. Thousands of Britons took part in anti-racism protests on Saturday following last week’s riots. The largest one brought together some 5,000 people in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Emergency
Despite this success, at his third meeting of COBRA – the government’s special unit for resolving national emergencies – the Prime Minister Keir Starmer He told ministers and police chiefs that they must remain on high alert despite the success achieved so far. The start of the equivalent of the second division in English football on Saturday is the first test of the peace that has been restored. On Telegram, hooligan groups from different teams issued a “patriotic” call to end the differences between the different “firmas” (fans of each team) in order to defend Europe and its native inhabitants.
It is a sign that the battle is not over. At the same time, for the first time since the incidents began on Tuesday 30 July, the far right is in a defensive position of retreat, waiting for the right moment to regain control of the streets and the media.
It was not a miracle
Like other historical events in other latitudes that seem to fall into oblivion or into the confusion of social networks or trolls, this regained peace was not a miracle. The reaction of the Labour government, the judiciary and the police marked a radical change from the connivance of the previous government, which on more than one occasion fuelled the situation with xenophobic proposals and incendiary rhetoric. It is no coincidence that during this week’s protests, demonstrators repeatedly repeated slogans that came from the conservative governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
On Monday the Prime Minister Starmer said he would bring the full weight of the law to bear on those responsible for these crimes “both on the streets and online.” It was not one of those statements that would go down the drain. On Wednesday, the first three of more than 400 people arrested over the incidents were sentenced. A 58-year-old man, Derek Drummond, who attacked a police officer in Southport, was given a three-year sentence while 29-year-old Declain Geiran and 41-year-old Liam Riley, from Liverpool’s Beatles, were given 30 and 20 months.
So far this week 100 of the more than 400 detainees have been formally charged and are awaiting the final verdict of the courts. Most remain in custody, a few who pleaded guilty were released on bail: all will appear again on August 20, already scheduled as a mega-court event. Among them are almost 20 minors under the age of 17 accused of the outrages. A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty in Liverpool court on Thursday after being identified from the images he uploaded to Tik Tok.
Terrorism
On Thursday, the nation’s prosecutor, Stephen Parkinsonwarned that many of the crimes in the hands of justice could fall under the category of acts of terrorism and that it would reach not only those who took to the streets to cause disorder but also those who encouraged them from the networks using their position as influencers. One of the most prominent is the founder of the “English Defence League”, Tommy Robinsonwho is on “holiday” in Cyprus and who has a warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear in court on Monday.
The first convictions for inciting violence on social media came on Friday. Lean Hogdson, 43, from Sunderland, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for inciting hatred on social media. For similar offences on social media, his contemporary, Andrew Smith, 41, received two years and two months and Josh Kellet, 29, two and a half years.
To this official policy were added the counter-marches at the 31 sites and other locations coordinated by anti-racist organizations with broad participation from affected communities. In Brighton in the south of the country, hundreds of people gathered at asylum seeker accommodation centres surrounded a dozen far-right protesters who had to be protected by a police cordon to avoid incidents.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khanthanked all those who demonstrated peacefully to “show that we are united against racism and Islamophobia.” In the previous days, more than 100 people were arrested in London and are also being paraded through the courts.
The trigger
The violent emergence of the far right following the murder of three girls on Monday 29th took the country and the government by surprise. The accused is a mentally unstable 17-year-old Welshman, Axel Prince Rudakubanthe son of Rwandan immigrants, but three hours after the events, the fuse that lit the barbarity was already circulating on the networks with the help of images from Artificial Intelligence: a photo of the alleged perpetrator who had the typical features of a Muslim – a tunic, beard, the Taqiyah, the traditional cap – and even a first and last name: Ali Al-Shakati.
The demonstrations began the next day, spurred on by this false information, and reached their peak over the weekend, when there were more than 35 protests in England and the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast. Most of them were no more than 100 people, but their tendency towards violence and chaos ended with Police stations, patrol cars, cars and accommodation centres set on fireguarantees of maximum national and global media visibility.
The government seems determined to break this link between social media and violence. On Thursday, Stuart Burns, 41, was the first person charged with posting content that encouraged violence against the police and public disorder. On Friday, there were the sentences already mentioned. The response has been uniform. A Labour councillor in London was arrested because during an anti-racist demonstration he called for “cutting off the heads of all the filthy Nazi fascists”, words that he underlined with the classic gesture of the hand across the neck to symbolise beheading (it would be interesting to compare what happened in Argentina with those responsible for the body bags, gallows and other symbols of death).
Elon Musk and the Falklands
The owner of X, Elon Muskbecame embroiled in a direct debate with Starmer that earned him widespread condemnation from the judiciary, the police, the ruling party and the opposition parties, with the exception of the Conservatives who maintained an ambiguous position that depended on the MP who responded in the media.
The owner of X and supporter of Javier Miley Musk intervened early in the crisis. At the weekend, he said the country was heading for civil war. Starmer countered that social media was a crime inciting violence. Musk responded that the government and police were applying double standards to far-right protests and those of Muslims.
Not satisfied, Musk shared on Thursday on X an alleged information from the right-wing morning paper Daily Telegraphaccording to which, Starmer planned “create emergency detention centres in the Falkland Islands for far-right extremists.” Himself Daily Telegraph He denied having published the note and said it had been a setup.
The Conservatives, who contributed to the current climate with Brexit and incendiary anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric, have nevertheless approved a bill that will come into force next year, the Online Safety Act. The law requires platforms to take strong measures against all illegal content and activity, including incitement to violence.
Show original message
The Mayor of London also expressed a similar opinion. “It is not enough, it is not enough to combat this phenomenon. The chaos we are experiencing is due to the misinformation spread on the networks about the murders and who is responsible. The way algorithms work means they can spread information very quickly. The government must reform this law,” said Khan.
With a parliamentary majority of 171 MPs, Labour can make an exemplary difference at a global level on an issue that is disrupting political and social life. It remains to be seen how far its political will will go. The enemy is the far right, but it is also the networks and their emperor, Elon Musk.
