Chaotic Revolt

'Chaotic Revolt' video by Global Faction

On 4th August 2011, Mark Duggan was murdered by the metropolitan police. He was the latest in generations of people, particularly we of African descent, killed directly by the police and/or while in custody. In the immediate aftermath of his death, his family had to be informed of his murder by the mass media, as the police did not even have the decency or respect to contact them. Instead, that same mass media was used to attempt to defame and demonise the victim - the victim - of this murder.

On 6th August 2011, Mark's family, friends, neighbours and community of Tottenham held a peaceful protest to demand information outside their local police station. The police responded by putting the station's shutters down and attacking the protestors.

Over the next four days and nights, England burned. Thousands of people, angered beyond words and banner-holding took to the streets to vent that anger and years upon years of pent-up rage and frustration. That anger, rage and frustration had begun to appear since the anti-G8 summit protests in 2009, in the student protests of 2010/2011 and at other times, but this latest expression of disdain and disregard for an innocent man's life by the police and the establishment they protect lit the ammunition that had been building up and spilling out.

The ignored, belittled, endangered people of england rose up, disorganised, anarchical and chaotic, and made a bigger and more important statement and impact than any protest any 'activist' group had made in england's recent history. Private property meant nothing, commerce meant nothing, rules and laws of control and restraint meant nothing. The police were the enemy. The state was the enemy.

The significance of these events was displayed in the response by the oppressor. David Cameron, the face of the same company/country who at that same time was arming rebels in Africa and the Middle East to overthrow their leaders, named the agents of these uprisings as 'mindless thugs', the latest insult to add to 'benefit cheats', 'lazy unemployed', 'criminals', ' thieving immigrants', and 'niggers' 'pakis' 'wogs' 'terrorists' and 'wiggers' (to paraphrase David Starkey). Water cannons, rubber bullets, their army, disconnecting or blocking internet messaging - all these were suggested, some were used. Anyone found to be involved were given atrocious  prisons sentences - six months for 'looting' a packet of chewing gum, four years for writing a facebook status. Stuart Hall recently got fifteen months for abusing fourteen children as young as nine. But this is a democracy. We have rights. We have justice. We're free.

The media displayed every single person they could find to give opinions. The only condition for getting air-time to say whatever you wanted was to open an close with "I don't condone what people did". There was also a very loud silence from some 'community representatives' and 'role-models'. You expect this from the mainstream media and their go-to 'representatives' who gain publicity for their latest attempt at reform or keep quiet for their career's sake. But even people who call themselves militant, or even revolutionary, put out stuff on the internet saying to stop the 'needless destruction'.

What didn't happen, probably because the fear-mongering tactics of the state worked to plan, was that hardly anyone - activists, community leaders, artists, writers - attempted to organise and channel this anger in a truly productive direction. But again, some people did. That's why certain rich and affluent  areas of London and other cities were targeted by the uprisings. That's why in Birmingham police helicopters were shot at (following the pattern of Libya's no-fly-zone?). That's why police stations were fire bombed in Nottingham. That was those 'mindless thugs'. That wasn't the SWP. Who are more revolutionary?

Two years later, those rebels are facing life in prison. The police officers who murdered Mark Duggan are at home with their families. Mark's family, and those who truly support them, are still battling for answers, to be shown some respect, and most of all for justice for their son, brother, husband, nephew, father. So is the family of Joy Gardner. So is the family of Roger Sylvester. So is the family of Sean Rigg. So is the family of Cynthia Jarrett. So are the family of so many others, including Jimmy Mubenga, killed by G4S 'security' under the command of the UKBA.

These atrocities will continue as long as we let them, as long as we sit back and do nothing, as long as we don't support victims and each other in our communities, as long as we keep talking and making art about being revolutionary while doing nothing to study the reality of our situation and the history of revolt, while condemning the signs of potential revolution instead of organising them. And this is as much a personal critique as it is a criticism of anyone else. There isn't an easy answer, this isn't a small task. But we need to build on the things we do have, not chop them down through romanticism and being idealistic. Those uprisings two years ago were untrained acts of self-defence, after generations of constant attacks, from multiple and angles on us, the people, by them, the establishment. Its time to learn how to train, harness and channel those defensive instincts through discipline, organisation and focus - like becoming a martial artist instead of a brawler. Its down to us to use the tools we have to prepare for the inevitable continuation of these attacks. And when they come, we can't judge, condemn and let ourselves be further divided. We need to Unify, Organise and Revolt.