“HISTORY OFFERS COLD COMFORT TO THOSE WHO THINK GRIEVANCIES AND DESPAIR CAN BE SUBDUED BY FORCE” (ROBERT KENNEDY)

The title heading was Bobby Kennedy's response to those who wanted to destroy the American Civil Rights Movement by brute force,

Months ago after the colossal Trade Union Rally in London and after the Student protests I was telling anyone who would listen that we were in for trouble in the coming summer. I am baffled therefore by professional politicians and journalists who appear to be acting as if the recent riots were a surprise. Nor is it a surprise to see the 'powers that be' launching an immediate campaign to portray events as nothing other than criminal thuggish behaviour which happened without any provocation. To accept that there are reasons and catalysts for such things happening would mean that the establishment would have to look carefully at its self and that could be awkward. The Government and the right wing dominated media in this country consider Oliver Twist's mother who died in the workhouse as a scrounger who should have "got on her bike" and found a bloody job instead of sponging off society.

Prior to the last election the loathsome Nick Clegg stated and I paraphrase "the election of a Tory Government with their proposed savage cuts will lead to civil unrest" he now says words to the effect that "this is criminal behaviour and nothing else" the Americans have a saying for people like Clegg they say he is "blowing smoke up your ass" meaning he is a lying con man. The blogosphere and Twitter etc. went crazy with one upstanding citizen posting
"If London riot police had shotguns this would all be over by now, and London would be a better place due to a sudden drop in the number of unemployed people" a radical thinker right? Big question here: is there a reason for what's happening and if there is should we try to prevent it happening in the future? After the Brixton riots of 19 81 Lord Scarman's report stated that "social conditions did not provide an excuse for disorder" and added the caveat that "social conditions did however create a predisposition toward violent protest" he was no friend of the left but he knew that these things don't just happen without cause. The Government cabinet of 29 members has 27 millionaires some of whom including Cameron and Osborne were members of a university group called the Bullingdon club who thought it a jolly jape to get roaring drunk and smash up bars and restaurants which they patronised, then off they would go back to their rooms smashing whatever they could on the way. All of these mindless upper class thugs are now calling the present rioters nothing but criminals and thugs; perhaps it takes one to know one.

We have of course been here before and I'm sure that some people are fed up hearing me say it but, under a capitalist system this is what you must learn to expect and accept because; like playing poker everyone can't win and when the losers don't even get the chance to sit at the card table trouble of this kind is always just around the corner. Add salt to the wounds by tolerating bent politicians, squalid criminal journalists, avaricious bankers, financial spivs and speculators, dishonest cops etc. all topped off by the shiftless unemployable Lords and Ladies, include the festering boil that is royalty sitting highest of all, consider multi millionaire non worker Prince Harry who is a poster boy for badly behaved youth everywhere: a veritable ill-bred drunken brawler of the highest kind. Let these pillars of society all frown, look down and talk down to the surly disaffected kids on the sink estates and guess what? you have a recipe for a lot of angry resentful mainly young people with no real stake in society who see no way out and only years and years of tedium; petty crime and cynicism which makes their situation incessantly volatile. Some might even think surprise, surprise that getting drunk and setting fire to a building is not a bad idea and having done that smashing shop windows and liberating some TV's and fancy trainers is a bonus. "If a banker can destroy people's hopes and cause jobs and livelihoods to be lost and still walk away with millions why can't I nick a pair of trainers" is possibly what they might say, maybe someone will write and explain that. One commentator made a damning claim today when he said that the rioters would have to be out full time working 3 shifts a day for more than a year without a holiday to do as much damage as rich tax evaders do in a week to the British economy. When the poor get the blame for everything wrong with society you get trouble; when they have to pay for the crimes of rich bankers and speculators you get serious problems. For their crimes bent cops and journalists get away with them; the tax dodger and gambling bank bosses get rewarded for it and the teenage rioter gets the jail, go figure.

I should not have to say what I am about to say but; because I know what some of the people who read this blog are like and what they are capable of I will state that I do not support rioting such as we have witnessed but let me be clear that that is a tactical statement, I say that not because the rioters are wrong but because I believe there are better ways of winning the battle, fighting fire with fire is a reasonable tactic but the establishment has bigger fires and big sticks to beat you with along with proposals to use water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets, dogs horses etc. etc. peaceful disobedience is far cleverer The Rev. Martin Luther King and Gandhi taught us that, when the British and American public saw the treatment being used on peaceful protesters of all ages on TV the people started to win big time. History teaches us that a great many advances in people's rights and their futures were brought about by those who were prepared to stand and fight against injustice, those who condemn all protests riots etc. are simply wrong and either ignorant of history, in denial or simply liars. When a dedicated doctor earns a £100,000 a year and a footballer earns a £100,000 a week there is something wrong. The Boston Tea Party was a riot, the Russian Revolution started by riots as did the glorious French Revolution and many more great historical events are similar. The scenes of the last couple of days and nights might not be as huge as these past events but in their own way and at the heart of what has been happening they have similar origins.

The answer? It doesn't take long to explain, a fully comprehensive redistribution of wealth guided by a socialist government.