The recent riots in the Lozells district of Birmingham beg the question: what has changed twenty years on from the first Birmingham riots?
Has the economic deprivation and high unemployment Lozells and Handsworth been tackled? Do national or local government officials now prioritise helping people who live in such areas? Has state racism eased back on targeting the black community, especially Muslims? To pose the questions is to answer them.
One difference, however, is that the anti-racist politics of 20 years ago uniting black, Asian, non-white and sections of the white community, has lost ground to multiculturalism and identity politics.
This has contributed to differences and tensions escalating into an explosive situation. With no solution in sight for the social and economic problems, only blind alleys of communal conflict offer themselves.
A system that forces different groups representing dif terent ethnicities to compete for funds fosters divisions between them.
So allegations that Asians are over AfroCaribe ae hip just add uniting black, grist to the mill. Thirty per cent adult unemployment, poor housing and lack of a future for youth are the real enemies of the area.
What is needed is a new anti-racist discourse, allied to social policies that put an end to the vast economic inequalities experienced by the residents of these areas, compared to more affluent areas of Birmingham. In short, an anti-capitalist agenda needs to be popularised.
However, even diluted expressions of anti-racism are under attack, with would-be Conservative leader David Davis, for example, advocating an end to multiculturalism.
New Labour is increasingly calling for everyone to be "British" and there is no indication that leaders of the two parties are pulling Dack trom racist agenda, let alone dealing with poverty and inequality. So what has been the actual response to this difficult situation? Two community meetings, one in the area and one in the Council House, heard angry voices of division combined with The anti-racist politics of 20 years ago Asian, nonwhite and sections of the white community, have lost ground to multiculturalism and identity politics. appeals for unity and complaints that the Council and police were out of touch.
Over 70 women and children marched for peace and justice through Lozells. Birmingham Trades Council has discussed the crisis. A petition calling for an enquiry into the response of the emergency services and the social background of the conflicts was presented to the City Council on November 1.
At a successful meeting of North Birmingham Respect, Raghib Ahsan of the Peoples Justice Party said that when women make a complaint of rape (the immediate cause of the riot) they should generally be believed.
There were therefore calls for the Home Secretary to declare that if the alleged victim and illegal resident Calcul of hiding she would not be deported to Jamaica. Little had been said or done by local councillors, or by the local MP, Khalid Mahmood, the meeting felt.
Raghib Ahsan declared Labour a spent force and Respect National Council member and anti-racist activist Cheryl Garvey noted the failure of the existing political leadership and said new ones were needed.
Other proposals included holding a unity demonstration, inviting Respect MP George Galloway to do a public meeting, creating multiracial defence forces and organising community campaigns against inequality in education. In general, it was agreed, a mass campaign TOT justice was required.
The recent riots have now died down, but the tension remains. Respect could play an important role in channelling the discontent in a different direction and building a base for itself in the area. Anne Leclerc and Leonce Aguire A real trial of strength has been launched by the ChiracVillepin-Sakozy government against the workers movement and the broader social movement as a massive revolt has erupted in the most deprived banlieues.
The spark was the death of two youths who had taken refuge in an electricity sub-station as they were fleeing from the police in Clichy-sous-Bois, a city of 280,000 where half the population is under 25 and the unemployment twice the national average.
Two days later during a protest against police violence, the CRS riot police launched a tear-gas grenade into the city's mosque during prayers. This lead to great anger, especially as the government refused to make any apologies whatsoever.
A few days earlier while visiting another suburban city, the interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy declared viciously to the residents that he would "clear out the scum". These words were widely repeated on television and in the newspapers. These remarks are consistent with what he said last summer when he threatened to clean up the working class areas with Karcher (a brand of powerful disinfectant).
These malignant remarks were felt as a real provocation, not only by the youth but also by the majority of the inhabitants who once again were being stigmatised.
Drastic cuts in public spending have resulted in the destruction of health and education, as well as in the dramatic slashing of subsidies to community organisations that are trying to maintain some form of social networks and solidarity with a background of draconian security measures.
In the secondary schools, and more particularly in those providing particular vocational training, there is a shameful closure of courses as well as oversubscribed classes wich leaves thousands of 16 year olds out in the street without education and hope.
Young people themselves say that they are only "holding up walls" and that they "don't have any future". There are also an increasing number of 13-14 year olds totally outside the school system.
The destruction of public services, a housing policy geared towards subsidies for individuals to gain a foothold on the private property ladder and the abandonment of social housing, have seriously affected living conditions. Sensitive urban areas
The banlieues that are going up in flames are to be found in the cities classified as "sensitive urban areas", where unemployment is at least 20 per cent and sometime reaches 30 per cent.
The discrimination in employment and housing endured by those living in these banlieues - because of their ethnicity or where they live -reinforced the very real feelings of injustice and exclusion. The various urban policies pursued over the last 20 years are no more than a fig-leaf for neoliberal policies.
The suggestion that the crisis is caused by an islamic plot or drug trafficking is of course nonsense. It is the combination of neo-liberal and strict security policies that are at the root of this legitimate
In adition to these policies, there is also an attack on the trade union movement with the use of the army against the sailors of the SNCM ferries to Corsica and the ruling that the tram workers strike in Marseille is illegal.
The response of Villepin and Sarkozy to the revolt in the banlieues has been one of unprecedented brutality, and taking another step in the war against the poor and young
As well as the occupation of some banlieues by various security forces, the government has declared a state of emergency by using a law from the time of the war of Algerian independence, which allows for a curfew, the banning of meetings and demonstrations, the right to raid any premises day or night and transfers all judicial matters to the military!
As the government can only maintain this state of emergency for 10 days, Parliament has urgently been reconvened to have it renewed. And on Wednesday, Sarkozy took another leap in his repressive measures as dozens of youth arrested were sent to prison and he declared that those who are not french nationals would be expelled.
The Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire has appealed to the labour movement and civil rights organisations to defy the state of emergency and the curfew. An immediate response must be organised to hurl back the gauntlet which been thrown down to us. • Anne Leclerc and Leonce Aguire are regular writers for Rouge, the newspaper of the LCR. This article was written for Socialist Resistance based on material that appears in this week's Rouge. For further material on the situation in France see www.internationalviewpoint.org (in English) or www.lcr-rouge.org