Challenge racism, stand with the victims of far-right terror

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/challenge-racism-stand-victims-far-right-terror

Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

Migrants and refugees are not responsible for Britain’s ills – a message we must make absolutely clear, says JEREMY CORBYN MP

LAST week, a horrendous murder took place in Southport as three children were brutally hacked to death in a violent knife attack. What followed showed both the best and worst of society.

The best was the outpouring of support for the grieving families of the children. The worst was the far-right forces who attacked the mosque in Southport, a hotel housing refugees in Rotherham, and Muslim-run businesses across the country.

These far-right attacks on the Muslim community echo the tactics of the Nazis against Jewish people, shops and businesses in Germany in the 1930s. In both scenarios, the far right use violence against minorities and blame them for poverty, housing shortages and pressures on health and education services.

The emboldening of the racist right has come from the growing use of anti-migrant language by supposedly mainstream politicians, claiming that desperate people crossing the Channel in flimsy boats are an “invading force.”

The same voices seem unable or unwilling to acknowledge that wars cause refugee flows, and that the migrants who have made their homes in Britain work tirelessly to try and make underfunded services work at all.

At the same time, we are witnessing an economic strategy inherited from the Tories which increases the huge wealth gap in our society, perpetuates austerity and ignores the desperate poverty of so many children.

The response of the left must be to stand with the victims of far-right terror, challenge the far-right racism and call for the government to address the common issues facing all communities: the housing crisis, crumbling education and the collapse of our NHS.

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/challenge-racism-stand-victims-far-right-terror

Continue ReadingChallenge racism, stand with the victims of far-right terror

Rotherham asylum-seeker hotel attacked as riots sweep Britain

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/rotherham-asylum-hotel-attacked-as-riots-sweep-britain

Police officers with protesters as trouble flares during an anti-immigration demonstration outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, August 4, 2024

RIOTERS stormed a Holiday Inn housing asylum-seekers in Rotherham today and attempted to set it ablaze, marking the latest in a series of horrific far-right attacks.

Violence has escalated across the country after fascists seized on the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport to whip up hatred and incite riots.

Over 35 rallies supported by the far right took place across Britain and Northern Ireland at the weekend, with anti-fascists mobilising in opposition.

On Friday gangs burnt a Citizens’ Advice bureau to the ground and attacked a mosque in Sunderland after a rally held under the slogan “Enough is Enough.”

Unrest spread to Hull the following day where another hotel housing asylum-seekers was attacked while mobs looted shops on the high street.

In Liverpool, a library that serves one of the country’s most deprived communities was torched by youths in Walton.

Senior Labour figures including Cabinet ministers pandering to racist right

Home Secretary and Defence Secretary – as well as their boss Keir Starmer and ousted colleagues – validate anti-refugee bigotry

Labour government figures have spoken against the far-right’s racist violence and destruction – but the red Tory faction running the government and party have an appalling record of pandering to and inciting the anti-immigrant bigotry now running rampant on our streets.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was behind Labour’s infamous racist ‘controls on immigration’ mug – and was rightly lambasted for it by thousands of respondents after she went through the motions of condemning the fascist violence:

Skwawkbox article continues

Continue ReadingRotherham asylum-seeker hotel attacked as riots sweep Britain

George Osborne: Rachel Reeves is a ‘mini-me’

Spread the love

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24495275.george-osborne-rachel-reeves-mini-me

George Osborne has said the cuts announced by Rachel Reeves were almost identical to the ones he announced as chancellor (Image: NQ)

GEORGE Osborne has called Rachel Reeves a “mini-me” over her recent statement to the Commons, where she announced a swathe of cuts to plug a £22 billion black hole in public finances.

Osborne– who was chancellor under David Cameron’s government and was instrumental in bringing about austerity – said that the cuts announced by Reeves on Monday were “almost identical in structure and form” to those he made in 2010, when he announced £6.2bn worth of cuts.

“I don’t think there was anything she announced that I would have violently disagreed with or not done myself.

“In fact, it was almost identical in structure and form to what I did in the first couple of months that I was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“So, you know, ‘Continuity Osborne.”

Sharing a clip from the podcast on social media, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “No comment.”

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24495275.george-osborne-rachel-reeves-mini-me

Continue ReadingGeorge Osborne: Rachel Reeves is a ‘mini-me’

Starmer exploits far-right to attack our civil freedoms and web access

Spread the love

In so-called ‘opposition’, Starmer enabled the Tories every time they assaulted our civil rights to protest or to be free from spying and surveillance – and when they passed laws to protect undercover police and their agents from legal consequences for their crimes – including rape and murder. He went further, colluding with the Tories to defeat an attempt to overturn anti-protest legislation, to block measures to protect journalists from state persecution and to pass laws to prevent public bodies acting against apartheid.

Starmer’s live facial recognition plan would usher in national ID, campaigners say

Live facial recognition is already used by the Metropolitan police and South Wales police. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

PM accused of ignoring civil rights and aping autocracies as he proposes new powers after far-right unrest

Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force.

“Expanding live facial recognition means millions of innocent Britons being subjected to automated ID checks,” said Carlo. “These are the surveillance tactics of China and Russia and Starmer seems ignorant of the civil liberties implications.”

Promising to create a national police capability to tackle the rioting, the new prime minister said forces needed to work better together, sharing intelligence and engaging in a “wider deployment of facial recognition technology”.

Details were scant but immediately after, Starmer suggested that trouble-makers could be subject to “criminal behaviour orders to restrict their movements before they can even board a train” – implying a wider use of live facial recognition at transport hubs such as railway stations.

Daragh Murray, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said: “There is a clear danger that in responding to a tragedy and public unrest we expand and entrench police surveillance without appropriate scrutiny. Given that the police have responded to disorder and riots for decades, why is facial recognition needed now?”

Continue ReadingStarmer exploits far-right to attack our civil freedoms and web access