Views from the Streets : Part Two

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A version of these notes has been posted as a Comment under Nisha says, ‘it’s been building up’, but it feels useful to put this fuller account from Tania on the main page.

The riots seem to have sprung from nowhere, but paradoxically they have been a long time coming. Policing is a massively emotive issue for young people where I work in Hackney. Many of the young people I work with are angry about the policing of their area, even at the best of times. Young people have been telling us for years that they are stop-and-searched several times a week despite never having done anything against the law; that they are fed up with exclusion zones in their areas; that most of the police treat them as criminals. Two years ago one of the groups I worked with made a film about policing and young people, sharing their views, the majority saying that police treatment of them is discriminatory, racist and abusive. They showed their film to friends, family and police at the local cinema but the police representative justified his force’s position, and the group felt that nothing changed. Then, they are angry about their EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) being taken away, with their careers offices and youth projects being shut down or cut down, with the lack of jobs, with not being listened to.

I was out in Hackney yesterday evening, not working, just with friends. I couldn’t make a lot of sense of what was going on; everything was moving fast where we were around Mare St, riot police had shut the road even to pedestrians, even to people trying to get home, and there were van loads of police driving up and down the road in blocks of three, and three lorry loads of police horses. The atmosphere was fairly friendly, most people didn’t have anything in their arms (weren’t looting), we overheard young people talking about anger at recent police raids and stop and search. Most of the damage seemed to be to large chain stores, not independent shops or homes. Regarding the stories of people being mugged or people’s homes being damaged, obviously that is wrong, but it isn’t the main thing that’s going on, although the media would suggest otherwise. I was at a community meeting today where people had been on Clarence Road and some said the atmosphere was positive, like a party, and there was very little violence. Some people saw young people trying to set a fire, went with others to put out the fire and tell the young people involved to stop, and the young people stopped.

Young people at the meeting said (from my rapidly scribbled notes so no guarantee of accuracy):

‘We’re angry… the policing, the cuts, no jobs, EMA going, Connexions gone, oyster cards going up – we’re at a dead end and we’ve got nothing to lose, and when people have nothing to lose they don’t care any more’.

‘We don’t get asked what we feel’.

‘I saw the police battering a 16 year old girl at the demonstration in Tottenham, that’s what got people really angry’.

‘They say we’re animalistic, but animals don’t get angry for no reason – they get angry if they’re provoked’.

‘The meeting the politicians are at today is called Cobra, that’s a snake isn’t it? To young people the word ‘snake’ means someone you can’t trust’.

‘We’ve got nothing from the Olympics’.

‘The riots are an excuse to lock up bare of us in time for the Olympics’.

‘We are genuinely scared. If Operation Trident is meant to stop young black people shooting each other and now it shoots one of us, it’s like they’re saying “you’re not killing each other fast enough, we’re going to help.”’

‘We respect our elders, we know you had it even harder than us, but we’re not looking for a part two, we want things to change’.

‘The media don’t show pictures of the peaceful demonstration just the looting’.

‘Some of us knew Mark Duggan but we all know other Mark Duggans’.

‘We’ve had enough. This is the only way we can get our voices heard’.

A mother said, ‘If the police are battering our children in front of the cameras, how are they treating them in the cells?‘ Most people felt it was important to be out with the young people, despite media and police condemnation of ‘spectators’ – community members need to be out, listening to young people, keeping an eye on the policing, and talking to anyone who thinks of attacking people’s homes or hurting people. The general consensus was that young people are understandably angry, that some or most of the time there was a positive atmosphere on the streets last night, that there were very few attacks, and that young people and Hackney in general were being demonised by the media coverage.

I met a group of young people I know on my way home tonight. They said the police had it coming, that the riots were overdue, that people have been angry for a long time and now the police have killed someone it’s no surprise there are riots. They said young people from rival postcodes were united last night against the police. They said they are angry that they are not listened to, there are no jobs and the police treat them badly. One of them said, ‘they call us violent but the prime minister has a button to set off a whole load of nuclear weapons that would kill everyone, that’s violence’.

My colleague and I had to postpone a trip we’d planned for tomorrow because we might have problems travelling across Hackney, in some ways it seems ridiculous to cancel things but the public transport keeps getting shut down at a moment’s notice, and when it kicks off the taxis stop running and it could be really difficult to get everyone home safely. We plan to go out on detached instead, to listen, to ask young people what they think and how they are feeling, and ask them what they think should be done. I have heard that most youth clubs, playschemes, sports centres as well as shops and other facilities have been shut in Hackney for safety reasons (I don’t know for sure).

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Meanwhile Nathan Akehurst, the standing Member of Youth Parliament, Kensington and Chelsea has blogged on his reading of the situation in

Beyond Riots: Rationalising a broken Britain

He begins:

It is mid-afternoon, and Britain is reeling in shock. Outbreaks of rioting have hit, to name but a small selection, Enfield, Ealing, Brixton, Sutton, Croydon, Kensington, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, and Hackney. The windows have cracked under the strain of upholding a shattered society, and we have all – except perhaps for the government- reaped the whirlwind.
I do not condemn the riots. I do not condone the riots. To do so would be as pointless and Learesque as praising or admonishing an earthquake. For that Is what the weekend has been and may continue to be, a violent rift that has sprung up as a result of a chain of events, a nigh-on inevitable end to a sequence of causality.


Views from the Streets – Part One.

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Against the backcloth of the riots we asked youth workers and young people to let us know what they feel is going on. We are pleased to be receiving reports from the streets.

On the BBC News Symeon Brown is interviewed.

And below the two Emilys offer their reactions.

Youth & Youth Work Reaction to the Riots,

by two Emilys.

Emily Ward, Young Person, aged 17yrs

& Emily Wood, Youth Work Manager


A Young Person’s Perspective: Mindless Rioting

By Emily Ward, 17 years old

For generations young people have been seen to be just ‘trouble-makers’, and nothing more. I, myself know that when young people walk into stores they will most likely be followed by the security guard – its highly frustrating for us all, it’s typical everyday stereotyping. But, as we all know a lot of young people since the 6th of August have been rioting and looting, although it is important that everyone remembers that it isn’t just young people under the age of 18. Every single person that has taken part in the rioting and looting has to be held accountable for their own actions. Most young people are appalled with what’s been happening, and completely scared to even leave their homes.

I think its appalling, we have soldiers out there fighting for our country and doing their best for us all and we have a disgraceful wide range of people that have decided to destroy what we have. It’s selfish. After seeing everything that has happened for example; homes of innocent people set on fire, businesses that have been growing strong for generations, police cars and buses also set on fire, its absolutely disgusting behavior! It needs to stop. No one involved has even thought about other people and how they can be affected. People’s homes, families, memories and businesses have been completely destroyed, it isn’t right and they need to stop, it’s gone beyond too far. It has occurred to me and many others that many of the people involved have caused all of this drama due to there not being anything for them to do, ‘they’re bored’. If there were more youth services, support and youth centres around then maybe a lot of the young people involved wouldn’t have even thought about doing any of this.

“Today I saw two young people stop to help a police man fix the caution tape around a riot site. They represent the majority of young people that care and automatically stop to help when they can. For those that are rioting I feel sorry for how disaffected, hurt and angry they are.” Quoted by Emily Wood, Youth Work Manger, South Wimbledon Youth Centre, Merton Youth Service

“It seems like they have all followed each other like sheep across the country, it isn’t about protesting any more, it’s about them smashing up shops and stealing items for adrenaline.” Yasmin Rahali, young person, Merton, 17 years old

“Smashing shop windows, looting and setting fire to things is selfish, dangerous and stupid. Some young people and adults decided to get involved – many others have decided not to – I am want to thank those young people who decided not to, who stayed away and thought it was wrong. We all need a sense of right and wrong and this was all clearly wrong and must stop so that everybody feels safe.” Keith Shipman, Youth Inclusion Service Manager, London Borough of Merton

The past few days have been terrifying for everyone, people have been seriously injured and it needs to be stopped immediately, it isn’t right. Our community has been falling apart for a long time, everyone has said it, but no one ever even began to think that anything like this could happen. The behaviour of the rioters and looters are terrible, it’s not fair on everyone else that has to cope with the consequences of all the damage and destruction.

Emily Ward, 17 years old, Merton. Emily has spent the day visiting riot sites around Merton and neighbouring boroughs, she has been reporting on the riots from a young person’s perspective on the South Wimbledon Youth Centre facebook page with photos, comments, updates and warnings. It is important that we begin to hear the positive youth voices rather than just the violence and looting of the minority. To find out more please check out http://www.facebook.com/SWYCyouthcentre.

A Youth Work Perspective: We all need to take responsibility

By Emily Wood, Youth Work Manager

As I am sure everyone agrees the events of the past few days of rioting and looting across London and the UK have been shocking. As a Londoner (resident in Wood Green) I awoke on Saturday morning to smashed in shops and a burnt out car at the end of my road, I hear the people of London condemning the actions of the youth. Young people are, as usual, being ‘tarred with the same brush’; labelling young people as ‘feral rats’ is obviously a reaction of emotion, but it is not one that is either new or helpful. Neither is a call from Sky News journalists to instill more fear in young people and for a shortening of summer school holidays as a way to punish all young people. As a professional Youth Worker with over 15 years of experience I automatically look for the reasons and real long-term solutions, rather than the blame and quick fix reactions. Those involved need to be held accountable for their actions and dealt with accordingly, but the complex issues also need to be faced by the government and society as a whole. Yes parents need to take responsibility, as do the members of the public that consistently shun and ignore the problems in their communities, the oblivious café dwellers that sip earl grey and breakfast on their organic smoked salmon as they are overlooked and sit cheek by jowl with some of the most impoverished estates around our city, and the responsibility also needs to lie with the politicians that have so recently slashed the youth support services from around our country.

Yes, the shops destroyed and the aggression against the police has been appalling, perhaps the most upsetting has been accounts of young people attacking and destroying the lives of their fellow community members. Images of small independent shops being smashed, peoples homes on fire, a woman leaping from a flaming building and a young injured man being mugged as he was seemingly helped to his feet; these are actions that make us questions how and why those involved can have such little regard for their fellow Londoners, their neighbours, their local shop keepers, and essentially their friends and family. After a night of relative calm in London it is hoped that the unrest is starting to come under control. At this time it is important to think of not only the quick solution of criminal prosecutions and angry blame, but also to question why we are in this situation. Why so many of the young people within our country feel so disaffected, so angry, so hurt and so removed from human emotion that they can commit these atrocities. The reasons and solutions are complex, but they are also obvious, not without reason and they are something for which we all are all responsible. If you are not part of the solution, then you are also part of the problem.

It seems to me that the need for youth services, support and youth centres are more important now than ever. Recent cuts to youth and community services are already having disastrous results on our communities, we need to make sure that these projects, services and groups are protected and the way in which we work is understood and defended. Youth Work is about support and prevention, but also and most importantly it is about providing a safe, open and fun space for all young people. It is here that we build informal, voluntary and trusting relationships to support young people no matter what the world throws at them, and it seems that a lot is being thrown at them at the moment! As funding for youth work is drastically reduced it is increasingly becoming limited to only providing targeted and short term projects such as those that work with young offenders or provide jobs and apprenticeships? Targetted work is needed and can be very effective, but this also needs to be supported by a foundation of open access and universal youth services, groups and organisations that provide and support the personal and social development for all young people, not just those already deemed by society as ‘problematic’. Young people have rioted, they have looted and burnt, but this is not purely down to ‘wanting stuff’, it is also about ‘needing stuff’, such as security, support, love, confidence, and the knowledge that they belong, are valued and have power within their communities. Let’s make sure we keep the riots in perspective and look not only to blame, but also to ask why it is happening in the first place and what we can do as a community to stop it from happening again.

It is also important for everyone to remember it isn’t only kids involved in the riots, and that the vast majority of young people are appalled, scared and completely disapprove of what’s been going on. Yesterday I saw two young people stop to help a policeman fix the caution tape around a riot site. They represent the majority, young people that care and automatically stop to help when they can. For those that are rioting I feel sorry for how disaffected, hurt and angry they are. We need to question what they have experienced in their lives and why they have got to a point where they feel they have nothing to lose.

The opinions here represent my personal comments and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisations within which I am involved.

Emily Wood is a professional Youth Work Manager with an MA in Applied Anthropology, Community and Youth Work and 15 years of experience working with young people nationally and internationally, in both the public and voluntary sectors. Currently a Youth Work Manager with Merton Youth Service; An active campaigner for the In Defence of Youth Work Campaign; A trustee for international children’s charity, The Charlotte Miller Art Project.

Follow me on twitter @emily_would

Political Point Scoring

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I’ve been cheeky and copy/pasted this succinct and powerful post by Beth from the blog, Top Soil ; Grassroots Writing for International Solidarity, which she co-edits.

Political Point Scoring
9 August 2011
Beth

Facebook, Twitter, comments sections of news sites, and even real-life places like the pub, are full of the same discussion. Are the riots ‘mindless thuggery’ or do they have a cause?

People who tick the first box seem to think that talking about the causes of such extreme disaffection lets the rioters off the hook, and excuses them from personal responsibility. But going for the second option isn’t the same as saying ‘riots, yay!’ and cheering on the swarms of underdogs finally getting the shoes that they deserve. I’m not sure what scenario people are imagining when they talk about making people take responsibility. If I had a family member of a friend getting involved then yeah, I wouldn’t say to them “Well, I understand that you have legitimate grievances, so I’m not going to hold it against you that you’ve made people homeless, destroyed people’s cars and terrified families and kids. Now can I have some discount trainers please?” But, I don’t. This isn’t about when we get to vent our fear and frustration. The choice that we have to make as a society is what to do.

If we base our actions on the ‘mindless thuggery’ analysis, then what do we do? Bring in the water cannons and the curfews, militarise the police, throw a few hundred teenagers into prisons and young offenders’ institutions, increase stop and searches even more, listen even less.

If we base our actions on the second analysis then we’d do something rather different. We’d tackle the inequality that’s been growing for years, redress the unfair distribution of the cuts which penalise poor communities more than rich ones, build community cohesion through allowing for real participation in democracy, hold the police accountable for racism and violence, give poor kids too the chance to go to college and university by bringing back EMA and scrapping tuition fees and improving schools, investing in libraries and youth workers.

I think the real choice isn’t about whether we hold individuals or a system responsible so much as whether we let fear or hope drive our choices. Do we suddenly want the safe feeling of a benevolent and fatherly police force to protect us from the chaos of the world? Well, then we’ll move towards repression and loss of civil liberties, and we won’t even fix the problem. Or do we want to take the challenge of stepping out into the street and organising ourselves, demanding a more equal and democratic society? That might seem harder work, it might not satisfy our anger and fear at seeing houses burnt and people hurt, but on the other hand, it could make this week an aberration, rather than the pattern of society to come.

Nisha says ‘it’s been building up and up’

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We’ve received the following contribution from Nisha, who has sent photos and reports of earlier peaceful demonstrations in the capital.

Hey!!!

As you all know, there are riots taking place thoroughout london and other areas of the UK. ive been following everything on the news (not allowed to go out and join them :-(  ). despite all the controversy, you have to remember, all of this is reaction to the death of a member of the community. all the anger and frustration due to the cuts, the way the police treat black people and youths in particular and to being ignored on peacful protests against the cuts has built up and up to create this!! Martin Luther King himself said ‘Riots are the voices of the unheard’.

and in case there are any people who have no sympathy for Mark Duggen (the guy who was shot by police), nothing he had ALLEDGEDLY done could ever justify the execution that took place. besides, it looks like the police lied when they said he shot first, the bullet in the radio is a police issued bullet.

now, after searching YouTube for all the videos and info the media refuse to tell us, i found one very interesting one, which shows the power of the people, and just how weak the police are!!! read the text written about the video, and think about it!!! its actually quite good!!! and if you can, please ‘like’ the video!!


please watch and forward this message, or post on facebook and twitter etc etc!!!!!!!!!!

There is Looting and then some……..

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As the disorder continues and the moral condemnation grows, Roy Ratcliffe challenges the hypocrisy of our politicians.

‘UNACCEPTABLE’ – ‘NO EXCUSE’  – ‘COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE‘.

Since Sunday UK politicians of left right and centre have been queuing up to spout their venom, using vigorous language, such as that above. They have been using it to condemn what they consider as ‘opportunist criminals’ who have been pronounced guilty of ‘deplorable looting‘. These politicians have promised to pursue these ‘criminals’ with all the force of the law. Their targets for such unanimous outbursts are not the bankers who looted billions from the tax-payer, who evicted hard-working families from their homes (repossessed) and who opportunistically granted themselves ‘unacceptable’ bonuses. The targets are not futures market speculators who have criminally forced up the prices of raw materials and food supplies causing shortages often with fatal consequences. Nor are the targets the credit rating agencies who ‘irresponsibly’ downgraded the status of whole peoples and threaten the looting of national assets. The private companies who for the last 30 years, have removed production from the UK and set up in low-wage countries in order to obtain more profit and left unemployment in their wake have failed to attract any comparable condemnation.  Such words have not been used in relationship to those who have unfortunately died by the hands or guns of the UK law enforcement agencies. Nor for that matter has the obscene violence, demolition and looting by the Israeli government against the Palestinians attracted such heartfelt condemnation. All these well-funded, powerful and calculating ‘criminals’ have escaped such venom and resolve for their actions, by the political class. Instead it  has now been directed this week at the youth of deprived, under-resourced, communities in the UK capital, London.

For over thirty years, the UK government has ‘fiddled’ (literally and metaphorically) whilst a large section of working people have been ground down by unemployment, poverty and official, bureaucratic oppression. A whole generation of adults (in many cases the parents of the rioting youth) have grown up without any hope of improvement from the status forced upon them as welfare benefit recipients. In reconciling themselves to this permanent, low-status, low income, existence, many have also been unacceptably classed as ‘scroungers’ with all the disrespect and prejudice that such a label attracts. Their offspring have in general inherited a similar or identical status and their future looks even bleaker than that of their parents. Under the present regime of public spending cuts, even the few scraps granted them, such as youth clubs and educational support grants have been removed. These young people are well aware that the government can find billions to pursue wars of intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya, but can find little or nothing for them. They are also quite aware of the ‘fiddling‘ and ‘looting’ of the rich against the poor and they are also well aware of the double standards of justice between the rich and the poor. On top of all this, they daily experience, the oppressive forces of the state, in the form of bureaucratic social services, and the law enforcements agencies, which is also endemically racist.

So what else should people have expected than when an opportunity came along and a particularly outrageous provocation, sparked the smouldering pent-up resentment, that a riot of the disadvantaged would occur? What else should be expected than that symbols of their oppression should be set upon and damaged?  Is it any surprise that those with very little wealth might take advantage of an opportunity to loot or that even those better off would join them? The financial speculators seize an opportunity on a daily basis, even when many of them are already well-heeled. Of course, the sporadic violence and looting will not solve the problems facing young people, nor will such actions ensure their futures improve. The political crisis, facing the UK and other European countries, is a symptom of the global economic crisis and this will not go away. Indeed it will yet get worse. The interests of these young people, as well as the adults facing this unfolding situation, will be best served by becoming a responsible, disciplined part of a movement  to change the system. As the youth of Spain declared ‘The problem is the system’ and the solution is to join together and work for a new system which will treat all human beings as people, not as economic units to be exploited at work or some left to rot on the dole.

Whilst in a Guardian piece, Looting fuelled by social exclusion, John Pitts, who must wince at being called a youth culture expert, is called upon to give his views

“Many of the people involved are likely to have been from low-income, high-unemployment estates, and many, if not most, do not have much of a legitimate future,” said criminologist and youth culture expert Professor John Pitts.

Unlike most people, some of those looting had no stake in conformity, he said. “Those things that normally constrain people are not there. Much of this was opportunism but in the middle of it there is a social question to be asked about young people with nothing to lose.”

A generation bred on a diet of excessive consumerism and bombarded by advertising had been unleashed, he added. “Where we used to be defined by what we did, now we are defined by what we buy. These big stores are in the business of tempting [the consumer] and then suddenly these people find they can just walk into the shop and have it all.”

Riots are the Voices of the Unheard

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Just a week ago I happened by chance to be chatting in a kafeneion to some Greek young people about their situation. The conversation somersaulted from description to explanation to the question of action – what can be done to change things? To say the least the outlook is bleak. The unemployment rate in April for 15-24 year olds reached a high of 43.1%, compared to the national rate at 15.8%. Three of my four young friends held degree-level qualifications and joked that they were the stars of the popular sit-com, The 592 Euro Generation, a reference to the monthly minimum wage of €592 (£516) earned by those under 25. They chided me that I had not caught up with this satire which reflected their reality, serving coffee to tourists, their qualifications irrelevant.  The discussion turned to political protest.  Everyone argued about the merits or otherwise of orchestrated demonstrations under the control of the unions, the emergence of the Greek  equivalent of the Spanish indignants, , the Aganaktismenoi and the anarchist tradition of direct and often violent action. As we parted, iced coffees, by now half-empty and luke-warm, it was agreed, ‘there will be riots again soon’.

A  few hours later I stumbled by chance over two pieces recollecting the thirtieth anniversary of the Toxteth riots in Liverpool. The first, Toxteth Revisited, set the background to the publication of a new book and exhibition:

Liverpool ’81: Remembering The Riots, edited by Diane Frost and Richard Phillips  for the Liverpool University Press. The exhibition Toxteth ’81 at the Museum of Slavery, Liverpool

To quote but one paragraph,

“Back then,” says Michael Simon, “you saw it from where you stood: I was 13 years old, and from my point of view, it was about police brutality, which was invariably racist. Only with hindsight did we realise that it was about the machine, the system, the whole thing.” Michael was born in Beaconsfield Street, one of six, to a father from Liverpool of west African, Antiguan and Irish descent and a Scouse-Irish mother. His father worked as an electro-plater for Triumph and Ford where the chemicals he handled preparing chrome badly damaged his health. For the boys in the family, says Michael, “harassment by the police was a daily thing, especially for the boys older than me. My older brother, our Brian, was forever being beaten up by the police; not even arrested sometimes – just beaten up. One time he was accused of robbing lead from a roof, and my mum had to go down the street and jump on top of him so he wouldn’t get battered, and she got arrested too.”


The second piece was an eye-witness recollection by Gerry on his blog, That’s How the Light Gets In , from which I’ve pinched a couple of photos.  He recalls,

At the time my job was organising adult and community education courses in a local college.  One of the projects with which I was involved at the time was a course initiated by South Liverpool Personnel, an adult education centre in the Rialto buildings.  The aim of the course was to begin to rectify to the virtually zero representation of  local black residents on university courses and in professions such as teaching and social work locally.  The project in itself epitomised the deep social fractures that culminated in the riots.  Local community activists had been warning for several years of the probable consequences of these divisions.  Indeed, the 1973 Report of the Select Committee on Race Relations inquiry into educational opportunities for black people had noted that the black community in Liverpool was disadvantaged both inside and outside school.  The Select Committee concluded: ‘Liverpool … left us with a profound sense of uneasiness’.


But I was brought back from history by sight of  a Haringey video,

As supporters of the Campaign will know one of the most articulate and creative young people’s groups fighting the cuts has been SaveHaringey Youth Centres. In the event this video is not one of the group’s creations [as far as I can see], but involves interviews with young people on the streets. The video is preceded by the following summary- After Haringey council shuts eight of its 13 youth clubs, local teenagers fear boredom will fuel violence between young gang members on the streets of north London. The video itself ends with a young man repeating, “there’ll be riots.”

Lewis Whyld/PA

And so it has come to pass.  Tottenham and elsewhere have been engulfed by a wave of anger directed at both police and property, triggered by the fatal and increasingly controversial  shooting by police of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. Inevitably the young people rioting are described as ‘mindless thugs’ by the police and indeed by Diane Abbott, a local MP, even as she notes that parts of the community were a tinder box waiting to explode. Somewhat contrarily these ‘mindless’  elements are then castigated for being organised and coordinating their activities via social networking.

Other perceptions do echo the concerns of three decades ago. In London Riots : Tensions behind unrest revealed

One local university student comments,

“tensions – some racial – had been bubbling for a long time. “The police never talk to us, they ignore us, they don’t think we’re human in this area,” he said. “We get pulled over all the time like criminals. If you’re wearing a black hood, [if] you’re a black man, they pull you over for no reason.” He said Tottenham had a bad reputation for drugs, with very few prospects for jobs, but not everyone behaved like the dealers and addicts. “I’m from Tottenham, but I go to uni, I made myself good and got a job,” he said. “But if I wear like a hoody and walk in the road, they’ll just call you, check you and search you – that’s a breach of your human rights.”

He added: “I’m not happy about the rioting, but I think it was necessary so that the people will know what’s going on in this community and they’ll learn from that.

Drawing parallels and conclusions too hastily and easily will though be mistaken.  From the point of view of youth work, it is seductive to point to the young people’s concerns about youth centre closures and the ensuing unrest.  There is a sense here in which the disappearance of the youth centre is a metaphor for the the disappearance of hope and optimism about the future, the growing lack of opportunity and choice. Of course it would be great to see the youth service cuts restored, but this must go hand in hand with a profound change of political direction in which ordinary folk, young and old, begin to take direct control over the issues effecting their lives. It is necessary too to think afresh about the way in which these riots are unfolding. 2011 is not the same as 1981.  The Toxteth uprising [as we preferred to call it] came at the beginning of the neo-liberal era of ‘possessive individualism’. Is it romantic to suggest it retained a collective character rooted in a tradition of solidarity? The groups of young people coordinating the looting or liberating of plasma TV’s, mobiles and designer shoes are the children of neo-liberalism’s fetish of conspicuous consumption and its abandonment of of values and ethics – witness the corruption of political life, the utter mediocrity of our so-called leaders and the obscenity of speculative casino capitalism. The young people are not at all mindless, but what is exactly going through their minds? I suspect the reasons behind this outburst will prove complex. But if Martin Luther King was right to argue that ‘riots are the voices of the unheard’ we need to be listening to young people in their unity and diversity. I hope that youth workers and young people will let us know what they think is going on.

TT

AND NOW THE CYPN MANIFESTO THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET OR DOES IT?

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Close on the calves of the CHOOSE YOUTH alliance’s manifesto,  Children and Young People Now has produced its Manifesto for Young People, which it claims “throws down the gauntlet to government.” In many respects it’s a praiseworthy document, but I’m not sure the ConDems will be rushing to unleash sword from scabbard in readiness for a fight to the death over its impact on their forthcoming youth policy statement.

CYP Now editor Ravi Chandiramani  rather gives the game away when he says : “These proposals aim to minimise the strain on the public purse and do not require an increase in regulation”. Hardly a gauntlet-throwing challenge!

Nevertheless CYPN is to be congratulated for aspiring to write ‘a manifesto for young people, not a manifesto for youth services’ , arguing ‘ it should be viewed through the lens of the users of services, young people themselves, rather than providers.’ But in the very next sentence, asking us, ‘are we sitting comfortably?’, CYPN inform users and providers that they  “are relaxed about whether providers are in the public, voluntary or private sectors, mutuals or social enterprises, and foresee a mixed economy of provision.” In addition they decline to “touch on the mechanics of funding services.” I’m sure this is perceived by CYPN as a necessary exercise in pragmatism.  But at best it is naive. Even if you are sanguine about the prospect of a mixed economy, you have to be deeply concerned about the way in which the ground is being prepared – a carnage of cuts and a direct assault on the independence of the voluntary sector – and you have to acknowledge that users themselves have been at the forefront of resistance to the onslaught.

However my response may well be too harsh. The authors summarise the main thrust as follows:

The manifesto sets out a coherent framework for action to provide all 13- to 19-year-olds in England with the opportunities to fulfil their potential and lead happy lives. It is based on the many contributions and suggestions from readers.

Specifically, the manifesto calls for:

  • Every local authority to have a youth engagement body with budget-holding responsibility that also holds the power of scrutiny to challenge local decisions
  • A national young people’s scrutiny board to advise the government and ensure policy is genuinely “youth-proofed”
  • An entitlement for all young people that sets out minimum standards of provision of open-access services, specialist support and information, advice and guidance
  • A young people’s workforce development strategy that comprises paid staff and volunteers, in order to ensure there are sufficient skilled and trusted adults to support young people outside of formal education
  • An independent research and evaluation commission to build up an authoritative national picture of what services for young people have the most impact
  • An independent annual report to parliament on the condition of young people’s lives and the quality of services available to them.

Ravi Chandiramani concludes, “taken as a whole, we believe the CYP Now Manifesto for Young People would have a transformative effect on young lives.”

Judge for yourselves and as ever your thoughts welcomed.

CYP Now Manifesto

CHOOSE YOUTH MANIFESTO

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Choose Youth, of which IDYW is a member, an unprecedented alliance of 30 voluntary youth sector organisations and trade unions defending the profession and its workers, has joined forces to save young people’s services from government and local government cuts and to preserve the right of all 13-19 year olds, and up to 25 year olds with disabilities, to an universal, open-access youth service provision.

As part of this ongoing struggle Choose Youth has produced a manifesto in praise and in defence of the modern youth service. It begins:

Created fifty years ago, the modern youth service is being pulled apart by the sheer scale and speed of the
government’s cuts in public spending. All signs suggest that the youth service will be the first public service to
go, destroying years of professional expertise committed to partnership and volunteer working.

Spending cuts to local services and government programmes are falling disproportionately hard on this country’s young people. Throughout the UK youth clubs and projects, young people’s volunteering schemes and a wide range of voluntary-led youth programmes are all now at risk, as councils race to shed services in the face of colossal budget cuts. Caught in the middle are hundreds of thousands of young people.

Choose Youth Manifesto

Sharp and to the point it should be in the possession of all those defending youth work as informal education. Although, unfortunately to my mind, the Manifesto declines to define youth work in this way, preferring to emphasise in its own words:

Young people’s services are dedicated to nurturing the talents of our young people. A professional, preventative service that supports young people on the road to success is more than paid back in the contribution they go on to make to society. For every £1 spent on the youth service £8 is generated in voluntary activity. [my emphasis]

Leave aside my concern, the manifesto is full of telling and useful pieces of information such as this costed reference to the generation of voluntary activity, which should be drawn to the attention of bureaucrats and politicians at every opportunity.

Download, digest and distribute!

TT

‘Thinking Space’ at Youth & Policy

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Naomi Stanton on behalf of the Editorial group informs us that:

Youth & Policy are introducing ‘Thinking Space’ into the journal, a section for short practice-based articles – if you want more info on this, email administration@youthandpolicy.org and we’ll forward your email address to Dino who is heading up the new section.

This welcome initiative has already elicited supportive comments such as:

Brilliant! May also be a good starting point for those who are interested in writing seriously about Youth Work.

Will encourage people to work their opinions into considered pieces to hopefully start debate and discussion…

National Community Activists Network

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In the early days of our campaign there was debate about whether we should be in defence of youth and community work. However the dominant feeling seemed to be that we should focus on youth work alone. This stance has always been contradictory. Indeed a number of supporters have been indicating that we should return to the issue at our national conference in October. In the meantime events overtake us with the welcome emergence of the National Community Activists Network. The group has an attractive and accessible web site with a lively feel, heightened by the active involvement of its supporters in animated exchanges on its Forum pages – see the debate around the government’s Community Organisers initiative. If it’s personally feasible, we would encourage our supporters to get involved. Certainly we  hope that IDYW can build a positive working relationship with NatCan in the months and struggles ahead.

Just as I am posting this on the site, the following circular from the NatCan team has arrived.

Hi All

Now that we are just over two months into this project to develop an interactive online platform to support active citizens, let’s just reflect on where we come from, where we are and where we might be going.

Historically, ordinary people have been motivated to fight against injustice, inequality and corruption and additionally, in more recent times, against religious and economic fundamentalism and life-threatening problems caused by ecological degradation and rapid climate change. Throughout history, political despots, armies, religious rulers and corporations have overpowered the will of the majority. That situation hasn’t changed much – those with power try to control the majority by almost any means, people on the receiving end do their level best to hold them to account. The recent Murdoch scandal demonstrated, to the few who didn’t already know, how easily financial power translates into political power, leading to incestuous corruption. Will anything change as a result? Let’s wait and see.

For some thirty years or so, since the onset of deregulation, the world has danced to an underpinning philosophy that what is key is survival of the fittest and apparent market efficiency, not being held back by weakness and not believing that humans are capable of organising themselves, leave it to price mechanisms. With the financial world in turmoil, political systems everywhere under siege, inequality widening, poverty increasing, social services under attack and the lives of just about everyone, except the ultra-rich, getting progressively worse, it’s getting harder to sell that philosophy.

We are told that there is no alternative. Most of us think there has to be!

So where do we, as active citizens, fit in?

Our activities are loosely based around three basic principals: social and economic justice, peace and security, and a sustainable environment. We endeavour to democratise decision and policy making in the name of social justice, resist the effects of neo-liberal economic fundamentalism, struggle to improve the lives of people everywhere, especially the poor, and do what we can to protect the planet – all of which are intertwined.

To keep abreast of events requires information – mainstream media isn’t an entirely reliable source. It’s wise to seek independent opinions and news outlets. IT certainly helps (this website is an example) but we are bombarded with too much information. It helps if people sort the wheat from the chaff then give it to us in the form of newsletters or short videos. We need to discuss our views with our contemporaries and get feedback from them. We need access to acknowledged specialists on relevant issues so we consider and digest their opinions.We need to do all this for ourselves because if we are ‘commissioned’ to provide such a service, we become open to control – he who pays the piper!

NatCAN is just at the beginning of a journey – let’s all support each other along the way.