LENDMAN-RIOTS ACROSS BRITAIN MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Riots Across Britain - More
Than Meets The Eye?By Stephen Lendman
8-13-11

 

A previous article said the following:   On August 6, rioting began in Tottenham, North London after police shot and killed Mark Duggan, a 29-year old father of four. It triggered other outbreaks on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Brixton, Enfield, Walthamstow, Islington, Hackney, Croydon, Lewisham, Peckham, Clapham, Ealing, central London, and Birmingham, Britain's second largest city.   They also spread to Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere as raging anger set Britain ablaze.   Observers attribute public anger to unemployment, poverty, inequality, and overall social injustice, but perhaps more is also involved. More on that below.   In response, Prime Minister David Cameron responded arrogantly, saying riots were unconnected to police shooting Mark Duggan on August 4, despite evidence of a pre-planned operation, more sinister perhaps than just killing another Black youth.   Addressing Parliament on August 11, Cameron said:   Riots are "criminality pure and simple. And there is absolutely no excuse for it....We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets. And we will do whatever it takes to restore law and order and to rebuild our communities."   "It is completely wrong to say there is any justifiable causal link" between Duggan's killing and street riots. "It is simply preposterous for anyone to suggest" it relates to him. "(I)t was about theft," not outrage, he claimed.   "As I have made clear, nothing should be off the table. Every contingency is being looked at. The police are already authorized to use baton rounds." Water cannons, rubber bullets, and other harsh measures were approved.   Consideration is also being given to deploying military forces and shutting down social media. In short, police will be given full discretion to do whatever it takes to restore order. "(T)here will be no complacency."   Cameron, of course, avoided culpability by blaming victims, the usual tactic used to shift debate away from where it belongs. Instead blame:   -- decades of destructive neoliberalism; -- an unacceptable new normal; -- appalling wealth disparities; -- a corrupt political/corporate nexus; -- imperial wars benefitting profiteers, not people; -- grand theft on an unimaginable scale; and -- disdain for human need, causing a loss of public trust and rage because things keep getting worse, not better.   Perhaps also, however much more is involved beyond reacting violently to festering social injustice.   Appearing on Russia Today, Michael Ruppert offered a thought provoking analysis, saying:   "I am extremely suspicious that there is deliberate provocateurism, undertaken by industrialized governments," especially America, Britain and other Western states, "to provoke race riots. And I'm really worried that's what's happening."   "The patterns are very disturbing," especially inflammatory media coverage, heightening tensions. "It suggests that 'they' really want to trigger unrest. The 'they' is anyone in service of the infinite growth monetary paradigm."   "That would be the banks, the oil companies. That would be the absolutely corrupt financial institutions." They trigger unrest "because it's more profitable to destroy things now in this infinite growth paradigm."   "It's infinitely more profitable to kill than save. It's just the reality of the world we live in."   In Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler explained it saying, there's "much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."   In America's wars, profiteers benefit enormously from mass destruction, reaping lucrative contracts to rebuild.   In Britain, "(t)here's a very suspicious pattern to the way the riots are breaking out....One of the primary incentives or directives or interests of the establishment of putting down (US) civil unrest in the sixties was to prevent any alliance between Blacks and Whites."   "And they went to any lengths possible to create tension, and that's what I see happening" across Britain. Moreover, "the civil unrest we see around the world," including the so-called Arab Spring, "has nothing to do with Arab, Black or White. This is a generational revolution."   It's about young people with "no hope, no future, who understand that civilization is collapsing around them, and they're frustrated beyond belief."   However, violence is the wrong tactic. "There's a better way to fight the beast that's doing this."   Cui bono also is at issue. "These (events) are being used as test runs to test command and control systems for (eventual) larger riots."   "They (also) want to incite further civil unrest because that will serve as a distraction from the economic chaos. It's a diversion from what's really causing all this suffering around the world right now."   In fact, war, especially nuclear war "is the ultimate diversion. All wars....come from a place where there's nothing to go to economically to cover up your economic mistakes" or malfeasance.   "The only way to fight (back) is to withdraw any investments you have in any financial instruments anywhere in the world. Stop feeding" the beast. Starve it by opting out, "because once you invest in it, you want to keep it alive. You have a (vested) interest in what is killing the planet," and ultimately your own welfare.   Catherine Austin Fitts recommends local financial permacultures, saying:   Everywhere, "people and local institutions have financial capital, typically retirement capital or various kinds of savings and reserves." Instead of investing them in "centralized institutions and financial centers," use them for community "permaculture developments and the businesses that supply them."   The more development becomes local, "the easier it will be for people to withdraw" savings from destructive centralized institutions. In other words, build local self-sufficiency, free from government/corporate predation, benefitting wealth and power at the expense of ordinary people.   Fight them by going local. People have real power if they use it. Directing financial resources away from destructive institutions weakens them in ways they can't contest.   Opting out can make a dramatic difference if growing numbers do it, benefitting while defeating the beast that's destroying them. It can't happen easily or quickly, but good solutions have potential to spread.   Key is getting started, taking it step by step, and uniting with others to build self-sustaining communities, free from financial predators. They're criminally tied to Washington and other centralized governments, harming ordinary people and planet earth for their own benefit.   Self-preservation is possible with enough commitment to try. The potential rewards are too significant not to, and what better time than now to start.   Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.   Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.   http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

 http://www.rense.com/general94/riots.htm