The left needs to act more boldly or we are all doomed

The National

13 hours ago

According to immigration lawyers, agents arrested people – including families with small children – and held them in a stuffy office basement for days without sufficient food and water.
Given the brutal nature of these raids, and the failure to uphold basic human rights (such as the right to due process and the right to legal representation), it is no wonder that protests have taken place.
However, unlike the 1992 LA riots, the protests sparked by the actions of ICE have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and have been confined to a six-block stretch of downtown LA.
READ MORE: Israel launches second wave of major strikes on Iran
Yet, despite this, Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to be deployed against the California governor's wishes – the first time since 1965 that a president had deployed National Guard troops to a state without a governor's request.
Although it is heartening to see ordinary Americans beginning to make a stand against the inhumane, illegal, and downright cruel actions of the Trump administration, we cannot forget the path that led the United States here – corruption, obscene inequality, and the deliberate fanning of the flames of racism and bigotry.
I find myself grateful on a daily basis that I do not live in America, only to be reminded that these issues are much closer to home than many of us care to admit. Over the last several nights, Ballymena in Northern Ireland has been rocked by racist riots. They began after a vigil held for a teenage girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by two 14-year-olds.
(Image: Brian Lawless/PA Wire)
When rumours spread that a Romanian interpreter was in the court, it was enough to ignite the racism that has long been simmering away. Police said the unrest escalated into racially motivated violence, with mobs targeting foreign residents by breaking their windows, and setting fire to their homes.
The justification given for these racist riots is that residents feel their community is being 'overrun' by foreigners, and that it has happened very quickly.
For context, 3.4% of Northern Ireland's population are from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to 12.9% in Scotland and 18.3% in England and Wales. Northern Ireland is the least diverse part of the United Kingdom.
The rioters claim immigrants are 'freeloading' off taxpayer-funded resources, and are committing crimes. Again, this is an age-old claim which barely masks the racism motivating it.
But when a young, white, Irish or British person moves to somewhere like Australia or Spain to start a new life, we encourage them and wish them the best.
We do not assume they are scroungers looking to suck resources away from native Australians, so why is it different when people come to the UK for a better life?
Equally, the vast majority of sexual assaults in the UK are committed by white men born in the UK – where are the riots then?
The anger and despair that people feel when they see their communities decline, their opportunities disappear and their national institutions disintegrate is completely understandable and justified. The problem comes when that righteous anger is manipulated and aimed at entirely the wrong people.
While standards of living in the UK continue to decline, while social security is dismantled piece by piece – no matter which party is in government – when the waiting lists for NHS appointments and decent housing seem to only ever grow, it is fair to feel angry and attacked.
However, when the richest people in society are getting richer while ordinary people are simultaneously told that they must, again, tighten their belts, it seems obvious to me where that anger should be directed. And it certainly is not at immigrants just trying to live their lives.
This same manipulation of that anger and despair that we have seen in the US, and in Northern Ireland, can also be seen much closer to home in Scotland. Nigel Farage's Reform UK came third in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. It was once unthinkable that Farage would ever enjoy even close to that level of success in politics, never mind in Scottish politics.
As I have said previously, something is going to eventually give way. People are desperate for change from the status quo, and they will vote for whoever they perceive to be deviating the most from it, no matter how false that perception is.
Given that the status quo has been moving increasingly further to the right, it is the perfect time for left-leaning political parties to think and act boldly. If they don't, then we are all doomed.