Conditions that led to disorder ‘still there and could escalate again'

Independent

3 days ago

The build up of 'anger, prejudice and misinformation' that led to the disorder last year is still there and could escalate again under the right circumstances, an anti-facist organisation has warned.
Hope Not Hate's director of research Joe Mulhall said it is a 'very, very febrile time', as he described the 2024 summer disorder as the 'most widespread period' of far-right violence in post-war Britain.
Last year disorder spread in some parts of the UK in the wake of the Southport murders on July 29, after false rumours were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Mosques, community centres and libraries were attacked, while hotels housing asylum seekers were also targeted.
Dr Mulhall told the PA news agency: 'I think it's without question the most widespread period of far-right violence, certainly the post-war period and possibly beyond.
'What makes it more shocking, the speed with which it's kind of stopped getting talked about or it got written off as legitimate anger.
'This is a really seismic historical moment in history, post-war Britain, and very, very quickly it fell off the radar.'
The disorder what the modern far-right looks like, Dr Mulhall said, now made up of 'vast' online and offline decentralised networks, which go 'well beyond' individual organisations.
'You can have people that are engaging in forms of far-right activism without having been a member of anything.'
He added: 'I think the media narrative shifted because it wasn't possible to point to a specific organisation and say 'this fascist group was behind it'.'
He said the decentralised concept of far-right activism makes it more complex 'but I don't think it makes it any less far-right'.
At the height of the disorder, a fire was fuelled outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Manvers, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on August 4.
Two men were handed nine-year prison sentences in connection with the fire, the longest jail time of the hundreds of people convicted in relation to the countrywide disorder.
Dr Mulhall said that during the period 'no-one was sleeping' as Hope Not Hate were speaking to their sources in the far-right and monitoring dozens of events in real time.
The team would then pass the information to their policy colleagues, who would contact accommodation or mosques they felt could be attacked, or refugee charities, to say they were worried about forthcoming action.
'In one sense, (it) was empowering. I think by the end, lots of people obviously found it quite traumatic, sitting there for 11 days watching really traumatic stuff, people being beaten, people being dragged out their cars.'
Dr Mulhall said the 'quick crackdown' and quick arrests and sentencing of rioters had a 'damping effect' on the far-right for the months that followed, and the organisation then had a quiet period.
'I think sometimes you can think of the far-right like a volcano, you know, once it explodes, sometimes it takes some time for the magma chamber to rebuild up and the pressure to build before it pops again.
'That magma chamber I talk about, under-society of anger, prejudice, misinformation, all those things, is still there, which means it's a very, very febrile time.'
He added: ' People are still furious. In some cases, they're more angry, we're further into Labour government, the economic conditions haven't got better.
'Which means that when you have a trigger event, like an alleged horrifying event in Epping, all of those conditions are still there. That means that very, very quickly they can escalate.
'That doesn't mean that we're going to see another summer of riots, but it does mean that it could have got worse, and something else could happen in the coming weeks.'
Multiple demonstrations have been held outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping since July 13, after an asylum-seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
Essex Police said there was an 'escalation of violence' during protests at the same site on July 13, 17, 20 and 24, involving hundreds of people.
More than a dozen men have so far been charged with offences ranging from violent disorder to failing to remove a face covering.
Elsewhere, protests outside asylum hotels have also been reported in Norwich, Canary Wharf in London, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Leeds.
While monitoring the events last week, Dr Mulhall said they picked up on 17 protests planned over the next 10 days, and were 'slightly worried' about planned protests for the weekend to come.
But he added 'this is not a mass uprising', with numbers across the country combined between 1,000 to 2,000 from activity seen so far.
On ways to curb the tensions, he said 'no-one' thinks that housing asylum seekers in hotels is a good idea, and highlighted the role of technology and social media, when planning and organising of the far-right is happening across online platforms.
In the longer term he said the only thing that is going to work is a 'genuine social cohesion strategy'.
'You're much less likely to believe far-right misinformation about people that live in your town if you know them, if you've spent time with them.'