The language of Mosley

It's the Guardian we turn to, naturally enough, to hear from someone who was part of the attack on the Cereal Cafe in Brick Lane yesterday - the attack, that is, by "anti-gentrification activists" carrying pigs' heads and torches, which left customers, including children "terrified for their lives". Here's Will Harvey, our brave activist spokesperson:

The protest had a carnival atmosphere provided by portable sound systems, fire spinners, pyrotechnics and people dressed as pigs (thankfully David Cameron did not attend). People have speculated about who the protesters are, and where they live themselves, and I would describe those I saw as a diverse mix of working-class Londoners, from toddlers to pensioners, some residents of local social housing, while others travelled in from less expensive areas of the capital; many were victims of the gentrification and evictions I’ve mentioned. Class War anarchists, activists, squatters and social housing tenants were joined along the way by local youths and the usual revellers of Shoreditch angry about rising prices or simply looking to join the party.

You get the point, I hope. This was a diverse mix of working-class Londoners. Some were local, but others travelled in from less expensive areas of the capital. There were absolutely no middle class student activist types at all. Absolutely none. All were working class. Let's hope that's clear.

So how was the event advertised on Facebook? 

“Our communities are being ripped apart – by Russian oligarchs, Saudi sheiks, Israeli scumbag property developers, Texan oil-money twats and our own home-grown Eton toffs...." 

Israeli scumbag property developers? Is there any evidence that Israelis, in particular, are investing in property in Tower Hamlets? Or is this a code for....you know....the ones with the hook noses. 

There is, to be fair, another Guardian CiF piece, by Audrey Gillan, a local resident. Unlike our self-righteous and definitely not middle-class activist, she's able to pick up the dark, fascist, xenophobic undertone:

These days, Spitalfields is a vibrant mix, becoming more “hip” by the day as a diverse range of eateries, shops and art galleries pops up all the way down to Whitechapel and out into areas where a latte was previously unheard of (this is the same area that stood up against the march of Mosley and the blackshirts in the Battle of Cable Street).

In recent weeks a doughnut shop and a pop-up selling artisan ketchup have opened their doors, but is this gentrification or diversification? One man’s Heinz 57 Varieties is another man’s eco-sourced, additive-free bottle of tomato-ey joy, just as one man’s beard is another man’s bandanna.

In arguments on Twitter with some of the fuckparaders rioting last night on my doorstep, I was told: “They’re destroying where we live and rubbing our noses in it with stupid places like @CerealKillerUK… No attempt to fit in, or respect the people who live here, it’s an invasion, and so being treated that way.”

Yet when asked where they were born and where they live they refused to answer. Almost everyone in the East End is an invader, barring the original cockneys. But hey: “Trust find [sic] kids and posh twats taking over an area and destroying it for us – that’s a problem.”

While appropriating the language of Mosley, last night’s rioters made no significant mention of the massively controversial decision by Boris Johnson to call in the plans for the Bishopsgate Goodsyard , a sky city of luxury flats with very little social housing. The developers, Hammerson and Ballymore raise barely a mention; nor did the destruction of the beautiful Fruit and Wool Exchange in Spitalfields to make way for more City offices.

Yes, the East End is changing, and much of the development has no care for community, housing, affordability or social cohesion. But scapegoating hipsters riding fixie bikes, and more specifically, a couple of beardy brothers selling cornflakes, is hardly brave or intelligent.

Pig's heads and torches? This is in the tradition, not of noble working-class protest or civil rights marches, but of Kristallnacht.

Comments

[Richard Powell]

The reference to "Israeli scumbag property developers" may not be entirely gratuitous: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/29/carlton-tavern-pub-demolished-maida-vale-rebuild_n_7171012.html

OK, they're probably not active in Tower Hamlets, but neither are Russian oligarchs, Saudi sheikhs or Texan oil-money twats, as far as I am aware. Though I did live for a couple of years in the early eighties in a house in Tower Hamlets owned by an Etonian who'd been a member of the Bullingdon Club, which suggests that gentrification is not an entirely recent phenomenon.

[Whyaxye]

"I would describe those I saw as a diverse mix of working-class Londoners, from toddlers to pensioners, some residents of local social housing, while others travelled in from less expensive areas of the capital; many were victims of the gentrification and evictions I’ve mentioned. Class War anarchists, activists, squatters and social housing tenants were joined along the way by local youths and the usual revellers of Shoreditch angry about rising prices or simply looking to join the party."

That sounds like a splendidly diverse mob, albeit one drawn from a particular income bracket. I would have liked to have seen a bit more emphasis on the representation of ethnic minorities and those suffering sexual oppression, but otherwise it's a good contribution to London's tradition of civil disorder.