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Race Riots (2001) & Aftermath
In the summer of 2001, Asian youths took to the streets of Oldham, Leeds, Burnley, Bradford and Stoke to defend their communities from racist violence. They had lost trust in the police who had failed to show them the level of support expected. Below we sketch the background to the disturbances, we highlight the main incidents and responses.
The situation in Oldham Oldham is a former mill town to the north-east of Manchester. About 12% of its population are Bangladeshis or Pakistani – communities who arrived in the 1960s in the then still active textile industry. The mills closed in the 1980s and unemployment swept through the town. The Asians took to work in restaurants or takeaways, corner shops or in mini-cabbing. Most of the public service jobs went to the whites. In 1993 the local authority was prosecuted for operating a segregated housing policy – better areas for whites and the run down estates for Asians. Likewise there was effective segregation in education. Racial tensions were on the rise. The Oldham police have long been indifferent to racially motivated street violence against Asian in the town.
In the summer of 1989, a 14-year old schoolboy, Tahir Akram, was walking home to the largely Pakistani area of Glodwick when he was shot in the eye by an air rifle pellet. A gang of whites were randomly shooting at people. The pellet entered the brain and killed Tahir. The police said the attack was not racist. The Asian had planned a protest march but the local authorities and the press proved hostile and the protest was called off.
By 1999, Asian victims no longer had confidence in the police and had mostly given up reporting incidents. An unprovoked attack on an Asian’s car by whites would be recorded as damage to a vehicle whereas an Asian youth robbing a white man’s wallet became a racially motivated assault and only incidents like these were reported by the press. The Asians decided to defend themselves. The family of Gulfraz Nazir had a shop in Limeside, a mainly white area. For four years their shop had been targeted by gangs of up to 30 racist youth armed with crowbars and hammers. Whenever the police were called, they took their time and it was too late. Finally, Gulfraz organised a group of friends to confront the racists. Running battles ensued between armed white youth and Asians. Soon the police and local press began to portray the Asians as perpetrators rather than victims. The Macpherson Report (on the inquiry into the murder of black youth Stephen Lawrence in London), published in Feb 1999 had recommended that the police must treat racial incidents seriously and follow new procedures in dealing them. It was a race incident if it was so perceived by the victim. Oldham’s chief superintendent, Eric Hewitt, compiled a set of 250 race incidents and said that most of these were committed by Asians on whites! He added that the real problem in the town was not race attacks against Asians but the violence of Asian gangs who were trying to carve out exclusive areas for themselves. The local papers were only too pleased to headline this view: ‘3 of 4 victims are white’ and ‘plague of racist attacks by Asian gangs’. Asian boys walking through the town centre were likely to be dispersed by police officer or security guard. In the white areas, there were the words ‘Pakis Out’ painted on the road signs.
At a time when the Macpherson Report was focusing on police racism, the notion of gang warfare and ‘no-go areas’ provided a handy explanation with the police haplessly caught between rival gangs. The social climate at Oldham was a God-sent opportunity for the racist British national Party (BNP) to set up a branch in the town. 52% of Pakistanis, 61% Bangladeshis and 7% whites live in the worst 10% of the deprived areas. Yet over the last 6 years, most of the regeneration grants have gone into the white areas. For example, the mainly white areas, Hathershaw and Fitton Hill, received more than three times the grants than the Asian areas, Westwood and Glodwick. Yet the perception persists that Asians receive greater privileges.
Clashes with Police Matters came to the boil in May 2001. 1) OLDHAM (26-28 May 01) Asians in the Glodwick and Westwood areas fought with riot police after white racist gangs attacked residents. Local pubs and the offices of the Oldham Evening Chronicle paper were also attacked.
2) LEEDS (5 June) An angry crowd of 100 Asians assembled outside Chapletown police station after police sprayed Hussein Miah with CS gas. Six hours of rioting ensued as whites and African-Caribbeans joined Asians in battling the police through the streets of the multi-racial Harehills area.
3) BURNLEY (23-24 June) Assorted racists, numbering about 50, had gathered in local pubs on Saturday. In the afternoon, an Asian taxi driver was attacked by the racists and cheekbone fractured. 200 Asians assembled in Stoneholme to defend the area as a National Front (NF) group approached. Shahid Malik, a race equality commissioner, sought to cool off the protestors but was himself hit by riot officers. The violence grew and the Asians attacked two of the pubs which harboured racists. Taxi drivers went on a 10-day strike in protest at racist attacks against Asians.
4) BRADFORD (7 July) A number of National Front members had appeared in the town and in response an Anti-Nazi League (ANL) rally was held attended by 600 people. An Asian man was attacked by racists leaving a pub in the town centre – while the police stood by. Fighting broke out between the racists, police and Asians. Rioting continued through the night resulting in 200 police officers being injured, two men stabbed and 36 arrested. 1000 police eventually retook the control of the streets but damage had been done to pubs, a BMW garage and local clubs. Said Jan-Khan of the Manningham Residents’ Association: “Nobody would let the NF march into Manningham… But instead of protecting the residents, the police turned on our community, herding us like animals’.
5) STOKE (14 July) Over 100 Asian youths battled with police as rumours spread that NF supporters and racist gangs were going to attack the Cobridge area. Earlier white youths had attacked an Asian-owned parked car in the Shelton area as others chanted racist slogans.
Establishment Responds Tony Blair, not bothering to study all the facts, promptly followed Thatcher’s well-trodden path and said: “We give 100% support to the police… the police (in Oldham) have got a good record on race relations.” Said a local MP, Phil Woolas: “The Muslim community has not integrated at a pace acceptable to the white population.” His solution was “coercing integration on an unwilling public.” Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, thought that integration of Pakistanis was hampered by marriages arranged in the Indian sub-continent. That the rioters were born and bred in Britain was ignored. Her answer: “I think we start to look at the immigration laws.” It is the state voices that were heard the loudest.
Official inquiries on the disturbances were set up and three reports followed.
The Oldham Independent Review Report (headed by David Ritchie) - On the whole, policing in the town has been carried out ‘honourably’ - Police must adopt better ‘communications strategy’ - Promote racially mixed housing through slum clearance programmes - Open community centres to all groups - Tackle job discrimination against Asians.
The Burnley Independent Task Force Report - Riots began as a drugs war between white and Asian gangs - Tension was exploited by organised racists - Poverty, bad housing and bigotry fuelled race tensions.
The Cantle Report for the Home Office (Dec 2001) This was the official response to the northern disturbances. - Segregation of communities has led to ignorance and fear - Need to promote community cohesion - Need a national debate on British citizenship - All citizens need to declare their allegiance to Britain - Schools not admit more than 75% of pupils from one ethnic background - Diversity training and ethnic recruitment to be stepped up
Oldham Council responded to the Ritchie Report in June 2002 (Guardian 29 June 02). It acknowledged that extremist groups had created tensions, violence and damage and explained that many of the town’s problems were not caused solely by race but also by poverty and social exclusion. It was not right to present Oldham as a uniquely segregated society. In other towns too, communities simply wished to live with those having shared interests. The idea of forced community integration was neither proper nor achievable. The Council identified some 9000 homes (mostly pre-war terraces) as unfit for habitation. “If Oldham is to succeed to a more harmonious future, we are going to need more funding.” --------------- Arun Kundnani, of the Institute of Race Relations, has analysed this situation and later developments thoroughly [Ref 3]. Muslims were blamed for not mixing ('self-segregation') whereas it was white flight from Asian areas. And Muslim frustration and alienation arose from loss of occupations from the closure of the old industries in their areas, together with institutional racism - discrimination in jobs, housing, education and policing. In Oldham, Burnley and Bradford, for example, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were recruited to work in the textile mills from the 1960s onwards. But soon afterwards, the mills began to be 'outsourced' to places where labour was cheaper. Those towns found themselves left on the scrapheap, with the only remaining jobs in the service sector, particularly the local authorities. Evidence suggests that whites were favoured in these jobs; as a result Asians took to working as taxi drivers or running take-aways. At the same time, whites were prioritised for the new estates being built to rehouse those who had lived in the old houses around the mills. Those Asians that did get rehoused were often driven out by racial harassment. And with whites in a rush to flee the ghettoes, property prices were kept low, giving further encouragement to Asians to seek to buy their own cheap homes in these areas. Segregation in housing led to segregation in schools. And the mechanism of parental choice, introduced at the end of the 1980s, meant that, in schools with catchment areas that ought to have produced mixed intakes, white parents chose to send their children to majority-white schools a little further away. In all schools, rather than genuine education about other people, their histories and their struggles, what you had were hackneyed formulae of steel bands, samosas and saris. After the riots of 2001, when Britain woke up to the fact that a generation had grown up living 'parallel
lives', this whole history was forgotten and, instead, it was Muslims who were blamed for refusing to mix. With the publication of the government White paper Secure Borders, Safe Haven: integration with diversity in Britain, in early 2002, integration and community cohesion became the new policy focus for minorities and migrants, in place of anti-racist policies and multiculturism.
Ted Cantle, a
sociologist and former chief exec of Nottingham Council, explained community
cohesion in a book that came out in 2005 [Ref 4]. It is about core & shared
values, Britishness, acceptable difference, citizenship, national identity.
Muslim grievances are ignored. Institutional racism does not feature, nor is
there any mention of an anti-racist approach. The state - with its racist or
war-mongering policies - is not faulted, the blame lies with ethnic minorities,
mostly the Muslims.
References 1. Daily Mirror, 2, 3 & 6 May 2002 2. Daily
Mail, 8 May 2002 4. Ted Cantle, Community Cohesion: a new framework for race and diversity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
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