David Jamieson responds to the racist violence instigated by the far right in Belfast and beyond

The UK now has a yearly tradition of summer pogroms. This latest wave of attacks from Belfast to Glasgow, Liverpool, London and beyond, and in which people were specifically targeted for their skin colour in the homes and on the streets, must be seen as part of this context.

Every year, for three years in a row, organised racists have launched targeted attacks on various minority groups. Though often under the pretext of a violent outrage, they are clearly pre-meditated and involve organised networks and information sourced in advance, such as appears to be the case in Belfast, where known non-white addresses were singled-out for attack.

We know these events are being organised on encrypted social media platforms like Telegram. There is a pattern of behaviour and tactics, such as mobbing areas where immigrants or racial minorities are known to gather or own properties, attacks on residential areas, or the establishment of checkpoints where drivers are forced to report their race.

These are 5 initial responses:

1. The ‘protest’, ‘anger’ and ‘debate’ euphemisms beloved of the media and political class have little purchase on this phenomenon. The organised far right use violence to terrorise opponents and generate momentum for more violence.

These people will not debate and aren’t interested in solving a policy problems. They were ready and waiting to launch another summer campaign and are not just frustrated people who feel unheard.

2. Those like Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch who have fanned the flames of paranoid racialism in recent days knew the context in which they did so. They understood that summer is racist rioting season and promoted the idea that white people are being victimised by the state – a key article of faith of the most extreme fringes.

A very dangerous game is being played by mainstream political forces and state authorities. Racism is also being openly fed by powerful figures in the US Government, who are advancing their own state’s foreign interests by subverting their ally.

3. Why the left hasn’t developed a prepared response to these highly predictable summer manifestations is an urgent question. We know this is coming every year. That means there must be a pre-planned, institutional response every year.

4. It should be a broad, large-scale response based on the very wide layers of the population who oppose this violence and blatant racism. We are not in a minority in opposing this.

Breadth, numbers and a national focus is important. After the first wave of violence in 2024, there were calls for all kinds of hyper-local, deep-organising initiatives. The calls were widely hailed as the obvious solution and then forgotten.

The reason is that the calls were just a cry of frustration. They weren’t a plan, weren’t backed by any resources, strategy or organisation.

It’s a disabling platform when we need to demonstrate the breadth and national weight of opposition. Millions of people do not want to see us head further down this path. They should be mobilised.

5. Britain is in decline, and these new traditions of racist violence are a symptom.

We need to acknowledge that the British state is being driven further from the centre of the world system and into a developing European periphery. Great powers are reorganising the world system between them, and British capitalism is being squeezed and mismanaged, with the consequence that whole layers of the population are experiencing deprivation and humiliation.

This volatile situation is the only political terrain available to us. We ultimately require a challenge to growing hardship and disempowerment experienced by millions of working-class people. Without this, the racism of the organised hardcore can intimidate opponents and spread.