03.11.2005

Anti-working class control-freakery

Eddie Ford takes a closer look at Tony Blair's 'respect' agenda

New Labour's record has been distinguished by its increasing authoritarianism, whether it be 'anti-social behaviour orders' (asbos) or further restrictions on the right to jury trial. Clearly, Tony Blair's neo-Thatcherite 'permanent revolution' is set to roll on or, to use his ominous words, it is time to "change the rules of the game". Thus - as part of this general authoritarian drive - it comes as no great surprise that Blair has declared that he wants the "respect agenda" to be at the heart of his third and final term. This will involve doing battle with "yob culture", and perhaps the home office as well - it being widely reported that the prime minister believes it to be filled to the rafters with "woolly liberals" (with the 'honourable' exception of the current home secretary, Charles Clarke, naturally). So at the weekend both The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times featured stories about a recent "brainstorming" meeting at Chequers of the 'respect task-force' - at which some 40 proposals were bandied around. There was talk of a total ban on alcohol on trains and buses - possibly domestic flights as well - alongside various other crackdowns on public drinking. Additionally, it was suggested that there should be a clampdown on more low-level misdemeanours - dropping litter, graffiti and so on. More seriously still - and alarmingly for partisans of the working class - other ideas floated at the Chequers meeting included new punishments for parents whose children play truant; the downright Orwellian suggestion that 'problem families' who breach asbos should be removed from their council homes and be sent for 'rehabilitation' in special 'sin bin' residential units guarded by security officers and monitored by CCTV; extending parent orders (residential courses); yet tougher measures against binge-drinkers, and a sliding scale of punishment for "neighbours from hell". On a slightly more bizarre note, Blair would also like to create the position of a "respect sheriff" - that is, every community should have a person who is a "visible local figure responsible for respect". Of course, how this "respect sheriff" is appointed (elected?), and to what degree he/she will be accountable or not, remains - in typical Blairite style - a mystery. All these proposals - and others - are being aggressively pushed by Louise Casey, national director of the home office Anti-Social Behaviour Unit (or 'respect tsar'). One of the most vociferous participants at Chequers, she is keen to see these sort of measures make an appearance in the forthcoming Safer Communities Bill (or, to give its current full working title, the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods and Consequential Amendments Bill). Like many of the invidious schemes mooted above, the emphasis is on "community punishments" - such as making offenders undergo 'reparations' to their victims, either through the direct payment of money or cleaning up the mess they made during the course of their crime. The bill also seeks to give the police more powers to close down 'drugs dens' (ie, mount military-style raids on working class estates) and the ability to deny housing benefit to tenants who refuse to take part in the 'rehabilitation' schemes which the government has so considerately provided for them. Communists adamantly resist Blair's 'respect' offensive - which aims to criminalise the most vulnerable sections of our class by reinforcing and extending the social control that the ruling class has over us all. Obviously, the true meaning of Blair's 'agenda' is to teach the working class to 'respect' the great and the good who rule over us - as if by divine right. Regrettably though, the working class movement and its organisations have shattered - and communists recognise that the defeat of the miners' Great Strike of 1984-85 was a major strategic victory for the bourgeoisie and its allies. In our current state, the likes of Tony Blair and Louise Casey feel they have the untrammelled power to conduct social experiments upon the working class - hence the Safer Communities Bill and asbos. It is monstrous that working class people - especially youth - can be stigmatised, and their lives potentially wrecked, by having some middle class magistrate or official slap an asbo upon them, meaning they can be banned form certain areas and be publicly 'named and shamed' in local newspapers. The likely outcome of such a punitive regime is that those affected by it will just feel more marginalised than before, and thus more prone to commit crime - hardly 'joined-up thinking'. Worse, Blair now wants to introduce 'baby' asbos (or 'basbos'), which could be served on people younger than 10 years old. This way, brilliantly, the authorities can criminalise the entire family, from the young children to the parents (and maybe the grandparents next - 'gasbos'?). Naturally, Hazel Blears, minister of state for policing, security and community security, has dismissed criticisms that asbos have been used on too many children, and have acted to give young people a bad name. Insisting that she did not want to "demonise" youngsters, she said half of all asbos were used on "selfish and nasty adults who do not give a damn about anyone else". Part of this, she continued, was dealing with mums and dads who "did not know how to be parents", and that is why 'parenting contracts' had been introduced. Interestingly, this point was taken up and developed by the culture minister, David Lammy, who has stated, "We own the respect agenda." Why? Because, he claims, "It was rooted in respect for black and ethnic minorities, women and the disabled". In other words, Lammy is deploying 'political correctness' and multiculturalist anti-racism in a bid to sell the virtues of Blair's hopeless agenda. For communists, this is all hypocritical, reactionary baloney - the torrent of propaganda surrounding asbos, and now the Safer Communities Bill, is designed to give the impression that civilisation itself is under threat from roaming hordes of bombed-out, sozzled, drugged-up juvenile delinquents, not to mention their 'dead-beat' parents. Rather than give this swathe of society a life worth living - under social conditions that do not breed alienation, despair and sometimes, yes, 'binge-drinking' and drug misuse - the government instead wants to victimise and scapegoat them. Such an approach is irrational and, essentially, inhuman - seeking to perpetuate inequality. We reject the criminalisation of this section of our class, particularly youth, as outlined in government bills, asbos and all the rest. We have to fight the encroachments on democracy associated with the government's campaign against the so-called 'scourge' of binge-drinking, graffiti, child vandals, dysfunctional parents, etc. This infantilises wide swathes of society and, more to the point, justifies state control and interference.