It’s impossible to understand the riots without discussing austerity
The UK has forgotten the lessons of the Marshall Plan. Poverty breeds extremism, says Sam Fowles
After the Second World War, President Truman tasked his secretary of state George Marshall with a twin mission. First, ensure that the extremism that led to Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy didn’t happen again. Second, find a way to stop communism spreading in Europe once the war was over. Marshall did something radical for a politician: he studied history. He realised the common denominator in places where extremism flourished was poverty. In the 21st century, researchers have confirmed Marshall’s thesis, finding causative links between poverty and extremism (including far-right extremism) in Pakistan, the Sahel, Nigeria and the United States.
Marshall’s solution was one of the largest investment programmes in history: the Marshall Plan. The US invested $13.5bn ($173bn at 2023 values) in Western Europe’s economic recovery. It continued to invest billions every year until the mid 1950s, by which point Western Europe’s economies had all surpassed their pre-war heights. The Plan helped avoid the mass poverty of the early 20th century and, in establishing West Germany as a living rebuke to communism, helped win the Cold War. Once again, Marshall’s approach has been confirmed in the 21st century. The UN notes that creating jobs and reducing inequalities reduces the risk of violent extremism.
At some point the UK forgot the lessons of the Marshall Plan. For decades, governments have pursued policies which economists warned will make people poorer. Notable amongst these was the Cameron/Osborne austerity plan. This suite of policies deliberately slashed public services and led to a decade of economic stagnation. The results are predictable. Since 1979 real wage growth has dropped from more than 10 per cent per year to -1 per cent per year. Last year saw the largest fall in living standards on record. More than a fifth of people in the UK live in poverty. Many find it more difficult to get healthcare, social services, community care or even a response from police. This hardship isn’t evenly shared. The UK is one of the least socially mobile societies in the Western world.
Into this fertile soil, stepped the far right. There is nothing fundamentally new about today’s far right. They rely on conspiracy theories to encourage gullible people to blame minorities for their problems. The only difference is they now do it via social media. Far right accounts promote claims that Muslims are raping women and children, conspiring to overturn elections and forcing white people out of jobs. And people believe them. Nearly a third of (white) people in the UK believe that there are “no go” areas in British cities which are ruled by Muslims under Sharia law. None of this is true but it gives angry people a target for their anger. This week, that anger was exploited as an excuse for race riots.
This is not to suggest that poverty is the only “cause” of the race riots. The spread of misinformation and the willingness amongst politicians and the press to embrace far-right tropes were undoubtedly more immediate triggers. Nor is it to excuse the rioters themselves. At some point everyone involved chose to believe conspiracy theories rather than informing themselves of the facts. They chose to act on those conspiracy theories by rioting. They chose to blame other impoverished people for their problems because of their skin colour, rather than holding the politicians who caused the problems to account. They deserve to suffer the consequences of their actions. But, if we are to avoid further violence in future, we need to recognise the long-term conditions for radicalisation. The far-right planted the seeds of the riots, but the ground was tilled by the politicians who imposed austerity.