LOZELLS 2: WHAT'S CHANGED?

21-10-2006

This weekend marks the first anniversary of the Lozells riot. So what difference has 12 months made asks Derrick Campbell?

A year on from the Birmingham riots what has changed? We saw on two consecutive nights, Saturday the 22nd and 23rd October the Lozells area of Birmingham was plunged into running street battles that resulted in two murders (althoughpolice now say that one of these killings had nothing to do with the widespread eruption of violence and would have happened anyway).

The riots were derived from racial tension between the African and Asians communities, with the spark being an alleged gang rape of a teenage black girl by a group of Asian men.

The rape allegation which I don't believed ever happened, has never been substantiated. No evidence has been found to support the rumour nor has any victim come forward (further rumours asserted that this was because the victim was present in Britain illegally and feared deportation). The clashes involved groups of African and Asian men committing serious acts of violence against various targets from both communities.

As a result of this riot23-year-old Isiah Young-Sam died.

So what's the situationone year on?

The riots were a symptom and not the cause. I believed, and still do, that structures were put in place by the political systems to ensure that communities are segregated and remain apart. These structures cause minorities to fight amongst themselves for the peppercorn funding offered to them by the local authorities.

Birmingham Council seems set on investing to impress the visitors to the city instead of investing for the benefit of local people. This process of social engineering not only weakens the integrity of the local community but it displaces people who may not be socially or economically mobile and has the progressive effect of ghettoising certain sections of the city.

As for many local people who I've been speaking to nothinghas changed; it's truethere are no running battles in the streets, no shops are being looted, but the root causesare still there.

What we need is a systematic dismantling of the structures that are designed to maintain segregation and prevent minority groups having a united voice and the ability to stand up togetheragainst discrimination and unfair treatment.

It is wrong for politicians to keep on papering over the deep wounds which still exist,and recognise what history has taught us. For if we continue to ignore the plight of people who feel alienated and disenfranchised, they have a tendency of taking matters into their own hands…and we all know what that can lead to.