BBC Slanders Activist for Daring to Put Riots in Political Context

After Darcus Howe portrayed the riots in Britain – and around the world – as an “insurrection,” the BBC presenter interviewing him tried to dismiss him as a “rioter.”

Howe, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, is a former broadcaster and journalist. He was a member of the British Black Panther movement and was arrested and tried for rioting in 1970. He was acquitted of all charges. In 1981 he organized the 20,000 strong Black People’s March in response to the New Cross Fire that killed 13 young black people during a birthday party. Howe and the community were outraged by the indifferent response by the police.

The corporate media has concentrated on the criminal aspect of the British riots and all but ignored the social and political dimension of the unrest. Participants are mindlessly characterized as “yobs,” a term invented by the British upper class in the 18th century to describe poor youth (the word is “boy” backwards).