Volatile mood after London killings

Radical changes in consciousness often spring from arbitrary collective experiences. Last week’s bombings in London are no exception. On the surface, the story being broadcast and repeated by the journalists, politicians, and purveyors of “objective information” appears to be true.

The story goes like this: the British people are tolerant, conservative, resilient and non-phased by the bombs, “a few bombs won’t shake them out of political apathy”. London is getting back to normal. Spain’s protests after the 11th March bombs were due to their Latin temperament, the Brits won’t overthrow governments or leaders, rather they will rally united against “those intent on destroying our way of life.”

However, the surface calm hides processes going on in the minds of ordinary people. They are thinking things through, observing and drawing conclusions, which at some point will come to the surface in one way or another.

On Sunday, as most weeks, I went to speak at Speakers’ Corner. I too, through a few conversations, considered the mood to be as described by the agents of deception in the mediums of communication.

I wandered around. A large crowd gathered around one of the regular Muslim platforms. The speaker is a young, reasonably eloquent preacher. He is flanked by a robed Muslim carrying the Koran, who assists the orator in his flow, and provides occasional intellectual comments.

It was immediately evident that the atmosphere was tense. One heckler, a former college lecturer, whose outlook and temperament was overwhelmingly cynical, asked the question, “Do you think the bombs were in response to Iraq?” The speaker responds firstly by seeking to silence the heckler for interruption, then correctly sensing that the audience want to hear the answer, he prevaricates and begins by asking if anyone believes the bombs were not evil. He is here seeking to engage those members of the audience who see the bombs as retribution for the killings carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

None speaks to reply to the loaded question about evil, but within the crowd, Iraq is discussed as the cause. “They kill thousands,” says one, another quotes Bin Laden’s citations from the Koran. Jay, a Christian evangelist with his entourage composed mainly of missionary college girls from the United States, seeks to explain everything with the idea that the Koran is responsible for advocating murder. He is booed by the crowds, chanting “go away, go away, go away.”

At the front of the meeting one young Muslim argues with an audience member, and it appears a fight could break out. Aggression and tension is everywhere exposed at a level of intensity I have never seen in London before. Appeals for the silencing of empty heckling meet with general approval and appeals to take the matter seriously are overwhelming.

In no way wishing to justify or condone the terrible bomb attacks of last week, I speak to contextualise the scale of destruction here with that in Iraq, and recap the myriad lies and deceptions fed to the British people by “Tony Bush” and “George Blair”. I explain the role being played by British and US imperialism in Iraq. Dismay is visible at twenty meters on the face of a couple, who later reveal they are Republicans from the United States. The dismay is not with the speaker but with the positive response of the crowd. They later are faced with a hostile examination of their core beliefs by four or five people, and they are visibly shocked.

A fully robed and bearded Muslim interrupts to support the case for a global vision based on class relations. He also explains to a silent crowd of around 100 people that he, his wife and 7 year old child have been abused, attacked and spat at over the last few days. He points out this is Blair’s fault because he said, “the bombers want to destroy our way of life,” implying they wish to impose Islam and a Taliban type regime on us, and with this the whole of the Islamic community is tarred with the same brush.

Most people express loud agreement when it is pointed out that the bombers want British troops out of Iraq above all else, and see the bombings as their way of attaining this objective. As sirens of racing police fill the air every minute or two, it is asked, “Where were they when the bombs went off?” The reply is, “in Gleneagles protecting the murderers.” The crowd laughs.

After the meeting ends people surround us and congratulate us for “telling the truth.” Someone from Al Jazeera wants to set up interviews, and an Indian lady welcomes the dissection of global wealth and poverty relations as those of capitalism. A Venezuelan couple that dislike Chavez’s “style and personality” agree, however, 100 per cent with the progressive nature of social reforms in their country. A Cuban girl engages in a detailed discussion of bureaucratic administration.

There are too many people to talk to, so the Muslim stands on the Marxist platform to express his agreement but also elaborate his conspiratorial theses. Then up jumps an Indian featured man in his late 40s to condemn Blair. He rails from the heart against “that bastard”, a phrase he keeps repeating.

At Speakers’ Corner at least, contrary to what we are hearing from the mass media, the blame is firmly placed on Blair’s shoulders for the terror on the tube and bus. Consciousness has been shaken up, with volatile and explosive moods boiling just below the surface veneer of the “united nation” being so carefully fostered by those above.