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AoC Briefing on rioting across the UK

AoC stands with all the targeted communities and victims of the recent far-right and racist rioting in many towns and cities across the UK. We know that these events have caused damage and fear in many communities and the legacy will be physical, emotional and social with a danger of deepening divides and hate. These challenges need to be tackled within colleges, their wider communities and society as a whole and AoC is here to offer support and guidance with this.

Impact on colleges

Colleges play an important part in building and supporting community cohesion and are integral to their communities. They will be impacted in many ways by the widespread far-right and racist rioting which has taken place. Students, potential students and their families, staff and those working with colleges will have been affected by the disorder and colleges will need to prepare for various levels of distress among members of their community when students return on site including for exams results, whilst monitoring the situation over the summer break. Some colleges have been making helpful public statements on this.

Guidance for colleges

Students and staff will want to discuss what has happened and how it can be addressed, and it will be important to make time and space for this. You may want to check in with staff and existing students by contacting them before the start of term. Once term begins, you will want to listen to your students’ and colleagues’ experiences and to consider their views about what needs to be done to address racism, violence and misinformation, to promote personal and community safety and to educate for equity and diversity.

Colleges are influential in their communities and are well placed to shape opinion and behaviours. You will want to take a strong institutional stand against racism, hate speech, misinformation and violence. College staff are in a position to set the agenda and promote a culture of respect, inclusion and non-violence and to challenge hate speech, racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-migrant narratives and all forms of discriminatory language or behaviour.

As part of their equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies and behaviour codes,colleges have a clear commitment to anti-racist policies based on equality, inclusion and respect, and these should be communicated and explained. At the start of the autumn term, you will want to renew your commitment to anti-racist education, to understanding the current threats of extremism (online and in person), to educating about racism and xenophobia and to engaging with anti-racist, community cohesion activity and mental health support services in your area.


In particular you may want to enhance your support for racially-minoritised students, including Muslim students, refugee and asylum-seeking students and international students. More generally, you may also want to review the impact on the integrity and safety of your buildings, your transport arrangements, campus safety plans, risk assessments and business continuity plans as well as your guidance on personal safety including with employers and other partners you work with.


Individual students and staff may need specific support with the consequences of violence, either as victims or if they are going through the criminal justice system. The increased volume of such cases may put increased pressure on college safeguarding teams and systems.

What AoC is doing

AoC colleagues are available to provide support and guidance for member colleges as they respond to the developing challenges, sharing resources and good practice around safeguarding and education, encouraging the government to enhance support for anti racist education, safeguarding support, public safety and community development.

We will work with your college EDI leads to enhance the Equity Exchange support in the Autumn term. We are also writing to those leads to propose some actions that can be taken locally. We will make the case for any additional resources which colleges urgently need to support student and staff safety and community cohesion. We will be working with relevant government departments, including the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport, the Department for Education and the Home Office, to make the case for the contribution colleges can make to a national response to the riots, including community cohesion and resilience, youth social action and mental health support.

The Equity Exchange events will continue to provide a safe space for EDI Leads and college staff to network and be able to share best practice, ideas and solutions to challenges that we are facing and the outcomes of these riots. Resources from these events will continue to be shared online. We are also sending a letter to those leads to propose some actions that can be taken locally.

AoC’s EDI Charter can continue to provide a focus on creating and nurturing a culture of belonging within colleges and the wider sector. Your pledge can act as a public commitment to others on the actions you are taking.

Context

Following the horrific killing of three children in Southport on 29 July, there has been a wave of violent riots across the UK under a broad anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, far-right and racist agenda. Mosques have been targeted, hotels temporarily housing asylum seekers have been set on fire, police officers injured, shops looted and vehicles torched.

Some of these actions started with what are advertised as “peaceful vigils” which may attract individuals wishing to express grief and solidarity with Southport, others show clear violent intent. A common feature is the involvement of the organised far-right, drawing on a sense of grievance and a common wellspring of racism and anger, often using the same slogans such as “Enough is Enough”, “Stop the Boats”, “Save Our Children”. Figures from the traditional organised far-right have been central in promoting and attending actions, spreading anger and misinformation, generating a blizzard of false information, and conspiracy theories. Most of the rioting has been characterised by racist, anti-Muslim and anti-migrant prejudice and hostility to multiculturalism.

Most of these riots are being planned organically, often by people plugged into decentralised far-right networks online, showing the post-organisational nature of the modern far right. These movements lack formal leaders, but have figureheads, including a selection of far-right social media influencers, in particular Steven Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson). Communications technology and social media enable individuals to collaborate independently of traditional organisational structures. The shared slogans, language and iconography owes to the fact that their organisers are often active in overlapping online spaces.

In recent days, there have been some large peaceful counterdemonstrations which have demonstrated the scale of opposition to the far-right and racist narratives behind the riots and, together with the scale of arrests and rapid sentencing, may deter people from engaging in further incidents.

AoC contacts

Resources

Educate against Hate

Hope not Hate

Show Racism the Red Card

Faith in Us: Educating Young people about Islamophobia (Equaliteach)

Connect Futures

Cities of Sanctuary UK