violence

VIOLENCE

Violence, and fear of violence, is an enormous problem in our
society and one which is growing worse. It is especially prevalent
amongst the young, between 14 and 25. It is hard to calculate the
real cost, except in actual lives. The fear and misery violence
brings is incalculable, but it clearly impinges upon young people's
freedom to act and think as they choose.

Very many young people, even children, in the poorest areas live
in constant fear of minor and even serious violence, to a degree
that it can stop them from developing into the people they want to
be. Pressure to conform, often to very negative and restricting
sets of norms is a fact of life for a large percentage of young
people; the effect of this upon society is only just beginning to be
felt, even by those who don't want to see it.

When we pretend this isn't happening we are shirking our
responsibilities as adults. The approach fashionable amongst
those who like to see themselves as left wing, has long been to
pursue permissive policies and to turn a blind eye to the real
consequences. This is self serving and vain, and a dreadful
betrayal of young people, especially those who live in poorer
areas. While the fashionable middle classes who are lucky enough
to be largely free of the consequences of this approach, are able
to think of themselves as liberal minded, working class children are
being murdered daily.

It is now time for society to face up to its responsibilities,
fashionable or not, and to put an end to the dictatorship of teenage
violence. A completely new approach has to be taken and some
hard choices must be made. There is no time to wait and see, no
time to allow more children to be murdered. We need to build a
new future; a society where violence and cruelty are banished.
This cannot be done by letting things be, or by allowing children to
do whatever they want and to feel that they are above and
beyond the law, exempt from moral and legal responsibility

FREEDOM TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT?

Decades of bad parenting and bad government have turned this
country from the most peaceful to one of the most violent in
Europe. Allowing children to behave as they like and to do
whatever they want has created a wave of violence and nastiness
that robs many young people of their very futures. The dreadful
phenomenon now needs urgently to be reversed; in parenting and
in government.

Young people growing up in the estates on the edges of our big
cities have very little choice; they face a future dominated by
drugs, violence and crime. So great is the wave engulfing us that
their parents now feel powerless to stop it; The better off, -those
who enjoy the luxury of still believing in the misguided ideas of the
left, - need to consider what it is like for parents in poor areas,
and try to imagine what it would be like to be powerless to help
their children; powerless to prevent their children being dragged
into the misery of taking drugs, of carrying weapons, of being
attacked , murdered, or ending up in prison.

Children in these areas are not free; They are not free to develop
and grow; They are not free to enjoy the innocence of childhood,
as better-off children are; They are not free to choose and their
destinies or even their interests

The situation has grown so bad that the communities themselves
cannot be expected to combat it. As it is they are left to struggle
on their own as the police are unable with present manning levels
to give the residents the protection they have a right to.
In these areas, high crime levels are taken for granted and
allowed, in a way unthinkable in richer areas. They are no-go
areas, not just for police but for older residents, and for younger
residents alike; teenage thugs rule these places, and control the
destinies of any children growing up there.

This cannot be acceptable.

Parents in these areas appeal for help to the authorities but these
appeals always fall on deaf ears. For some reason the problem is
not seen as pressing enough. How many more children need to die
before REAL action is taken?
And the only real action is action that finally brings the situation to
an end.

The Working Class Party's very inspiration is the decision to
resolve this and related problems. We would not flinch from taking
the measures necessary. Waiting for the other parties to do what
is necessary is like waiting for a bus into town on a route that has
been discontinued. These problems are just not important enough
to them.

BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY

All areas of Britain have a right to the same degree of security and
protection from crime. If this requires a large increase in police
numbers then so be it. If it requires special powers for the police ,
then they must have them. If it requires curfew for teenagers, then
a curfew there will be. If it requires loitering on stairways to be
made illegal, then that can be done - it already has been done,
many years ago, in France. If it requires changes in the law to
enable swift and effective prosecution and punishment, then those
changes need to be made, at once.

We outline some of these changes in the section above on crime.

THE ERA OF LAWLESSNESS AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF
TEENAGE VIOLENCE MUST COME TO AN END

CARRYING WEAPONS

In the section on crime we have described some of the changes
necessary in policing and the courts. These would have an impact
upon the levels of violence in our society. But we feel that
particular measures need to be taken to remove it as far as
possible from our lives.

How many of us, when we think about education for example,
perhaps reading what we say here about our ideas for 2 types of
schools, anticipate and expect a considerable degree of violence
surrounding those arrangements? How many of us think that
violence is an inevitable part of society? Even in schools? Even
from the very young? This is already a fact. We believe it need not
be so.

Young people caught up in a cycle of violence need help. Society,
by being too tolerant of violence and in particular of gangs, is
shirking responsibility. If these gangs were targeting wealthier
people there would be a strong reaction, but they target the young
and the poor, in their own areas, who are unable to escape their
influences.

No half measures can be taken against the out of control situation
we have of youths in gangs possessing firearms and knives. There
is no point offering an amnesty for handing in weapons if it is not
known to be followed by a blitz on possession involving extensive
searches of people and homes, and followed up by severe
punishments, that is, long prison sentences.

Large police operations need to be brought to bear to search for
possession of weapons, and heavy sentences need to be handed
out, in the same way there was a police crackdown on the Soho
gangs of the 1960s whose levels of violence was negligible
compared to present day levels, so far have standards declined.

We need to make it impossible to carry a weapon; at the moment
some young people are complaining that it is not just possible but "
necessary" ; this is, as they say themselves, partly the fault of the
authorities; again, moral cowardice and political correctness result
in suffering for those at the bottom of society, on the housing
estates from Peckham to Manchester, poor whites and poor
blacks, children trapped in a cycle of violence; and still the left
wing middle classes refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of the
problem for the reason that it is unfashionable for people
considering themselves to be socialists to be concerned with
public order, or to be seen to be supporting the need for police
operations in poor areas.

An end to the 'culture' of weapon ownership has to be wrought by
the authorities; anything less is to let down our young people. It
needs solving, now.

VIDEO GAMES AND FILMS
(See also the page on Media)

One small but vital step against violence in our society is to restrict
violence in video games and films. Video games especially are an
area where the violence and crime is of such proportions and so
positively depicted that it is hard to believe that it is allowed to
subject children to it. It can be a matter of no doubt whatsoever
that these odious things have a large impact on our children. Again
it is an area that fashionable people only sneer at. For the middle
classes there is apparently no perceived danger to their children.

The tide of marketing which surrounds these games is vast and
the vested interests great. However the time has come for them to
be banned regardless of what the American marketing lobby may
have to say about it. We must put our children first. We would ban
the sale of video games which depict criminality in a positive light
and show excessive violence. The definition we would use would
be designed to include many of the games now marketed.

The same problem exists within the film industry but is harder to
combat. We would do all we could to make it difficult for film
distribution companies who showed no regard for the amount of
violence in their films. We are aware that this would put us at odds
with American trade interests, but again, we have to put our
children first. There is no reason why we in Britain have to accept
the degradation that American society inflicts upon itself, with
such disastrous results. We ARE now heading in the same
direction - we have to turn that tide.

The Working Class Party