ALT Statement on racist and Islamophobic riots in Rotherham and Sheffield As a worker-owned company and as a group of people, we are appalled by the racist and Islamophobic riots that took place over the weekend including where we live and work in Rotherham and Sheffield. The violence and hate we have seen, particularly against migrants, Muslims and refugees, is heartbreaking, frightening and enraging. The killings in Southport were ostensibly the spark for these horrors, but this isolated act of violence being met with riots, racist hatred, threats and intimidation is the result of decades of demonisation and scapegoating of Muslims, migrants, refugees, racialised people and other marginalised groups. Politicians and the legacy media, as well as those spreading disinformation online, have indulged in so much racist and anti-migrant rhetoric that violent white people feel justified and emboldened

ALT in blaming Black and Brown people for systemic problems caused by deliberate political choices. We think it’s really important to recognise that the violence and the riots taking place are clearly well-organised and well-funded. This has not happened spontaneously, or in a vacuum. Britain is a hostile environment in more ways than one. When marginalised people are targeted for dehumanisation routinely by both government policy and the mainstream media, we cannot think of these racist opinions as anything other than normalised and mainstream. Both the riots this past weekend and those already planned for the coming days are just a further demonstration of the normalisation of white violence and terror. There are people in our communities who tried to set fire to a hotel in Rotherham full of terrified people. When these people are done rioting, they will go back to their everyday lives in our communities.

ALT This cannot be acceptable – these people must be held to account for their actions. We must resist racism and fascism, and call it out wherever we see it. Police forces have played a key role in surveilling and targeting communities of colour, and cannot be relied on to keep racialised people safe. We must depend on community groups to organise against fascism and racism. We stand in solidarity with our Black and Brown colleagues and with racialised communities in South Yorkshire and across the UK, many of whom are afraid and intimidated. We recognise the failure of UK institutions which embody and perpetuate colonialism and whiteness to address the root causes of racism. We further recognise this as being one of the fundamental causes of the recent violence.