"Never hit a woman, but do kick a dog." Since seeing a video of two young "anti-fascists" apparently crowing over the embarrassing assault of a female member of the English Defence League at their failed demonstration in London last Saturday, those words have been reverberating in my brain. In the clip, a young, excited, middle-class man at the successful Unite Against Fascism counter-demonstration sneers that "the most tattooed, horrible scrote of a woman I've ever seen" fell out of a retreating coach. His friend sniggers as he describes how she was "left bewildered and isolated" before being kicked and punched. "Never hit a woman, but they're not women," he adds. His objection to the victim seems to have more to do with the fact that she was tattooed, and "horrible" than the fact of her attendance at a far-right hate march.
It's not just the incident itself which is shocking, but the attitude the video bears out, a smug, nasty condescension replacing real political analysis. The video was posted on EDLRaw – a pro-EDL YouTube channel – and its source has not yet been verified. However, when I shared it on social media, asking for confirmation, a handful attempted to excuse the jeering with the mantra "a fascist is a fascist".
The implication was that violence, class prejudice and misogyny can be tolerated on the left as long as its targets have attended a terrifying racist intimidation parade. An eye for an eye: the EDL hate us and misunderstand us, so it's alright for us to hate and misunderstand them right back. I marched with 1,500 others to defend the borough of Tower Hamlets, where I used to live, from the racists I saw chanting "you're not English anymore" at young black boys in the street, and I understand the impulse to defend our homes and communities from far-right violence. However, if we truly mean to protect Britain's most deprived areas from the rise of the far right, the threat of violence in return is no sustainable strategy, and nor is sexist sneering over a woman getting a humiliating beating.
That type of unpleasant posturing is not at all representative of organisations like Hope Not Hate, Unite Against Fascism or, indeed, of the majority of European anti-fascists who demonstrate and organise to resist the infection of politics and culture by the type of racist, far-right ideology that led to the massacre of 77 people in Norway recently. There remains, however, a stubborn strain of snobbery on the middle-class left that is all the more important to address because it is uncomfortable.
That snobbery encompasses a distaste for the far-right's working-class base that is as much about prejudice as it is about politics. It's an attitude that I've most often heard voiced by those, like the young men in the video, who have little to do with organised anti-fascist work, a fear of the mob that is as much about what the mob is wearing as what it's saying. It's an attitude that collapses the legitimate horror of a thousand people yelling racist abuse into the less legitimate horror of a thousand people wearing football shirts and drinking lager. What would we prefer they wore? Natty Hugo Boss uniforms and jackboots?
Class snobbery is part of the reason that the EDL are on the streets in the first place. Watching those two young men dismiss the beaten woman as the horrifying Waynetta Slob stereotype of sexism and suspicion brings home the utter disdain of mainstream political culture for the experiences of the poor. The bigotry and incomprehension that laughs at an EDL member when she is kicked to the ground is akin to the bigotry and incomprehension that demonises poor people for requiring the services of the welfare state – and that bigotry is not the sole preserve of the political right.
Where those who looted and rioted in Britain's inner cities last month were described as "feral scum", members of far-right street-gangs are feared as feckless "chavs", as if Britain were beset by a wanton underclass whose inherent "criminality" threatens those of us with homes, jobs and university education.
That language of class division will not prevent more riots, and it will not stop the rise of the far-right in this country. As the three major parties fail to offer a socio-economic programme that relates to the experiences of lower middle-class and working-class communities, anger and disaffection is growing. When I interviewed members of the pro-EDL crowd at Saturday's demonstration, I heard chilling racism, but I also heard discussion of government cuts, unemployment and poor service provision.
The immigrants, I was told, get houses, benefits and jobs, so why can't we? In just the same way, as eminent historians told us that the riots were all about hip-hop, young people on the streets were telling any reporter who would listen that they were more interested in police violence, unemployment and the hypocrisy of bankers and politicians.
It should be noted that the response of the Westminster elite to far-right violence differs markedly from their response to the rioters. When it comes to the EDL, there have been mutterings – even within the Blue Labour faction of the Labour Party – that these are "lost voters" whose ugly prejudices should be pandered to, since their needs cannot be served. When it comes to teenage rioters, however, the crackdowns are instant and unforgiving. EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon did not receive a jail sentence when he was convicted of leading a street brawl in July, but last month, two young men were sent to prison for four years merely for trying to organise a riot that didn't happen on Facebook. The apparent desire of a minority of white Britons for the deportation of Muslims is treated with more indulgence than the desire of some young people in inner Manchester for a new pair of trainers.
Dehumanising the disaffected is never radical. When there is violence on the streets, it is far too easy for the comfortable middle classes to fall back on blaming the moral failings of a "feral" underclass for the financial failings of a feral elite. Comforting as it may be to believe, however, bigotry is not the preserve of the poor, and the language of hatred and suspicion will do nothing to prevent civil breakdown in Britain.
