***punch***

NO.
when the poor and the rich share ‘common ground (ideologically speaking)’, the discontent of the former arises, not from frustration with and anger toward the system, but from a profound dissatisfaction with one’s subordinate position.

put another way: “‘there is absolutely nothing intrinsically WRONG with the act of theft; we just really, REALLY dislike our position as the victims!”

we THINK like our oppressors. as such, what we see now (in England) is little more than the tossing and turning of a fitful sleep.

…and that is why one can draw clear parallels between resource seizure in the Niger Delta by royal dutch shell (essentially, a smash and grab job of truly devastating proportions – ‘looting’, multinational style, if you will) and the theft of iPads, sneakers and flat screens by looters in london.

the motivation emerges from the same poison source – only the SCALE is different.

***counterpunch***

YES.

the naked savagery of the lapdogs of the state – the police – in concert with the racist attacks upon the oppressed by the media and the politicians, has the capacity to trigger a shift from inchoate rage against a nebulous enemy to a much clearer understanding of the nature of the intersection between xenophobia, race and class in britain.

it is this subversive energy and the resultant potential shift towards revolutionary resistance – ironically triggered by the violence of the state – that the oppressed can then call upon to fight against the architects of their systemic disenfranchisement.

and THAT is what makes the insurrection in the ‘mother country’, as well as similar uprisings in the u.s. (e.g. the Watts Riots, the Rodney King Riots) so threatening…there is ALWAYS the possibility that the Oppressed, so long lobotomized and lulled to sleep by the bread and circuses of the state propaganda apparatus (aka the ‘education’ system and the media), might rise from their fitful slumber and completely overturn the system.