A few of us in HSG met up this week to discuss the events in Haringey on the night of 6th August and those that followed. It's been impossible to come up with something that we all agree on, but we have put some thoughts down about the things we talked about.

We feel that, rather than coming up with unhelpful statements of support or criticism of the actions of those on Saturday in Tottenham, what is needed is to see why these riots happened and how we make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Let’s get this straight. It is not Highgate or Hampstead that are rioting. Why? Because most there have money, opportunities and comfortable lives. Give that to us in Tottenham and Hackney and we wouldn’t riot either. We say “we” because it affects us all. These riots are about class and privilege – or lack of it. People loot to get the things – the fabricated desires – that advertising tells us we need, when they can’t get them any other way. Capitalists strive to create ever greater demand for products, from more and more ”consumers”, and last weekend they got more than what they bargained for: those kids consumed the only way they could. We may not agree with it. We may not like it. But, that’s the reality. This is a class thing.