White Working-Class Voices

Front matter

\ | NN

H poang;

TET Pe 2 a am | eee ee ie - my a a eS i am | 7 2 E nT TTY! ot Hi a W v S wal Ha =a- Kt 4 Hadi z; Fis | a) a Pr

Contents

Acknowledgements Dedication One Towards a definition of the white working class

Two Multiculturalism and the exclusion of the white working class

Three White, working-class and racist?

Dedication

Peter Hayes, you will always be remembered with fondness by your family and friends vi

ONE

Rationale and aims of the book

Chapter Two: The political exclusion of the white working class

The second chapter delves into the debates on how the white working class became reduced to ‘a rabble’ from being viewed as an important part of the building of modern Britain. Multiculturalism will be explored in terms of whether it has reduced the salience of the white working class in the debates on identity and change. The contention is that it was not multiculturalism that led to a reduced voice, but shifting policy and political debates. Recently, there has been a decline of multiculturalism and its transformation into much more racialised debates based on community cohesion and integration. Community cohesion, which emerged after the riots of 2001 in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford, will be viewed as problematic due to its emphasis on norms, culture and visible minority communities. Low-income white communities were key protagonists in the riots but strangely absent from community cohesion. This follows a tradition within academic studies on race where the white working class has been silent, or set as an adversarial opponent of migrants, as well as hostile towards immigration. Multiculturalism was not the problem as much as changing economic and political priorities. This chapter will suggest that the rise of New Labour paralleled the loss of this voice. After the 2010 election, class has had somewhat of a comeback in Labour politics with the increasing influence of Blue Labour and the rise of UKIP in the 2014 elections based on the strategy of appealing to white workingclass voters. Invoking memory, loss and disenfranchisement could easily lead to the reification of white working-class communities as backward, resistant to change and in support of extreme positions. The new visibility of whiteness need not be reactionary to multiculturalism.

Chapter Three: White working class and racist? An exploration

The popular discourse on white working-class communities is that they have been in the vanguard of racism, as seen within the context of a number of social issues, including immigration and its impact on national identity, housing and employment. This has been exacerbated by national interventions from politicians who have championed the slogan ‘British jobs for British workers’ or who have decried the failure of ‘state multiculturalism’. This much we know of the politics of racism: the end game is ‘protecting’ the white working class from the excesses of multiculturalism and, in so doing, securing their short-term political support. More germane, the chapter will discuss the view that white working-class communities default to hostility to both immigration and the concept of multiculturalism. It has been a recurrent theme in policy and, to a certain extent, academic literature. Initially, the focus will be depictions in popular culture, especially in film and television, in the 1950s and 1960s that transition white working-class characterisation from being almost heroic to problematic. We will then look at examples that have been framed, in part, as popular white working-class interventions on multiculturalism and change — the 1958 Race Riots in Notting Hill, the response to Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 and the emergence of punk and the rise of 2 Tone in Coventry. The two earlier examples are better known and extensively documented as white working-class racism. The latter two, and especially 2 Tone, are less well known and discussed but have been viewed locally as a union of diverse elements of the working class coming together to celebrate difference. These two events demonstrate how the pathology of whiteness and class are treated differently to inform a distinct and reified narrative.

Chapter Four: International perspectives on whiteness, class and politics

The narratives of disconnection, loss and change are not restricted to Britain. Despite differences in population, politics and ideology, similar experiences have been played out in many parts of Europe and the US in relation to the white working class. This chapter will consider the politics of white working-class communities in the context of countries that are becoming ethnically diverse as a result of immigration. The US is also an interesting case study because of the rise of the political movement known as the “Tea Party’. This has been characterised as a popular revolt against established politicians and its supporters are largely white working-class voters concerned about immigration, economic stability and social change. The narrative echoes the rise of UKIP in the UK and political movements in Europe. However, the chapter will suggest a reality that is somewhat different, with the Tea Party defined as middle-class and a local insurgency, while political parties in Europe speak to a different constituency.

Chapter Five: A reactionary voice: nuanced views on multiculturalism

This will be the first of two chapters based on research conducted in four different locations in the UK. These give a grassroots perspective on multiculturalism and change, which appears to be at odds with the view that white working-class communities are collectively supporters of the far Right and opposed to multiculturalism. People interviewed were disconnected from politicians at the national level but also at the local level, where it was perceived that their political leaders failed to provide public goods and services. Jobs had been lost, housing was difficult to access and cuts had been made to local services, but they did not view this through the prism of immigration. This was not a reactionary voice. Instead, nuanced, complex and sometimes contradictory views were expressed.

Chapter Six: Integrated and equal: similar challenges and opportunities

The second of the two fieldwork chapters will rely on field research to illustrate the weakness of national policy frameworks such as community cohesion, which was touted as a model to bring communities together. Community cohesion focused on the disconnect between people and their government and yet it was viewed as remote and bureaucratic to the lived experiences of the communities engaged. Policies were seen as imposing doctrinaire solutions that favoured some groups and not others and there was a lack of clarity on concepts. The common failure was the perception that policies were ‘top-down’ when the need was for ‘bottom-up’, with consideration to solutions that also took into account locality. The research commits itself to a long-term and strategic approach to viewing multiculturalism and change rather than one that is driven by ad hoc, short-term political expediency. Moreover, the research also demonstrated how white working-class communities rejected the politics of extremism. Instead, people wanted fairness, not favours, and projects embedded in lived experiences. Therefore, Chapters Five and Six illustrate the gaps between policy, research and local practice.