The British Left; Made in the USA

How the British left-wing is influenced by America, and why it matters.

Will Nash
Will Nash
Aug 25, 2017 · 4 min read
Protesters for the UK version of Black Lives Matter protest at City Airport in the September 2016

It’s been long-known that the right and centre in UK politics have a penchant for our American cousins. This is more true of the institutional right in the Conservative Party and less true of UKIP, but, on the whole, they have a long Atlantic tradition. Boris Johnson, Tobias Ellwood and Greg Hands (all current Conservative MPs) where born in the United States. Margret Thatcher said there was a ‘union of mind and purpose between our people’ to Ronald Reagan. Even Nigel Farage now spends his time defending Donald Trump rather than UKIP.

What is less explored is the Left’s relationship with American, in particular, how the radical Left in the UK is influenced by American cultural hegemony, albeit coming from the banners of Berkley rather than the buildings of D.C.

The photograph at the head of this article comes from a protest by Black Lives Matter UK, stating that ‘Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’. Now, let’s get some things clear.

  • There is a real need for racial justice in the United Kingdom. Institutional racism exists and is a problem which needs to be confronted.
  • Black lives do matter. This should be obvious but it’s worth repeating whenever you get a chance.
  • It’s at least plausible that climate change does disproportionately affect some ethnic groups. It’s less clear that these ethnic or racial groups are Black-British people.

But there is one big difference between the UK and the USA.

  • In the USA, 233 African-Americans where shot in 2016. That’s 24% of all fatal shootings where African-Americans make up 13% of total population. In the UK, 2 BAME (black and ethnic minority) people were killed in 2016, 4% of the total. BAME make up 13% of the UK so they’re not over-represented.

The American context for Black Lives Matter (BLM) is overwhelming different than the British one. BLM is now a wider organisation for racial justice but it started, without question, as a response to American police violence aimed at Black men. The Fergusson shooting and murder of Trayvon Martin were, with no doubt, critical to the formation of the movement and later shootings where important catalysts in the movement’s growth.

That context doesn’t exist in the UK, it just doesn’t. Black-British people are being victimised, but they aren’t being murdered by the police in the same way as they are in the US. So why have the radical left taken on the this specific and context-heavy moniker? It’s pure, unadulterated, cultural influence. Internet cross pollination and the impression of American success in organisation breeds jealousy and imitation.

Look at other examples;

  • Safe spaces. The original idea comes from the Gay and Lesbian movement in the United States in the 1980s.
  • PETA, the most outspoken and strident organisation for animal rights was founded in the US and is headquartered there.
  • The Occupy Movement began in New York City, with Occupy Wall Street, and focused on American excess and inequality (to begin with).
  • The language of “1%” and severe inequality has been imported wholesale even when Britain is a significantly more equal society.
  • The Women’s March (a great cause if you’re interested) was started in the USA and in response to an American president.
  • The phrase, and ideology of, ‘check you privilege’ originated with Peggy MacIntosh, an American professor at an American university.
  • ‘Trigger Warnings’, and the associated worldview, where, until recently, a uniquely American phenomena.

None of what’s mentioned above is inherently bad or wrong, but they represent wholesale American imports of world views, vocabulary and approaches. With our own versions of these movements and thoughts, we could better tailor them to UK needs and be less likely open to sneering from of the opposition as they accuse us of ‘missing the problem’.

It’s not mine to simply call the left ‘Hypocrites’. Hypocrisy is the compliment that virtue pays to vice, as La Rochefoucault noted.

But ,we don’t need more American cultural hegemony. We aren’t identical countries; neither are the social inequalities which the left fights against. The more we relay on the imported ideas from across the pond, the less well the Left can pair its rhetoric to reality — this is a real risk.

By making the effort to create our own movements, and creating original vocabulary and approaches to go with it, the socially-conscious in the UK will create more authentic movements and be less exposed to the shifting whims and worries of those who live very different lives to us.

‘Capitalism is Crisis’ From the Occupy London movement
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