Youth at the Forefront

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Brown’s Morality against the Youth and their Right to Be

Oppose the Hysteria of "Youth Violence"

Two articles from Workers' Weekly Youth Group

Brown’s Morality against the Youth and their Right to Be

What is the “morality” that Gordon Brown and the establishment in general push on the people of the society, in particular the youth? What is its aim? And what are the youth’s values and principles that stand in the face of this so-called “morality”?

            The government, authorities, religious institutions, have been pushing on the youth their so-called values in the shape of “morality”. This moral high ground is being used to prescribe a definition of what is “good” and “bad”, and further marginalise people into categories of existence. For example: drug user, criminal, mentally ill, smoker, drinker. All of these things are seen by the status quo as “bad”, and to be young is to exist to conform to the moral definition of “good” or else be put into a category.

            One example over which much debate and confusion has been pushed by the state and their media, and which has of recent times been once again brought to the fore, is that of the morality of drugs and drug-taking, something which has been very much associated with youth culture. The establishment is wanting to make drugs and people who take them the issue, rather than examining the context of the world as it is, looking at the social environment, allowing calm and rational debate, and giving the youth the space to affirm their right to be. It is not to be considered to challenge why someone taking drugs is considered a “bad” person, or a “menace to society”. Instead there is a moralistic evaluation taken which ends up criminalising the person.

            This is a wholly dogmatic approach which does not challenge the fundamentals of drug taking. The debate is taken out of context with a “morality” which appears from on high, or appears as god-given. It is true that there are many social problems with which drug taking is associated. But the youth are condemned out of hand, as if something from within their being was impelling them to both take drugs and act irresponsibly. The whole issue of providing precise and detailed information about drugs, their effects and so on, and allowing personal choice on this basis, is not raised. Instead a hysteria is created and the youth are criminalised. At the same time, the youth are encouraged into channels which, because of the social context, actually harm the youth and their interests.

            The youth cannot accept this imposed morality, which actually is aimed to legitimise the unravelling of the fabric of society. It is an archaic morality which is anachronistic and out of place. Despite the fact that it stakes a high moral purpose, particularly after the out-and-out imperialistic character of Tony Blair’s government, and Gordon Brown’s claims to set a moral compass for society, it actually contributes to the wrecking of society and to its taking measures which can only be described as fascist in character.

            Rather, the youth have to affirm their own values, their revolutionary spirit, as part of asserting their right to be, and hence of necessity deal with this imposed social problem, as well as all others, which is part of the liberation and emancipation of the human personality and allows them the freedom to play an participatory role in shaping the future. This is a morality which is consistent with the most advanced social force, the working class, and which challenges the historical crib which is imposed by those in authority and those that say that the youth must abide by an imposed moral code.

            Those who govern society would like the youth simply to exist within the boundaries of their pushed morality to serve them as “good citizens” who confirm to their rules and norms. Through media, education and cultural forms there are attempts to push this “moral code”. For example, in citizenship lessons at school youth are taught how to be “good citizens” with no discussion or input from the students of what this means or what should be discussed. “Citizenship” is taught from a book and preaches and lectures the establishment’s so-called “morality”.

            In the establishment’s terms, to be moral is to confirm to what they want for society. In other words, they want the youth to support their wars, their privatisation and their globalisation. They want the youth to grow to be slaves of the society, to cut themselves off from the world and just get on with their jobs. While if the youth do not conform to this they are attacked as the problem and are “bad”, something is wrong with the youth.

            However, the youth have a will-to-be. The youth in schools, universities, workplaces, have contact with the world around them, and see that there are problems, that not only they are being mistreated but this “morality” is being used to attack people around the world in the name of what is “good”. As has been witnessed in the anti-war movement and in the movement to challenge tuition fees, globalisation and everything else that these “moral guardians” stand for, the youth are taking stands that do not conform to Brown’s version of morality, but embody their own principles and their conscience as inhabitants of the real world.

            The youth must continue to exercise their right to be, and challenge and reject such moral dogma. They must put forward their own conclusions about the world, act together in the face of the attempts to cocoon the youth, to consciously and actively participate in whatever forum they may be in, whether it be school, university or workplace.

            The attempts of Gordon Brown and the authority he represents to preach and mould the direction the youth take must be combated with the youth taking up the questions of what is archaic and taking society down the road of reaction. They must negate this, clash with it, and take up the programme for the progress of society. WWYG calls upon the youth to take up such a programme, participate in working it out, including taking up the banner of modern communism and building a new society in which they are at the forefront.

It seems that the method of the ruling circles is presently one of creating hysteria around some issue and bringing in measures that further curtail human rights on the back of it. Take the recent bombardment in the media around the issue of criminality among the youth, raising the profile of knife and gun-related incidents. It is analogous to the hysteria created after 7/7: that the "rules of the game have changed". Now we are led to believe that young people are something to be feared, and the words "youth" and "crime" are fused together in people's minds, as a kind of "terror", just as was done with "Islamic" and "extremism".

            The analogy goes further. "Anti-social behaviour" is raised as a problem inherent in youth to be dealt with as "radicalism" and "extremism". It is a pretext for state intervention, for violating the right to conscience, and for imposing the common solution: the official set of so-called British values. So the government has introduced its citizenship lessons in schools, as an obvious example.

            At the same time, all sorts of disinformation are propagated. Black youth are singled out. Absent fathers are blamed. All this shows that the ruling circles have not settled scores with the conscience that goes with Britain's colonial past, in which the establishment believed black people were predisposed to violence and underachievement, but indeed are casting this old ideology in neo-colonial form in the present. It is this that is supposed to be the official ideology, the coherence behind the "British values".

            As for "anti-social behaviour", successive governments have been carrying out an anti-social offensive on behalf of the assumed rights of big business – rights to make maximum profits; exploit the working people of all countries; move production around as they please without regard for people's livelihoods; and demand that the economy be directed to their ends, as opposed to the needs of modern society. This offensive has seen its consequences in economic crises, privatisation, attacks on education and the health service; the list goes on.

            It is a damning indictment on society that it has given rise to violent crime amongst elements of its youth. The problems facing youth are inseparable from the state of society itself. The youth are marginalised from society, and generally society is not organised to meet their needs. All of the educational, cultural and other facilities for youth are being systematically destroyed. Without these vital support systems, young people are not receiving the social and cultural nurturing they need, and so become demoralised. Feelings of despair and futility can lead to self-destruction if not consciously dealt with. And when the issue is made one of law and order, young people are simply criminalised, which further marginalises youth from society.

            Nothing is said about the violence in society, which is a deep issue that affects relations between human beings at all levels. The whole of the political and economic structure of society relies on the use of force and is run in the interests of the various classes of people that have usurped power by force. It is the youth who are hardest hit by the violence in society, by social violence. That is not to mention the violence and state terrorism carried out by the British government internationally, especially in recent years.

            Young people need to keep their heads clear and rise above the lowest levels to which the government is pushing them: they should oppose the hysteria. They must organise themselves in defence of the rights of all and demand that the government recognise their rights. The youth must take up politics themselves and organise to bring into being a government that accepts its responsibility and which actively increases investments in the social programmes required to meet their needs. Young people need to develop their collectives and face the problems of society with their conscious programme. The strength of the youth comes from their taking a stand together for what is just; their power and their spirit with which they are imbued comes from working collectively. Taking up their social responsibility in this way, the youth of Britain will build a bright future for themselves, with the courage of their convictions.