Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Joe Fathallah
On the night of Monday 22nd May, rioting broke out on the Ely estate in western Cardiff. This was in response to tragic deaths of two teenagers, Harvey Evans and Kyrees Sullivan, in a road accident, following a chase with a vehicle belonging to South Wales Police.
Alun Michael, the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner, initially attempted to deny the involvement of a police vehicle in the incident, however, CCTV footage was able to prove that this was a lie and Harvey and Kyrees had been pursued by police.
One local resident reported that police officers refused for two hours after the incident to tell close relatives of the boys if they were alive or dead and attempted to forcibly disperse the group of young people trying to see what had happened to their friends, provoking an angry response which involved damage to property and the burning of vehicles through the night. On the evening of Friday 26th May, a vigil for Harvey and Kyrees was held by the community, with around 1000 people present, no violence, and South Wales Police keeping their distance.
Ely is a working-class community which has suffered from a high degree of social deprivation, exacerbated by cuts to vital youth services carried out by Labour-controlled Cardiff Council over the last decade. Dusty Forge youth centre was stripped of council funding in 2015 and passed into the hands of a ‘community organisation’. The facility is now closed on weekends and in the evenings. North Ely youth centre is also closed on Sundays and after school hours. Large scale rioting had previously taken place in Ely back in 1991, after huge attacks had taken place on working-class communities under the Thatcher government.
Instead of meekly accepting and passing on Tory funding cuts, we need councillors who are prepared to stand up and fight for the resources we need in our communities. Cardiff Against the Cuts, an anti-cuts campaign launched by Cardiff Trades Union Council and involving Socialist Party members, played an active role in the campaign against the cut to Dusty Forge. In 2022, Socialist Party member Ross Saunders stood as a council candidate in Ely, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, on a programme of organising a mass campaign to restore lost funding for vital facilities and infrastructure.
Members of Cardiff West Socialist Party discussed with those living in the area about the tragic events of the last week, and a socialist programme to combat social deprivation and police unaccountability, the key factors in stoking the rioting. We spoke with young people involved in the disturbance, as well as residents who had been caught up in it. We called for the immediate restoration of funding for adequate youth services in the area, and for democratically elected committees to exercise control over the police.
It is clear to the residents of the area that South Wales Police are determined to reveal as little as possible about the events of the night of Monday 22nd, and community control over policing would ensure that all the necessary footage is made available to Harvey and Kyrees’ families, to understand why their loved ones died.
Without these measures in place, rioting is an inevitable response to the social alienation and hopelessness felt by young people, offered no future by a capitalist system which can provide huge profits for the super-rich, and yet only unemployment, low pay, and squalid living conditions to working-class youth.
We campaign:
· Restore all youth and community services in Ely cut by Labour, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru council administrations
· For training on full pay available all 16-24 year olds with a guaranteed job at the end of it
· For democratic community control of the police
· For working class council members who fight the cuts
