Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

by Owen Jones

But the reality is that chav-hate is a lot more than snobbery. It is class war. It is an expression of the belief that everyone should become middle class and embrace middle-class values and lifestyles, leaving those who don’t to be ridiculed and hated.

The rise of the far right is a reaction to the marginalization of working-class people. It is a product of politicians’ refusal to address working-class concerns, particularly affordable housing and a supply of decent, secure jobs. It has been fuelled by a popular perception that Labour had abandoned the people it was created to represent.

The BNP is often compared to the European fascist parties of the 1930s. Yet, in reality, it has flourished for completely different reasons. The fascism of the Great Depression era largely owed its support to small property-owners and big businesses who felt threatened by a growing left, whereas today’s BNP is a product of the left’s weakness. With no powerful left to answer the bread-and-butter concerns of working-class people in the neoliberal era of job insecurity and housing crisis, the BNP has filled the vacuum.

When I asked Carl Leishman, the twenty-eight-year-old call centre worker from County Durham, if he felt that working-class people were represented in society, he laughed at the absurdity of the question. ‘No. Not at all!’ Did he feel that they were ridiculed? Well, yeah, because there’s nobody who will really stand up to it, because—and this is going to sound very clichéd—but working-class people don’t generally have a voice. Do you know what I mean? You can take the mickey out of a working-class person as much as you want, because you know they’re not going to get in the papers particularly, they’re not going to get on the news, because they’re not the people that can influence things, really. So it’s kind of pointless listening to them.

That the left is inextricably tied to the aspirations and needs of working-class people is reflected in the very name of the Labour Party. If there is no longer a working class to champion, the left is devoid of a mission. It no longer has a reason to exist.

The problem comes with the priority given by the left to international issues. Many working-class people may oppose the war, but that does not mean their opposition trumps concerns like housing or jobs. It is difficult to focus your energies on what is happening thousands of miles away when you are struggling to pay the bills, or your children are desperately searching for secure work or an affordable house. While the BNP are cynically offering hateful solutions to many of these bread-and-butter issues, left-wing activists are more likely to be manning a stall about Gaza outside a university campus. Again, an important issue: but the same energy and commitment that has been shown in opposing unjust foreign wars has not been applied to championing the pressing issues facing working-class people.