The Death of Working Class Communities

Local pride can manifest itself in many ways. It can be helping with community projects, supporting local football teams or just general pride about the place in which you live. I remember as a child in the 90s (before computers took over and kids spent more time in their rooms) we would meet up with kids from other areas for a fight. If a few kids from Walton would make their way to Bootle, they would scrap with other local youths. It was never overly aggressive, just some youthful stupidity. Not like what you hear in cities nowadays, where areas are split by drug dealing gangs and turf wars with weapons have replaced the youthful tear ups.

Back then working-class areas were communities. There was always an abundance of pubs, with certain ones that were the local of your streets. The newsagents would be run by someone you knew by name and would often have your papers ready when you walked in. So many community hubs like launderettes, libraries, swimming baths, youth clubs, social clubs etc, have disappeared. A friend of mine once said to me “We all live in little boxes. Our house, our car, our work, our TV, our phone.” I find this very poignant.

Individualism and “progress” have ripped us out of communities and put us into prisons of our own making. Newspapers have been replaced by an app on our phone, so no need for that friendly newsagent, same as the bookies. Most people buy their beer from supermarkets to be consumed at home instead of going to the local pub. The library has been replaced by the Kindle, youth and social clubs have all but gone, replaced by social interaction on the likes of Facebook, Twitter or TikTok.  Instead of playing football, your kids can load up the latest version of FIFA and play against their mates from their bedrooms.

With this complete detachment from your community, why would anyone have local pride? The area you live in becomes circumstantial as it’s just where your house (or box) is. Once that door is shut and Netflix is turned on, you could be anywhere.

Communities and their hubs being decimated is not the only issue. Working class residential areas receive little to no funding. In Liverpool, the dyed in the wool working class areas of Anfield, Walton or Bootle only have investment from private enterprises. A derelict patch of land or dilapidated building only receives funding if it becomes a supermarket or block of flats.

Capitalism is driven by profit for the ruling classes. Gentrified areas will receive council funds to keep their paymasters happy and the city centre will be packed full of amenities for students and stag dos. The areas where the workers live will have just enough to keep them happy while they continue to sit in their tiny boxes, keeping them working and, equally as importantly, consuming.

Mental health issues have risen exponentially. It is my belief that the lack of social interaction has exacerbated these issues. Anxiety levels are increasing because, amongst other things, by a lack of social interaction or, worse still, the unreal characters that we create for our social media accounts. It’s simply inhuman for us to live by a screen. People call this progress: I call this imprisonment. Just like we are imprisoned by debts, we are imprisoned by consumerism and individualism. As globalism opens the world up to us, our personal worlds get smaller. This atomises the revolutionary class, separating us into our little personal prison boxes.