Overwhelming support for Liverpool’s library after damage from riots

Liverpool, England, UK – Rioters ransacked a public library and community space here last week as one act among a torrent of far-right attacks currently taking place in the UK.

At the Spellow Library Hub, vandals smashed in windows and set the building alight, leading to considerable damage to the interior and books. It is currently closed to the public while the building is repaired.

The library served many functions as well as storing books. It ran sessions for young children such as ‘Rhyme Time,’ which worked to help speech and development, offered support for elderly people, and even hosted a foodbank.

Liverpool resident Alex McCormick decided to organize a fundraiser to pay for the significant damage to the library.

The community responded strongly, and donations quickly went above and beyond the original aim of £500.

McCormick said her motivations for the fundraiser came from her family connections in the area and knowing all the people who would be impacted by losing the space.

“I’ve always loved to read myself, and now my little girl loves to read as well,” she said. “We get so much enrichment and enjoyment from a good book. That’s a space where you can go to feel like you’ve got company even when you’re alone.”

A library serves the entire population, according to McCormick.

“Obviously, everyone is not able to just go out and buy books whenever they want, so that gives people an opportunity to connect with their local community, come away with a nice book to read, and you must get to know the faces of the people who are in there all the time,” said McCormick. “It just opens a doorway for so much more enrichment and friendships as well.”

As of Saturday, the fundraiser’s total was over £240,000, or more than $300,000 U.S. dollars.

“I think that burning a space that impacts old people, and children in the community by being closed just, I think that’s what made people more angry and I think it was that kind of passionate response that made the fundraiser go so wild,” said McCormick.

According to the British newspaper The Independent, the group Stand Up to Racism organized a series of “Stop the Far Right” protests that took place in several English cities today.

Tensions were particularly high in the UK after a July 29 stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. Three young girls were killed in the attack and 10 others were injured.

Unsubstantiated rumors spread online that the killer was a Muslim immigrant fueling some of the anger that followed.

Seventeen-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana is charged in the murders, according to the BBC.

Since the Southport stabbings, national news media have chronicled rioting and unrest in different areas in the country, including the attack on the Liverpool library.

As for why the library was targeted, McCormick said, “I don’t think I could even begin to comprehend why this space, to be honest. I think it was just a mindless act.”

The fundraiser highlighted the sentiment of solidarity held by the community and many others. Donors included the current UK Children’s Laureate and prolific writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

McCormick said that while the bad cannot be ignored, it was heartening to know that there was still so much good among the bad.

“We can’t deny that there is badness happening. But for all of that badness, there has been so much positivity, so much light, so much community,” she said. “I think it just goes to show that people will rally in situations like this. The good people will always come together.”

Gemma Christie is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.