| Rock Against Racism | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Punk,reggae, etc. |
| Years active | 1976–1982 |
Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a political and cultural movement which emerged in 1976 in reaction to a rise in racist attacks on the streets of theUnited Kingdom and increasing support for the far-rightNational Front at the ballot box. Between 1976 and 1982, RAR activists organised national carnivals and tours, as well as local gigs and clubs throughout the country. RAR brought together black and white fans in their common love of music, to discourage young people from embracingracism. The musicians came from all pop music genres, something reflected in one of RAR's slogans: "Reggae,soul,rock'n'roll,jazz,funk andpunk". The movement was in part founded as a response to statements by rock musicians such asEric Clapton andDavid Bowie.[1][2]
Originally conceived as a one-off concert with a message against racism, Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976 byRed Saunders, Roger Huddle, Jo Wreford, Pete Bruno and others. According to Huddle, "it remained just an idea until August 1976"; this was whenEric Clapton made a declaration of support for formerConservative ministerEnoch Powell (known for his anti-immigrationRivers of Blood speech) at a concert in Birmingham.[3] Clapton told the crowd thatEngland had "become overcrowded" and that they should vote for Powell to stopBritain from becoming "a black colony". He also told the audience that Britain should "get the foreigners out, get thewogs out, get thecoons out", and then he repeatedly shouted theNational Front slogan "Keep Britain White".[4][5] Saunders, Wreford and Bruno, who were members of the agit-prop theatre group, Kartoon Klowns, together with Huddle, responded by writing a letter toNME expressing their opposition to Clapton's remarks. They believed these were all the more disgusting because he had a hit with a cover ofBob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff":
When I read about Eric Clapton's Birmingham concert when he urged support for Enoch Powell, I nearly puked. What's going on, Eric? You've got a touch of brain damage. So you're going to stand for MP and you think we're being colonised by black people. Come on... you've been taking too much of thatDaily Express stuff, you know you can't handle it. Own up. Half your music is black. You're rock music's biggest colonist. You're a good musician but where would you be without the blues and R&B? You've got to fight the racist poison, otherwise you degenerate into the sewer with the rats and all the money men who ripped off rock culture with their chequebooks and plastic crap. Rock was and still can be a real progressive culture, not a package mail-order stick-on nightmare of mediocre garbage. Keep the faith, black and white unite and fight. We want to organise a rank-and-file movement against the racist poison in rock music – we urge support – all those interested please write to:
ROCK AGAINST RACISM,
Box M, 8 Cotton Gardens, London E2 8DNP. S. "Who shot the Sheriff", Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!
At the end of the letter, they called for people to help form a movement called Rock Against Racism, and they received hundreds of eager replies from fans who recognised the hypocrisy and wanted to proclaim the black roots of the music they loved.[3]
Around this time,David Bowie also made inflammatory statements, expressing support forfascism and admiration forAdolf Hitler in interviews withPlayboy,NME and a Swedish publication. Bowie was quoted as saying: "I think Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism ... I believe very strongly in fascism, people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership." He was also quoted as saying: "Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars" and "You've got to have anextreme right front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up."[6] Bowie caused further controversy by allegedly making aNazi salute while riding in aconvertible, although he always strongly denied this, insisting that a photographer simply caught him in the middle of waving.[7] He later expressed regret and shame for these statements, blaming them on a combination of an obsession withoccultism andFriedrich Nietzsche, as well as his excessive drug use at the time. He said: "I have made my two or three glib, theatrical observations on English society and the only thing I can now counter with is to state that I am NOT a fascist."[6] By the 1980s, Bowie'spublic statements and imagery in his art had shifted towardsanti-racism andanti-fascism. In an interview withMTV anchorMark Goodman in 1983, Bowie aggressively criticised the channel for not providing enough coverage of Black musicians.[8][9] Bowie described his videos for "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" as "simple" statements against racism,[10] and his albumTin Machine as taking a more direct stance against fascism andneo-Nazism.[11]
The first RAR gig took place at the Princess Alice pub inForest Gate in London's East End in November 1976;Carol Grimes andMatumbi were the main acts.[12][13] At the end of the gig the bands took part in a jam, something which was to become a signature of RAR's gigs at a time when it was still rare for black and white musicians to perform together. In the same year RAR launched its revolutionaryfanzine,Temporary Hoarding, going on to produce 15 issues over the next five years. By 1977 local RAR groups were springing up all over the country, including in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Hull, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Sheffield, Cardiff, Swansea, Bristol, and across London. Eventually there were more than 200 throughout the UK.
Musicians not only played for RAR, many took part in organising gigs and clubs. In Leeds,Gang of Four,the Mekons andDelta 5 were all actively involved in their local RAR group, as wereAu Pairs andthe Beat in Birmingham, andMisty In Roots andthe Ruts in Southall, London.Tom Robinson, who was an early supporter of the movement, played several gigs with his band,TRB, and came occasionally to meetings of the RAR Central Collective. The Collective – which included writers, graphic artists, photographers, musicians and fans – oversaw RAR's national events and comprised elected representatives: fromTemporary Hoarding (Ruth Gregory,David Widgery andSyd Shelton); from RAR central office (Kate Webb, John Dennis and Wayne Minter), as well as Red Saunders and Clarence Baker from Misty in Roots. Other members who regularly participated in meetings included Lucy Whitman (who wrote for Temporary Hoarding as Lucy Toothpaste), Roger Huddle and Robert Galvin.[citation needed]
Across the globe, several RAR groups started in the United States, in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, and also in Ireland, France, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, and Australia.[14][15][16][17][18]
There was a 1989US Supreme Court case,Ward v. Rock Against Racism, concerning noise at Rock Against Racism events inNew York City.[19]
With support for the movement growing, in 1978 RAR organised two national Carnivals in London in conjunction with theAnti-Nazi League (ANL) to counteract the rising number of racist attacks in the UK. These were held in poor but vibrant multi-racial areas. On 30 April 1978, 100,000 people marched six miles fromTrafalgar Square to theEast End of London (a National Front hotspot), viaCable Street for an open-air concert atVictoria Park inHackney.[20][21][22][23] The concert featuredthe Clash,[22][24][25]Steel Pulse,Tom Robinson Band,X-Ray Spex, Jimmy Pursey (fromSham 69), andPatrik Fitzgerald.[26] TheSouthall-based reggae bandMisty In Roots led the parade from the back of a lorry. For the second Carnival, on 24 September, a similar number of people marched from Hyde Park, crossing the Thames until they arrived atBrockwell Park in Brixton for a concert featuringAswad,Elvis Costello andStiff Little Fingers.[1]
Further Carnivals were organised by local RAR and ANL groups, often with the help of sympathetic councils and trade unions. The biggest of these, in August, attracted 40,000 to theNorthern Carnival in Manchester. There, over a couple of days,Buzzcocks,Steel Pulse,the Fall,Graham Parker and the Rumour, Exodus, and China Street all performed; a week later at theDeeply Vale Festival, a Rock Against Racism day was held. There were also large Carnivals that year in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Brent.[citation needed]
In 1981, Leeds RAR organized the last RAR Carnival at Potternewton Park in Chapeltown. Bands who played includedthe Specials, Aswad, Au Pairs and Misty in Roots.[citation needed]
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In the run-up to theUK general election of 1979, RAR organised the Militant Entertainment Tour which traveled 2000 miles across the country visitingCambridge,Leicester,Cromer,Coventry,Sheffield,Leeds,Middlesbrough,Lancaster,Edinburgh,Stirling,Aberdeen,Bradford,Liverpool,Manchester,Birmingham,Nottingham,Cardiff,Llanelli,Exeter,Plymouth,Newport, andBristol. The tour's grand finale was at the Alexandra Palace in North London. Forty bands played on the tour, including: Barry Forde Band,Leyton Buzzards,the Piranhas,Stiff Little Fingers, 15, 6, 17,the Mekons,Carol Grimes,the Band,Alex Harvey,Gang of Four,Angelic Upstarts,Aswad,the Ruts,Crisis,UK Subs, Exodus andJohn Cooper Clarke.
In 1978 a sister organisation,Rock Against Sexism (RAS) was founded by a group of women concerned about sexism in the music communities. Lucy Toothpaste from RAR became a lead organiser, and the south east London RAR group became an RAS collective. There was significant overlap between the two groups, with the larger, more established RAR sometimes providing security and other assistance at RAS events.[27]
Also in April 1979, a demonstration organised by the Southall Youth Movement against the National Front, who were standing candidates in the upcoming general election, was attacked by the police. This resulted in the death of schoolteacherBlair Peach, and dozens of injuries including the head wounds suffered by Clarence Baker fromMisty in Roots, which left him in a coma for several months. RAR quickly organised two benefit concerts at The Rainbow Theatre in North London, called "Southall Kids Are Innocent".The Clash,Pete Townshend ofthe Who,the Enchanters,the Pop Group,Misty in Roots,Aswad,the Members and the Ruts all performed.
Starting in 1979, German anti-fascists used the bannerRock gegen Rechts as the motto of concerts and festivals held irregularly against far-right politics as a form of political demonstration in Germany and Austria.
In 1988, the militant anti-fascist organisationAnti-Fascist Action formed a musical arm, Cable Street Beat (named after theBattle of Cable Street, a 1936 confrontation between fascists and anti-fascists), on similar principles to Rock Against Racism.[28] Cable Street Beat launched a magazine,Cable Street Beat Review, in early 1989.[29] Among the artists who performed for early Cable Street Beat events wereBlaggers ITA,Angelic Upstarts,Attila the Stockbroker,the Men They Couldn't Hang,Forgotten Sons, andBlyth Power.[30]
In 2002, some music fans,[vague] affiliated withUnite Against Fascism, concerned about a resurgence of nationalist and racist activity in the UK, organised a new group under the name of one of RAR's best-known slogans: "Love Music Hate Racism". They put on a concert at The Astoria inLondon featuringMick Jones,Buzzcocks, andthe Libertines.[31]
In 2019,White Riot, a documentary about the birth of Rock Against Racism featuring activists and performers from the time, premiered in competition at theBFI London Film Festival. Directed by Rubika Shah and co-written and produced by Ed Gibbs, it won theBest Documentary Prize (Grierson Award) at the festival's closing night awards. It went on to win additional prizes at theBerlin,Krakow and IndieLisboa international film festivals, prior to a general release.[32]
How We Beat the Fascists Last Time: The London History Show - A YouTube video that interviews Red Saunders about founding the organization. Starts around the 21 minute mark.
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