(or: Smash the National Front - part two)

A little bit of audio for you after all that book-reviewage last week:

 

 Chant Down The National Front [15:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is a short mix of reggae tunes concerned with the National Front. There is a track by track breakdown below, but what I found surprising was how few tunes there were given the NF’s popularity in the seventies when conscious reggae was coming into its own. Indeed one of the defining factors in the explicitly anti-NF Rock Against Racism movement was UK reggae bands sharing stages with punks.

Above is a photo of members of Steel Pulse and The Clash standing outside NF head honcho (and closet homosexual) Martin Webster’s house, for example. (Obviously I wouldn’t bother to mention his sexuality were it not for the fact that he was a key player in a movement which sought the extermination of homosexuals.)

Steel Pulse’s most famous anti-racist tune is “Ku Klux Klan”, released in 1978 on Island. I’ve always been slightly curious about this, as obviously the KKK have had virtually no presence in the UK. A bit of digging around turned up this 1978 NME article on the rather excellent unofficial Steel Pulse site.

Seems that many black West Indian families who settled in Britain during the early ’50s and strived peacefully to integrate themselves into their new surroundings, haven’t - in the present imflammable atmosphere of racial disharmony - taken too kindly towards Steel Pulse making waves by performing songs with titles like Ku Klux Klan and National Front.

So the group actually had a tune named after the NF, but didn’t release it? Reading on, the possible reasons for this become clear:

And, according to Steel Pulse’s main man David Hinds, himself a first generation British born black from Handsworth, they haven’t been reluctant to voice their disapproval. “They feel,” says Hinds, “That we’re being too heavy, too outspoken.” Apparently, after seeing Steel Pulse in a recent Sight & Sound programme attired in Klansmen’s hoods chanting Ku Klux Klan, friends of their families warned them of openly inviting trouble. “They want to avoid any trouble with the white community…want to keep the peace and don’t think Natty Dread helps keep the peace. See, the truth only stirs up trouble!”

If, in Hinds’ opinion, speaking the truth causes a degree of trouble, so be it. Even if it means that despite its chart entry, Ku Klux Klan was, with few exceptions, ignored by practically every radio station in this green and pleasant land. “The radio stations don’t ban records any longer because they realise it only helps to sell them and when such a record makes the charts, they’re embarrassed because they’re not playing it.”

But the National Front do get a mention in “Jah Pickney” on their 1979 Tribute To The Martyrs album:

Rock against Racism, smash it
Rock against Fascism, smash it
Rock against Nazism, me say smash it
I’ve come to the conclusion that
We’re gonna hunt yeh yeh yeh
The National Front - Yes we are,
We’re gonna hunt, yeh yeh yeh
The National Front
Cause they believe in apartheid
For that we gonna whop their hides
For all my people they cheated and lied
I won’t rest till I’m satisfied

Unfortunately I only found that out after I’d done the mix! Steel Pulse are still a bit of a shameful blindspot in my knowledge of UK reggae.

The scene in the film Babylon where Ital Lion’s HQ is turned over and vandalised with fascist grafitti is rumoured to be based on a real incident which happened to Aswad.

However the Rock Against Racism band which came off worst for wear is almost certainly Misty In Roots. Misty grew up together in Southall, West London. They worked collectively, opening a squatted community centre called “People Unite” as a place for people to gather, rehearse, get free food. People Unite was also the name of their record label.

Southall is inextricably linked with the history of the far right in the UK. In the 60s some of the then predominantly white population were so shocked by the influx of asian immigrants that the residents’ association ended up supporting British National Party (NB, this BNP predated the NF and was eventually absorbed into it) candidates in the 1963 local elections, where they polled a respectable 27.5% and 13.5%.

Tensions remained high, it seems. Then in July 1976, 17 year old Gurdip Singh Chaggar was murdered in a racist attack in Southall. His attackers were 3 white men who were apparently inspired by the National Front (although I have not been able to pin this down with a reference). Southall youth took to the streets.

Sir Robert Mark, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner commented “The motive was not necessarily racial.”

The response from NF chairman John Kingsley Reid was “that’s one down, one million to go”. When Reid was tried for inciting racial hatred for this unbelievable outburst, the Judge lined up behind him: “In this England of ours, we are allowed to have our own view still, thank goodness, and long may it last…I wish you well in your project”.

So when the NF called an election meeting at Southall Town Hall on St George’s Day 1979 most people were clear that this was nothing less than a provocation.

The People Unite community centre was used as a base for the protests and the police decided to close it down: “The building was so badly damaged by the police action that afterwards, it had to be destroyed. Officers with batons smashed medical equipment, a sound system, printing and other items.”

And people. Many of Misty in Roots were present. Clarence Baker, Misty’s manager, was beaten into a coma by the cops. Two members of the group were arrested and jailed on trumped up charges. Perhaps they got off lightly - Blair Peach, another anti-fascist protester, was killed later in the day after a blow to the head from a member of the Special Patrol Group.

The day and aftermath is chronicled in more depth here.

There are some comments from Misty’s singer Poko here, but I particularly want to highlight this:

For the people of Southall it was something that could never be forgotten. We had all been involved in an uprising, the police had bloodied us, and they were still there terrorising us long after the protest had finished.

But among the fear there was also a sense of unity. The whole thing raised the consciousness of the young Asians in particular. And there is still a connection to 1979 to this day.

Across Southall there are Asian-run reggae sound systems – a tradition that started not long after the uprising. A lot of Asian kids began to relate to the spirit of resistance that you find in reggae.

It is easy to forget, when reading the above, that fighting the NF wasn’t always big demonstrations like Lewisham 77, or concerts, or marches. It was a two way street with Enoch’s “rivers of blood” in the gutters.

NF supporters were suspected of firebomb attacks on music venues like the Four Aces in Dalston, and Acklam Hall in Ladbroke Grove. Not to mention the petty intimidation and outright racist violence that was part of the everyday landscape in the 1970s.

The “cultural war” of Rock Against Racism has to be seen alongside the groundwork of community organisations, politicos, “squadists”, and even everyday people who just had a chat with their mates when they were spouting bollocks. Compared to all this it seems a bit pathetic to be rummaging through some dusty vinyl once again, but that is what started me off on this whole post which has now spiraled slightly out of control. So here goes:

Chant Down The National Front: tune by tune

The Phantom - Lazy Fascist (Cool Ghoul 7″ 1978)

This is quite a mysterious record, produced by persons unknown.

There are a number of quite suspicious aspects to the track- the vocalist’s accent is faux American rather than (faux) Jamaican, “Cool Ghoul” could be a “ghost face”-esque reference to whiteness? At least one record dealer has speculated about it being a secret project of Tom Robinson, but that may just be to shift records, so I am sceptical. More importantly the lyrical content focusses more on the economic aspects of colonialism: “you call us when you need our labour…” than the more usual slavery and displacement.

The “chase those fascists out” chant is straight off a lefty demo and the line “If this song offends you - you’re a fascist too… fascist!” IS Vivien off the Young Ones.

The less said about the racial stereotyping of “You pad your pants to try and look like a man / And we’ve been pumping iron gonna move like lion” the better - except to point out that the “lion” is the track’s the only nod towards rasta imagery.

One of the people involved was interviewed in Black Music magazine and quoted in Dick Hebdige’s Cut and Mix book:“[The National Front] love to hear the Rastas talking about repatriation ‘cos it makes their jobs a lot easier”

I find this interesting when contrasted with the ambiguous comments made by Jah Shaka on the subject which lead to an extended discussion on the Blood and Fire board.

Blazing Sons - Chant Down The National Front (DiKi 12″ n.d.)

This also originally came as a Cool Ghoul 7″, but was re-released on a Belgian label as a 12″. A marked improvement both lyrically and musically, with some nice steppers business on the version.

Sufferer Sound - National Front (Tempus 12″ 1978)

I can’t put it any better than Bill Dew in his article Dub - The Vinyl Frontier:

A delightfully, distinctively British cut from a label most commonly associated with Dennis Bovell. Indeed, I would hazard a guess that Blackbeard had a hand in this production, a very loose rendering of ‘Norwegian Wood’ positively brimming over with idiosyncratic flourishes. The dub spotlight glances off the melody, extending and accentuating certain key notes by accident and design before imploding, ‘transformer’ style, in an ecstatic liquid rush of stellar phase effects. Can nobody mix dub like this anymore?

Bovell has always been pretty outspoken about the effect that Enoch Powell’s speeches had on black people living in the UK. His band Matumbi played the first ever Rock Against Racism gig at the Royal College of Art in December 1976.

But this is an instrumental…

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Fite Dem Back (From “Reggae Greats” compilation, Island, but originally released on “Forces of Victory”, 1979)

Admirable militancy from the man like LKJ. I could also have included “Reggae Fi Peach” (in tribute to Blair Peach, see above). But this is more fitting for the mix, really. Dennis Bovell produced the track, of course.

“Fight Dem Back” is also the name of an Antipodean anti-racist organisation. I know this because the nice man who runs the Slack Bastard anti-fascist blog steadfastly links to my piece on Nicky Crane every time he comes up in conversation.

Al Campbell - National Front (Soul Vybz 7″ 2006)

Proof positive that the fight against fascism is always with us. I believe this is a French reworking of a tune off Al’s 1985 “Forward Natty” album (but I haven’t heard that - can you help?). So it’s now directed straight at the head of Le Pen and the French NF. I really like this because it avoids preachiness by including great lyrics about how Al is going to:

“Hit them with the bassline
Smash up them waistline
Hit them with the riddim
Stop them ism and schism”

BEYOND THE iMPLODE: 9 THINGS I HATE ABOUT ANTI-NAZI MARCHES IN LONDON

A timely intervention from Martin!

Actually, don’t go out of your way to smash them. They are tiny these days and have been completely eclipsed by the more sophisticated British National Party.

In the mid-70s, though, the NF were a force to be reckoned with, both electorally and on the streets. Which naturally put the wind up a lot of people.

For liberals the NF became a sociological problem which needed to be explained and dealt with. For some others the problems created by popular fascism were more immediate. My focus here is mainly on the former.

Martin Walker - The National Front (Fontana, 1977)

Walker was a Guardian journalist who managed to interview a surprisingly large section of the UK far right in the mid 70s. The book is therefore a pretty good resource for insights into the internal politics and mechanisms of the party. It also includes some great bitchiness about different factions which is always great to read, eh?

I found this especially worthwhile for the detailed look a the NF’s formation out of various strands on the far right - former Blackshirts, “empire loyalists”, community groups opposed to immigration, sections of the Tory “Monday Club” and outright neo-nazis.

Whilst the subject matter is obviously quite grim there are some hilarious asides, my favourite being some disgruntled NF members who were kept waiting for two hours during their first visit to Germany while John Tyndall ponced about in a shoe shop trying for find the most nazi-looking jack boots to buy.

Michael Billig - Fascists: A Social Psychological View of The National Front (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978)

Billig was a lecturer in psychology at Birmingham University when he wrote this interesting book. It is perhaps a little too academic in tone for some, but is actually clearly and insightfully written, especially when compared to some of the convoluted pomo gibberish which passes for academic literature these days.

There are three sections to the book:

The first part looks at various methods which have been used to analyse “the fascist personality”, including Adorno, Reich and especially Fromm’s “F Scale” of authoritarianism/fascism. Whilst there is some merit in this approach, Billig is clear about its limitations. It should be blindly obvious to anyone with a vague interest in extreme politics that people are attracted to ideologies and political organisations for a whole host of reasons including status and the social.

The psychological approach towards analysing poltiical activists can also be used to demonise one’s enemies - it’s a technique used just as much against anarchists and communists by the mainstream media as with the far right. Demonisation may make people feel like they have the moral high ground but that isn’t a useful tool in the fight against fascism. Understanding why people are drawn towards far right groups can be a key factor in preventing this happening or providing an anti-fascist alternative.

The second section examines the ideology of the National Front with particular reference to its publications. I found Billig’s meticulous analysis of John Tyndall’s Spearhead magazine especially useful. He charts the rag’s development from independent pro-Hitlerian organ to an official NF journal which was outwardly racist but not nazi. Billig is adept at uncovering the coding at the heart of the “respectable” facade which allows fascists to retain their virulent anti-semitism by substituting phrases like “rootless cosmopolitan bankers” for “jews”. Of course this is now widely known but I haven’t seen it explained as well anywhere else.

Also included is a cogent overview of the NF’s use of IQ and Race theories to bolster their prejudice. This material also formed the basis for Billig’s Psychology, Racism & Fascism pamphlet which I have previously mentioned here.

The final section of the book concerns interviews with several National Front members, with transcripts.

Searchlight - From Ballots To Bombs: The Inside Story of The National Front’s Political Soldiers (Searchlight, 1989)

Pamphlet covering the weirder ideological developments of the NF in the mid 80s. I.e. toadying up to Gaddaffi, trying to be mates with the Nation of Islam in Hackney, etc. Fascists desperately scurrying around trying to find some new ideas when the electoral route didn’t pan out (their ideas ripped off by the tories, the cultural war lost to the anti-nazi league, and John Tyndall grossly over reaching what the party was capable of in the 1979 elections and nearly bankrupting them in the process). This era saw the front moving increasingly towards elitism and terrorism when it became clear how marginal they were. A salutary lesson in how fascism operates in different ways at different points in history - and that this requires different tactics.

After the introduction, the format used is a bunch of autobiographies of people who became disatisfied with their involvement with far right politics. The “people” are composites though, which opens the door to a whole can of worms about the role of Searchlight’s contacts and infiltrators, the organisation’s pride in its relationship with the police and the secret state, and more basic issues about whether the booklet is propaganda or investigation.

Still worth a read if you’ve been following the furore about Tony Wakeford (and his associates such as Richard Lawson) and their involvement with the NF during this period.

Part Two will follow next week.

Stewart Home has updated his website to include yet more information about the fascist inclinations and associations of neofolk “musician” Tony Wakeford.

Also featured are some rebuttals of the ridiculous criticisms leveled at Home by the pseudo-academic “Industrialised Culture Research Network” blog.

It has been pointed out by one of my correspondents that me calling the neo-nazi November 9th Society “retards” is unfair.

Whilst I’m not someone who is insistent on using the correct terminology in every instance, I have reflected on this and agree that it was an unfortunate term to use - not least because of nazis’ fetishism of “purity” and elimination of those considered to be “impure”, including disabled people.

Calling nazis “retards” is unfair on retards.

I discovered two neo-nazi stickers on lamp-posts the other day whilst walking to work. I found them shocking more for the surprise value than their content. In the 80s (oh no, here he goes again) there used to be quite a lot of this stuff floating about in some areas - you’d even see the odd NF sticker on the tube.

These days it comes across as real fringe nutjob stuff, I think. You know it’s some lonely geezer in a dirty mac furtively going about in the early hours with a pocket full of fading nazi propaganda. Like a dog trying to mark its territory, or a flasher.

These two items were even more pathetic because they publicised two different organisations. “Oh blimey someone from the National Front has been stickering on the same morning as someone from the neo-nazi N*vember 9th S*ciety! What are the chances of that? Wow this area must be a real hotbed of far right activity!”

The pic, by the way, is Rudolf Hess. Apparently he was killed by those horrid rotters ZOG. It’s as good an insight as any into the intellect of the master race that they think:

a) Many people will recognise Hess from his picture

b) Many people will know what ZOG is.

c) Anyone will get worked up by the circumstances of Hess’ death.

My theory is it’s just a wind up, rather than a recruitment aid. “Let them hate us, as long as they fear” and all that. I suppose I do hate them, but mainly it just all seems a bit sad.

I ripped both stickers down easily and had a wander in my lunchtime to see if there were more, but fortunately other people had already removed the bulk of the two other offending items I found.

There used to be all sorts of rumours of fascists putting razor blades under their retarded propaganda but I’ve never met anyone who has actually seen this. Or in fact, many stickers these days - it’s a bit like “I Spy” for cynical lefties.

After reflecting on my teenage fandom of Death In June here, it felt quite good to finally purge this flat of their last remaining records.

Unfortunately it looks like it isn’t as straightforward as that:

	MC036 eBay Listing Removed: Hateful or Discriminatory ( 182548222)

Dear john-eden We appreciate that you chose eBay to list the following auction-style listing(s):230223972319 - DEATH IN JUNE: Brown Book LP ORIG with insert current93 However, your (s) breaches eBay’s Hateful or Discriminatory policy and has been removed. In accordance with our User Agreement, items prohibited by law or by eBay policy are not allowed on eBay. We notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled. You’re not allowed to list items that promote or glorify hatred, violence or racial intolerance, or items that promote organisations with such views on eBay.

I had to laugh. It was nearly as funny as when William Bennett personally got ebay to remove my auction of a Whitehouse tribute record.

“On 13 August 1977, the far-right National Front attempted to march from New Cross to Lewisham in South East London. Local people and anti-racists from all over London and beyond mobilised to oppose them, and the NF were humiliated as their march was disrupted and banners seized.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the ‘Battle of Lewisham’ we are holding a half day event in New Cross on Saturday 10th November with speakers and films (1 pm start at Goldsmiths College, New Cross).”

Some time has passed since the event at Goldsmiths, so my memory may play tricks on me. That would be in keeping with the write up on the Lewisham 77 blog makes the point that history is itself a battlefield, with various agendas and versions struggling to be heard. For me that was one of the most interesting aspects of the day – better than amassing a tick list of “facts” about what happened.

I arrived in time to see my friend Neil giving an overview of the events which lead up to the big day, and then we were straight into the first panel discussion.

This section could loosely be described as “leftie hacks vs the people”. On the one hand speakers on the platform and contributors from the audience tried to outline the orthodox left’s history of the event. Parts of this were very interesting – for example the tactics which succeeded in Lewisham had been attempted during a similar march in Wood Green some months beforehand, but hadn’t quite worked. The catastrophic humiliation of the Front in Lewisham severely limited their ability to operate a “march and grow” strategy.

And of course it is very heart warming to see that peoples’ sincerely held beliefs have endured over the 30 years since the day. However these contributions were marred for me by an emphasis on the bureaucracy of organising – the committee structure, lots of meetings, etc. And grandstanding, which was gloriously personified by an audience member from one sect beginning his “question” by trying to undermine the credibility of one of the speakers: “when I saw the poster I had no idea who you are, but now I see you I think I can remember you from back then”.

It’s undeniable that, like ‘em or loathe ‘em, groups like the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) et al played a huge role in the day’s events (as did local church groups). But they are often completely fucking boring to listen to.

In stark contrast, the other speakers in this first section were much more lively. Martin Lux gave an account of rucking with the NF and the cops from a working class anarchist perspective which was as uncompromising as it was entertaining.

Dr William Lez Henry (aka Lez Lyrix) told us of his experiences growing up in the area and the racism he encountered on a daily basis. His talk was very instructive and went some way to break down the mythologising of the other contributors. For example he and his friends had been told by more senior members of the local black community to let the white anti-racists converging on the area from outside fight the white fascists doing the same. The role of black youth on the day was initially to defend the few black owned businesses in the area, but then of course events overtook them and many opportunities to confront the overt racism of the NF and the not-so covert racism of the cops were exploited to the full.

Lez’s comments are fleshed out in his new book Whiteness Made Simple: Stepping Into The Grey Zone (NuBeyond, 2007) , with a particular emphasis on the need for black autonomy and self-education as ways of combating institutional racism.

I can’t remember much about the q&a section. It was probably better than the questions later on, but that isn’t saying very much. At all.

The first panel session was followed by a series of films which varied in quality. One was positively avant-garde, combining a soundtrack of harsh traffic noise alongside some indistinct commentary by people being interviewed about their involvement in the great day.

The second panel discussion was chaired by Dr Henry (which I thought was a good sign, because he doesn’t put up with any nonsense!). It was more questioning in nature – which was very welcome.

There were a number of contributions throughout the day from people involved with current struggles, for example against the BNP in Barking, the No-Borders campaign, etc. I didn’t get the impression that there was anywhere near as much energy or creativity involved with these projects as in 1977, but then we live in different times.

It was, however, quite depressing to hear from a representative from Unite Against Fascism that their main tactic is to campaign for people to vote for anyone other than the British National Party. This seems to be singularly unsuccessful and perhaps the reason for this is that the BNP are positioning themselves as a radical alternative to all of the other parties - parties who many people feel have nothing to offer them. UAF’s position only serves to reinforce this divide. If people are pissed off with their New Labour council, there is little point in trying to get people to vote Labour just to keep the BNP out. If this tactic is the best the orthodox left have to offer then it is no wonder that the BNP are currently competing with the Greens to become the 4th major political party in the UK - or indeed the 2nd or 3rd in some areas.

On a more positive note, Paul Gilroy (yes, him!) gave a great talk on his experiences of the riot, which essentially were of abject fear. He used this as a tool to open up a discussion about mythologising the past and how attempts to produce one coherent story should be resisted.

One profound example of this is that the orthodox left remembers an old woman leaning out of a window on Clifton Rise and questioning some of those present on the counter demo. According to that story she then put her speakers out of her window and played Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up” which electrified the crowd. Non-aligned people remember it as Junior Murvin’s “Police and Thieves” however.

I find that very interesting for a whole number of reasons – not least that it reinforces Dr Henry’s comments that local black youth experienced far more oppression from the police than they did from swastika wielding NF members.

Gilroy was followed by Les Back whose contribution was similarly questioning and lacking in dogmatic certainties. He raised a number of issues around the changing face of British fascism. His questioning of the validity of the usefulness of referring to the BNP in the 21st Century as “Nazis” caused quite a stir amongst those involved in doing just that as part of the SWP-backed Anti-Nazi League, but to my mind he is bang on. His analysis extended into an interrogation of the idea of an English/British identity and how this is used by the right wing press as well as organised fascist groups, and of course by mainstream politicians.

I wanted this part of the day to be much more developed – how do you counteract the promotion of a “white identity” or a “national identity”? Do you:

a) take the piss out of it (by having a pop at middle-Englanders and morris dancing?).

But does this alienate people who have already bought into it to a greater or lesser degree? And do you replace it with anything else? – which brings us to:

b) Try to develop a more inclusive “English” identity – a la “curry and chips”, “reclaiming the Union Jack/Cross of St George”

– beaming faces looking up at you from the clip art produced by your press dept after having gone on their diversity training? Can you do this without appearing tokenistic (all these companies with black people splashed across their brochures, when their board of directors is all white guys in their fifties?). But isn’t an “inclusive” Englishness still basically an excuse for excluding people who are not “English” – i.e. the most recent waves of immigrants, but not those who have been here a while now?

c) Try to replace it with an identity based on class rather than race/nation…

Unfortunately that didn’t happen. What did happen was a series of mind-numbingly awful contributions from the floor, which consisted of the most heinous grandstanding I have ever had the misfortune to witness. Anyone who starts their “question” with “Right, I’ve just come from a meeting where we’ve been …” should be made to leave. The meeting degenerated into a thinly veiled competition to see who could justify their current political activity the best. Presumably this was meant to inspire people to join in or something. But as the “questions” got longer and longer my thoughts and energy began to evaporate. The British Left at play, fucking it all up as usual.

I fled the building with Martin after congratulating the organisers (because overall, I’d had a great time and it was very well organised), introducing myself to Dave Katz and saying hello to Lez.

The day raised so many questions it’s difficult to know where to begin. I learnt a lot about Lewisham 77 and realised how far we are away from anything like a successful mass movement against fascism 30 years later.

Further information is available at the great Lewisham 77 blog.

Stewart Home’s new material on Tony Wakeford et al seems to have generated a flurry of additional information which has now been incorporated into the article on his website.

The shitty politics of the post-industrial music scene AND revelations about the inability of some its “stars” to wipe their own fat arses.

Stewart Home has unearthed more unsavoury revelations from the sad life of stiff-right-arm fanatic Tony Wakeford. (See especially the right hand column, but it’s all worth a read if you haven’t seen it before).