I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

Free Festivals Are Not So Free Anymore

Yesterday saw the Love Music Hate Racism festival at Victoria Park.

Changes
Thirty years on from the important Rock Against Racism carnival, things are rather different now. The east end has changed totally since 1978. Racial violence in Tower Hamlets today is more likely to be Bengali on Somali or brown on white. Bengali figures dominate politics in the borough, in all 3 main parties - something unthinkable 30 years ago. As if that were not enough, there is also Respect, a party whose MP has already declared his intention to stand aside for a 'local candidate' at the next election - I somewhat doubt he means a white working class woman.
Labour barely bothers canvassing in many working class areas in Hackney, Tower Hamlets or Newham, although the rapidly expanding middle class areas in each borough is visited with enthusiasm at each election.

Fronting
In 1978 Rock Against Racism organisers ignored the fact that the National Front were mobilising at Brick Lane, refusing to tell activists what was happening a couple of miles away in case it 'distracted from the day'. At least the The SWP has not changed!
Although the Anti-Nazi league logo was being used on placards, the Socialist Workers Party's current anti-fascist front group is actually Unite Against Fascism, the ANL has come and gone three times (by my calculations) since 1978! Each change has been a hierarchical, from the top down decision enforced upon the 'membership'. The numbers lost and disillusioned by such nonsense must run into the thousands.

Summertime - And The Living Is Easy?
One of the biggest changes though, was apparent when you entered Victoria Park. The highlight of London's summers was always its free events - the festivals and Carnivals in parks and fields across the capital. Here was an opportunity to eat, drink and be merry with friends in the sunshine, with very little in the way of rules and regulation.

No such luck yesterday. Whilst it may not have cost you anything to get in, the Carnival was far from free. Firstly you had to queue up to be funnelled through a gated entry system, with compulsory bag search. The sort of things you get all the time in Victoria Park - bikes, cans of beer and dogs, were naturally not allowed through.
I had a roll of gaffer tape I had absent-mindedly left in my bag confiscated, on the grounds it could be used as an offensive weapon (a decision that seemed to be taken entirely on the say-so of the steward. No lists were available of what could or could not be taken into the Park) Anyone with soft drinks was forced to take the lid off the bottle, apparently so they could not be thrown at the artists. Needless to say an on-site security presence was still required. Why? In case anyone should throw anything at the artists!

Tempting as it is to blame all this on the SWP/UAF, I suspect that would not be fair in this instance. No doubt every summer festival and carnival will be the same, a regulated, money driven closed arena - a depressing state of affairs.
Those who attended the 1978 Rock Against Racism carnival would not have stood for it. The question is - why do we?

Willows Song - By Ian Cutler

The video below comes from one of the great British films - The Wicker Man.

I lifted it from Live Video, as it seems that Youtube keep censoring it - the sight of a Pagan Britt Ekland teasing an officer of the law is clearly too much for them!

Willow's Song - The Wicker Man 1973 - with Ian Cutler

Paul Robeson Sings Joe Hill

I think the best thing I have found so far on Youtube.

Fantastic.

Voodoo Ray

One of my favourite records of all time - suitably updated. Shame about the audience!

Rappers Against Gentrification!

When looking at how working class people are being priced out of their own communities, it is important to remember it is not just happening in cities like London, Manchester and Leeds.

The gentrification of Berlin has been determined (particularly since the old west German civil service was decamped from Bonn to Berlin) whilst New York has seen more than enough of this blight. This article looks at some of the cultural damage being caused in the Big Apple, and the US rappers who are standing up against it.

Time to turn the guns on the real enemy!

Stereotypes? We've Got 'Em!

It is amazing how the well-meaning last century left can be almost as bad as the far-right when it comes to sterotypes and inaccuracies.

I have only just got round to listening to the Stop The War Coalition's 2002 Peace Not War compilation CD. One absolute stinker on there is the track "Woody Guthrie" by Alabama 3, which contains the truly dreadful line "while the BNP scare refugees senseless up in Oldham town".

The 2001 riots in Oldham were noticeable for their entirely British character - the violence being between white and Asian Britons in Oldham. Indeed the town had no significant refugee presence in 2001, and has not gained one since.

Instead, Alabama 3 simply saw violence, saw the presence of racists, and assumed they must be attacking refugees. Which to me is almost as lazy, and indeed as wrong as the far-right's conduct.
If the 'left' cannot even recognise the problems in the north (and other areas) around integration, Islam, gang violence and long term racial division, it really is part of the problem, not the solution.

The Greatest Living Yorkshireman Put To Music

I was up in Leeds over the weekend for the Class War conference and benefit gig.

The highlight of the weekend was a truly superb performance at the gig from Geoffrey Oi!cott. Any band named after the greatest living Yorkshireman has a big task ahead of them, but Geoffrey Oi!cott managed to remind the audience of the importance of staying at the crease all day, scoring less than one run per over and that there are few things in life as important as a good solid forward defensive.

For those who missed them, here is an indication of just how good this band is. Geoffrey Oi!cott on Youtube!

Hip Hop Lives

You can view the video for KRS One's new single, Hip Hop Lives, here.

It is a bit of a history of hip hop, check to see how many departed heroes you can spot.

Burying The Mammoth

I have been listening to Consolidated a lot recently.

Their 1994 "Business of Punishment" LP has a great track called 'Consolidated Buries The Mammoth' where the band talk about the most appropriate manner for various Americans to die.

In the case of the musician cum hunter Ted Nugent, they speculate the best way for him to expire would be choking on the meat of a buck venison he has just killed with his brand new crossbow, with none of his redneck mates being able to save him.

Surely the best way for Tony Blair to die would be to insert Margaret Thatcher inside him, and let her die there?

It's Up To You

I spent part of last night re-living my youth, or my 20s at least, playing the Blaggers I.T.A. DVD "It's Up To You".

One of the best gigs I have seen was the Blaggers at The Garage at Highbury Corner (in 1994 or 1995?) I think they finished the gig with "Ten Men Dead" as it was St Patrick's Day. The Blaggers were also important as a band because they walked it like they talked it - I can remember having the dubious honour of being trapped in a tube carriage with them as the police moved us, quite involuntarily, from east London to west London on the day of the Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig in London in 1994. We had all enjoyed an exchange of opinion with Combat 18 in Bow. C18, for all their hype in the media, were humilated that day.

The quality of the DVD is actually pretty poor, but the spirit and atmosphere makes up for that. The 12 tracks are divided between live concert footage and Promo videos, whilst the title track has some good clips from the "Battle of Waterloo" - one of Anti-Fascist Action's finest hours - added in. It is hard not to be sad when you see the clips of Matty Blagger, who died very young. A reminder that drugs can take the best of our people, as well as some of the worst.

I got my DVD from a stall at a gig, but you may still be able to order it from the producers, Insurgence Records.