On Sat, 31 Jul 1999 21:58:49 +0100 Jim heartfield
<jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk> writes:
>(Cultural critics: that's what punk rock was all about. Listen to the
>first Jam LP and ask yourself who Paul Weller voted for in 1979 -
>Margaret Thatcher - or listen to Chelsea's great song The Right to Work,
>and remind yourself that the lead singer wrote it as a protest *against*
>trade unions. The Clash were something of a throwback, because their
>manager Bernie Taupin, thinking that they should sing about politics
>gave them some SWP pamphlets and told them to put them to music.)
This is an oversimplification. How then, do you explain the Gang of Four, whose politics seem to me like a weird hybrid of Situationism and the Frankfurt School? And howzabout the fact, recently pointed out in the latest issue of The Baffler by Mike O'Flaherty, that the folks behind the post-punk label Rough Trade were actively involved in the SWP?
Just because The Jam were (to use Jon Savage's phrase) "little Tories," that's no reason to tar the whole movement as a reactionary one.
I'd argue that punk was largely an apolitical movement; there's no politics behind, say, The Damned or Siouxie. But the few groups that made political statements did so from the Left.
___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.