Rock Against Communism

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Rock Against Communism ( English for 'Rock Against Communism '), also known by the abbreviations RAC or RAC , was a musical campaign under which bands from the field of British right-wing rock first became active in 1979. The collective term coined by the National Front for the right-wing extremist / neo-Nazi rock music scene was a counter-movement to the left-wing series of events Rock Against Racism . Today it is a catchphrase that, like “right-wing rock”, is a self and external name for music with right-wing extremist texts. It is often used for English-speaking, especially British bands. The genre describes less the music than the textual orientation.

history

In the mid-1970s the two right-wing extremist parties, the British Movement and the British National Front, enjoyed increasing success in Great Britain. At the same time, the music styles punk and a little later Oi! that both youth cultures brought with them. While punk music created the youth culture of the same name , Oi! a revival of the skinhead scene, which broke away a bit from the formerly predominant Northern Soul and Ska . Bands like Cockney Rejects , Cock Sparrer and The 4-Skins were in the lead . The two right-wing extremist parties tried to win supporters from the new skinhead scene. The Anti-Nazi League , founded in 1976, tried to oppose this and the prevailing shift to the right. In 1978 a series of events called Rock Against Racism (RAR) was launched. Many bands from the Oi! Genre, in particular Sham 69 , Angelic Upstarts and The 4-Skins, also supported the new initiative.

In fact, RAR managed to reduce the National Front's influence on young people. In 1979 a counter-movement was attempted and it was named by analogy Rock Against Communism ("Rock Against Communism"). The first concert took place in Leeds in 1979. There the two bands White Boss and The Dentists performed, which broke up only a few months after the gig. This first gig drew 300 spectators and was mostly made up of young, male skinheads. The figurehead was Ian Stuart Donaldson and his band Skrewdriver , which was founded as a punk band in 1977 and became the first right-wing rock band since a reunion in 1981. Organizationally, RAC belonged to the youth organization "Young National Front" and had a regular column in the NF youth newspaper Bulldog. From 1982 onwards, more and more concerts were held, all of which ran under the RAC label. To distribute the music, the NF founded the record company White Noise Records. The early bands of this young movement included Skullhead , No Remorse , Brutal Attack and Diehards . The concerts took place continuously from 1983. The headliner was mostly skrewdriver. The performances often took place in Suffolk on the estate of Edgar Griffin , the father of Nick Griffin , a well-known NF organizer. In fact, bands that operated under this label were sidelined. The big protest against the incipient right-wing rock meant that groups could only appear at events organized by RAC. Nevertheless, the plan worked: with Rock Against Communism, the NF was able to attract young people and at the same time make money through the sale of sound carriers. The international market also opened up to the new sound.

After the Bulldog was discontinued, RAC lived on as a category in the New Dawn and White Noise fanzines. Within the National Front, White Noise Records and RAC were the only functioning areas. Politically, the NF became more and more diffuse and did not even rule out cooperation with the Nation of Islam . That was too much for many racists and nationalists. In fact, there was a radical break with the increasingly insignificant party. The open break gave rise to new organizations, headed by the Blood & Honor network . However, this also means the end of Rock Against Communism as an organization. Blood & Honor saw itself as the flagship of Rock Against Communism and so there was a change in meaning from an organization to a musical catchphrase. Since then, Rock Against Communism has been a collective term for right-wing extremist music of all kinds.

Other countries

In the 1980s, the movement spread to other European countries, first of all to Scandinavia. In 1986 a small RAC organization was founded in Sweden under the motto “Rock mot communisms” (RMK, “Rock against Communism”). The founding members included members of the Nordic Party and the Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Eng. "Keep Sweden Swedish"). Prominent members were Göran Gustavsson and Peter Rindell, members of the band Hooligan, from which later Vit Aggression (Eng. "White Aggression") emerged. Like their British counterparts, RMK brought out a fanzine (Streetfight, later Vit Rebell) and organized concerts in Sweden from 1987 onwards. Bands included Ultima Thule , Dirlewanger and Division S. Donaldson provided protection with his Blood & Honor network. RMK later merged into Vit Arisk Motstand (VAM).

In Germany on August 17, 1985, a RAC-style concert was held. The bands Böhse Onkelz , INdecent Exposure and Kahlkopf played there in front of 600 skinheads . “Rock gegen Links” became a catchphrase in the German scene, but it spread much less than RAC. In 1991 the Rock Against Communism Festival took place in Brandenburg, where the bands Radikahl (Germany), Peggior Amico (Italy), Dirlewanger (Sweden) and No Remorse performed.

Also in the US, RAC spread in the early 1980s in the field of hardcore punk - and skinhead scene and brought among other groups such as Youth Defense League , Max Resist and the hooligans , Mid Town Boot Boys and Bully Boys indicate in their Environment in the late 1980s the neo-Nazi Hammerskin Nation emerged.

Usage today

"RAC" is still a popular reference point for neo-Nazi and right-wing extremist bands. In German-speaking countries, the term RAC is mostly used to characterize the Oi! - heavy British neo-Nazi rock of the 1980s, but often synonymous with all rock-heavy styles of the right-wing music scene. The term is then often used analogously to right-wing rock . A definite dividing line can therefore only be drawn to the less rock-heavy styles such as the nationalist songwriters in the style of Frank Rennicke or Michael Müller and to Nazi rap, as well as to the harder styles such as the National Socialist Black Metal and the National Socialist Hardcore . The RAC movement is seen as the link between the openly neo-Nazi, politically ambitious music scene and politically neutral skinheads and Oi! Skins. The expression actually has less to do with communism or opposition to it. The name resulted historically from the opposition to Rock Against Racism. Rather, the phrase obscures the often anti-Semitic and racist orientation of the music. A symbol of the movement that is still used today is the hammer and sickle , based on the Soviet flag, into which a skull was bitten.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Nick Lowles and Steve Silver: From Skinhead to Bonehead. The roots of the skinhead culture . In: Searchlight, Antifaschistisches Infoblatt, Enough is Enough, rat (Ed.): White Noise. Right-wing rock, skinhead music, blood & honor - insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene . series of anti-fascist texts (council) / Unrast Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89771-807-3 , p. 20th f .
  2. ↑ Robert Forbes, Eddie Stampton: The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement: UK & USA, from 1979 to 1993 . Feral House, 2015, ISBN 978-1-62731-025-3 , pp. 22 .
  3. ↑ Steve Silver: The web is spun . In: Searchlight, Antifaschistisches Infoblatt, Enough is Enough, rat (Ed.): White Noise. Right-wing rock, skinhead music, blood & honor - insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene . series of anti-fascist texts (council) / Unrast Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89771-807-3 , p. 26-27 .
  4. ↑ Stieg Larsson : Racism inc. - White Power Music made in Sweden . In: Searchlight, Antifaschistisches Infoblatt, Enough is Enough, rat (Ed.): White Noise. Right-wing rock, skinhead music, blood & honor - insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene . series of anti-fascist texts (council) / Unrast Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89771-807-3 , p. 89 f .
  5. ↑ Christian Dornbusch , Jan Raabe : 20 years of legal rock . In: Christian Dornbusch, Jan Raabe (Ed.): RechtsRock. Inventories and counter-strategies . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89771-808-1 , p. 43 .
  6. ↑ Nick Lowles: The International of Hate . In: Christian Dornbusch , Jan Raabe (Ed.): RechtsRock. Inventories and counter-strategies . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89771-808-1 , p. 246 .
  7. ↑ Educator Alert! Hate Music Label Targets Schools. (No longer available online.) Anti-Defamation League , Nov. 8, 2004, archived from the original on Jan. 7, 2011 ; accessed on April 30, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adl.org
  8. ^ Martin Langebach and Jan Raabe : Between leisure, politics and party: RechtsRock . In: Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster (eds.): Strategies of the extreme right . VS Verlag der Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-15911-9 , p. 167 .
  9. ^ Hate on Display: Rock Against Communism. Anti-Defamation League , accessed April 30, 2016 .
  10. ^ RAC - Rock Against Communism. Netz gegen Nazis , accessed April 30, 2016 .