Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism (translated: rock music against racism ) was founded in 1978 by Red Saunders , Roger Huddle and other activists as an event platform for the British "Anti Nazi League" founded in 1976 in order to counter the increasing number of racist and verbal attacks with a positive signal. The first and at the same time most successful festival organized by “RAR” was the “Carnival against the Nazis” in 1978, when it was founded. Over 100,000 protesters marched from Trafalgar Square across the East End of London (the core area of the far-right National Front ) to a declared anti-racist rock concert in Victoria Park ( Hackney ), which included The Clash , the Buzzcocks , Steel Pulse (which of the campaign on their LP Tribute to the Martyrs the song dedicated to Jah Pickney - RAR ), X-Ray Spex , Misty in Roots and the Tom Robinson Band took part. The attempt was made to always let “black” (reggae, ska) and “white” (rock, punk) bands perform together.
"Rock against Racism" became the event platform " Love Music-Hate Racism ", which is still active today . Artists such as Mick Jones , The Buzzcocks , The Libertines , Ms. Dynamite and The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster made themselves available to perform at "Love Music-Hate Racism" events. Further events took place in June 2005 under the title "Unite Against Fascism" (among many others with Estelle , Pete Doherty and Terri Walker ) and on August 2, 2005 in Penzance / Cornwall ("Punk in Penzance for LMHR").
The National Front responded to direct attacks by RAR and (later) LMHR as early as 1977 with the counter-campaign " Rock Against Communism " (RAC) - RAC subsequently became a synonym for right-wing rock .
The Rock gegen Rechts festival on June 16, 1979 in Frankfurt was directly inspired by RAR ( Udo Lindenberg and the Butterflies played among others ), which was directed against a major NPD event.
literature
- Robin Denselow: The Beat goes on. Pop Music and Politics - A Story of Hope. Reinbek 1991, ISBN 349918849X , pp. 203-226.
- Roger Huddle, Red Saunders: Reminiscences of RAR: Rocking Against Racism (1976-1982) . Redwords, 2016, 256 pages, ISBN 9781910885369 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Roger Huddle, Lee Billingham: Anti-Fascism: That Was Then, This is Now . In: Socialist Review , June 2004, issue 286.
- ^ Sarfraz Manzoor: The year rock found the power to unite . In: theguardian.com of April 20, 2008.