Musical Diversity

In the last 33 years I have probably listened to music an average of four hours a day (how is that possible? One factor is that I did about 40 hours a week, for a total of 4 years, at a job that allowed me to listen to music I chose as I was working). There was one period of about 3 years around 2006 where I didn’t listen that much, but in High School and the last 16 years I listened about 6 hours a day on average.

(The value of this post is fairly low- only about 45-55% of it will be political)

Before I get to the best part of it, let me first explain a few minor details and some background to my addiction to music. I pretty much exclusively listened to cassette tapes until some time around 1999. I also have bought very few CDs (my commitment to being a good fan went down at some point in the late 1990s and has pretty much stayed there in terms of buying CDs, etc. instead of mostly just listening to YouTube which is what I’ve done about 4/5 of the time in the last 7-8 years). I have never had an iPod, I don’t listen to streaming music sites (“muve” I believe is one example, or Last FM perhaps). I have been doing almost all of my music-listening the last 16 years on YouTube. About 2/5 of what I listen to is stuff that I paid for earlier when I bought tapes and/or CDs, and with a big chunk of the stuff I DIDN’T ever pay for, I’m very comfortable ethically with that (see “The Music of my Enemy” below).

When I was very young (about 9) I was a fan of Michael Jackson. At 13 or 14 I went to a massive concert which included Vanilla Ice, I BELIEVE MC Hammer, and I THINK En Vogue. I’m almost embarrassed by that, although in the last 35 years there is one En Vogue song that I really like (“Free Your Mind” (the main reason I like it is the moshing in the official music video)). I kind of liked Vanilla Ice and I just learned some stuff about him that is kind of cool. And in a brief spoken word bit on either Home Invasion or Original Gangster Ice-T said something positive about MC Hammer. But I’m still kind of embarrassed about it.  In one, two or three year(s) of Jr. High School I listened to a lot of rap- of the Beastie Boys (“License to Ill”), 2-3 albums by rappers Run DMC (and 1-2 albums by The Fresh Prince, but I think I stopped listening to him in 9th grade and since then I think I’ve listened twice (in the last several years) to two of his hits, just out of curiosity and/or nostalgia).

At the risk of getting a little personal, in 9th grade my two best friends got into Megadeth and some other heavy metal bands. I was sort of open-minded about it, but not very. For various reasons I won’t go into, at the beginning of 10th grade (1991-1992) we had a falling out. I WAS a little guilty in the first 1-2 months after that of suddenly discovering a strong interest in heavy metal and wearing combat boots and that might have been pathetic. But I kept listening to rap, I started listening to more hard-core rap like Public Enemy and Ice-T, and I started listening to miscellaneous stuff that was labeled “alternative.” The bands labelled that way in the 1990s that I still listen to a LOT today include: Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Fishbone, L7, Faith No More, Ministry, and Biohazard (I didn’t listen to  Biohazard until 1993).

Starting in the Summer of 1992 I listened to the punk bands The Dead Kennedys and The Dead Milkmen (just an amusing coincidence). More recently I started listening a lot to a CELTIC punk band called Dropkick Murphys. Some of the bands that I lazily put in the metal category have some major connection to punk music. This includes DRI and Suicidal Tendencies who I enjoy listening to. Biohazard is also kind of a punk band.

Going back to my ex-friends in 1991/1992, I am, in one way and one way only, proud of the fact that when they started listening to Slayer and some death-metal bands I didn’t follow them (the thing is, since I didn’t follow them in that direction, it couldn’t be called pathetic). In early 1993 I bought one Slayer album (Seasons in the Abyss) and bought no more until 2 years later, when I was in college. Around the same time that I bought the Slayer album I bought one Napalm Death tape (From Enslavement to Obliteration) (Napalm Death are death-metal) but that was it for death-metal until about 25 years later.

In High School the main two heavy metal bands I listened to were Megadeth and Metallica. I listened a fair amount to some others including Anthrax, Sepultura, Pantera, Nuclear Assault, Body Count, DRI, and Suicidal Tendencies (unlike every other band I mention in this essay, I no longer listen to Sepultura).

There’s one minor heavy metal band that I listened to a little bit in High School that really should have been part of me transitioning towards being a socialist (a transition that took place in High School), but I don’t think it was. In a few minutes I’ll talk about how in general listening to music contributed to me becoming a socialist. The minor  band I just mentioned is called Sacred Reich, and even though in High School I had been less familiar with this, I’ve known for 1-2 decades now that they were progressive. In HS I had an EP of their’s with four songs. One was totally non-political and about evil or monsters or something. One was a cover of the anti-war Black Sabbath song “War Pigs.” The one I remember listening to was a (1980s) anti-intervention song called “Surf Nicaragua. The fourth song turns out to be a very progressive song, but I only identified it as such in the last 16 years. “One Nation” is anti-war, anti-racist, and even a little critical of economic injustice (there’s a brief reference to “greed”).

I can’t remember which came first, but the first bit of political activity I engaged in MAY have happened after I took a music-connected step towards identifying strongly with the cause of anti-racism. That step was going to the first concert I care to remember. It was in 10th grade and it was an Ice-T and Body Count concert. I saw the first band play and there was moshing which I quickly decided I liked and I saw Ice-T do some rap (which also inspired moshing), and then I had to leave before Body Count played because I had to get home before it was too late (my parents didn’t know I was at a concert and wouldn’t have believed that what I told them I was doing would go that late). (In High School and college I was into relatively non-violent moshing (and I felt very strongly about picking up people who fell down)).

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The High School Years: Becoming A Socialist

So, a focus on music and my political development. If I ever get around to typing it, a future post about how I became a socialist will overlap heavily with this post.

One aspect of this that I think about is, why did I come to focus more on racism than other symptoms of capitalism and get an Ethnic Studies degree instead of a Women’s Studies degree? I have no idea how I found myself listening to rap music in Jr. High. I wasn’t watching MTV and my parents were no more than moderately anti-racist. I didn’t have older siblings who listened to rap (actually, I might have been watching a LITTLE MTV because I have memories of watching 1-2 music videos by The Fresh Prince). On one hand, as far as I can remember, the rap I was listening to in Jr. High was non-political and only about 3/4 of it involved Black people, but It probably contributed to how I started listening to Public Enemy and Ice-T in late 1991.

I think that listening to that “Hard Core” rap is a huge part of why I did my first political act (and that may have been AFTER the Ice-T/Body Count concert I went to). In the Spring semester of 10th grade, in early 1992, I walked out of my 4th period class (I think it was 4th period) and joined about 50 of my peers walking around Boulder protesting the not-guilty verdict in a California trial of the racist white police officers who beat Rodney King a year earlier. That night I went to a march and rally for the community in general and/or the CU-Boulder campus and I was actually on the front page of the paper the next day (next to me was someone who later was the first or second person to get an Ethnic Studies degree at CU-Boulder, and there was someone wearing a Primus shirt and one person wearing a Body Count shirt).

This is a little embarrassing because I have heard things here and there indicating they’re not progressive, but I think some political stuff by Megadeth and Metallica nudged me towards the left in High School. Those songs are:

Metallica
“Fight Fire With Fire” is about the need to avoid nuclear war.
“Ride the Lightning” is in opposition to the death penalty.
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” could almost be mistaken for an anti-fascist song because it is indirectly inspired by an anti-fascist novel by Ernest Hemingway. The thing is, the MOVIE based on that book retained the anti-war message but not the ANTI-FASCIST message of the book.
“Disposal Heroes” is anti-war.
“Blackened” is about nuclear war.
“…And Justice for All” is basically about politics and power in this country, but I am very unsure about what EXACTLY is it saying. This one may have had no affect on me becoming a socialist.
“One” is anti-war.

Megadeth
“Set The World Afire” is about nuclear war.
“Holy Wars…. The Punishment Due.” The first half I’ve heard might be about international conflicts like Israel and the Palestinians and/or (possibly more specifically) Northern Ireland. Beyond that I’m not sure what to say about it.
“Take No Prisoners” is anti-war.
“Rust in Peace” is about nuclear war.
“Symphony of Destruction” is about politics but I can’t figure out what they’re trying to say.
“Architecture of Aggression” is sort of the same- it probably IS anti-war, but I am less certain than I am when it comes to “Take no Prisoners.” Megadeth just wasn’t consistently and explicitly progressive.
“Foreclosure of a Dream” is I BELIEVE about US federal farm policy in the 1980s. I am just not familiar with farm policy. I DO like the license plates in Colorado that say “No Farms, No Food” but I just don’t know anywhere near enough to comment on this song.

I think that is a pretty complete list of the relevant Megadeth and Metallica songs I listened to in High School that may have nudged me towards the left.

As I have said earlier, the harder rap I listened to, including three Ice-T albums, and 3-4 Public Enemy albums probably had a better effect on me than the Metallica and Megadeth stuff I just referred to. And then there was the Dead Kennedys stuff- some of their songs might not inspire progressive politics but about half of them do. And there was at least a couple that were about economic injustice- “Let’s Lynch the Landlord,” and “Kill the Poor.” There were several other political DK songs whose lyrics I’m too lazy to confirm- with the exceptions of “Police Truck” (police brutality), “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now” (about Ronald Reagan), which I definitely remember (as I was typing this I started listening to the DKs for the first time in about 4-5 years) (I believe that in High School and college I listened to 3/4 or 4/4 of the Jello Biafra DK studio albums).

There were a handful of songs by Suicidal Tendencies that contributed to me becoming   progressive:

“Two Sided Politics” is basically contrasting the life of a rich person with that of a working-class person, and there’ some anti-Reagan stuff, etc. One thing I think is noteworthy is that there’s one line that says “I’m not anti-government, government is anti-me.” I like to think that might be in part an anti-anarchist statement.
“Fascist Pig” could be a little more political (that is, deeper) but Mexican-Americans criticizing the police may have pushed me a bit to the left.
“I Want More” is about the class conflict with some references to the minimum wage.
“Give It Revolution” was a little vague but probably nudged me in the right direction.

There were a handful of songs by a thrash-metal band called Nuclear Assault that pushed me to the left in High School. Although I have listened to their other stuff in recent years, in HS pretty much the only album I listened to was “Handle with Care.”
“New Song” which was a fairly good anti-racist song.
“Critical Mass” is a pretty good environmentalist song.
“Inherited Hell” is also like that.
“When Freedom Dies” Although I’m not sure what it’s saying about US foreign policy during the Cold War, it IS saying that freedom and civil liberties, etc. shouldn’t be weakened in the name of national security.
“Search and Seizure” is sort of similar, but basically about law enforcement harassing metal-heads (I’m not sure whether or how the lyrics-writer would generalize that statement to include punks, hippies, etc.)

Another band that influenced me in High School was a “cross-over” hard-core punk/thrash-metal band called DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles). In HS I saw them play live twice and listened to three of their albums.

First there was the album “Definition” which included the following songs:
“Acid Rain” was about the environment.
“The Application” is about multiple forms of employment discrimination and DOES include a line about racism and a line about homophobia, and one about religion and one that is probably about being HIV+.

The album “Thrash Zone” has several political songs.
“Labelled Incurable” might be about AIDS (as far as I can tell DRI were probably anti-homophobic).
“Kill the Words” is sort of generally about censorship and dictatorship but seems to be at least partly if not totally about that sort of thing in the Muslim world; I have no idea if they’re anti-Muslim or just consistently opposing fundamentalism, censorship, and dictatorship (there IS another song where they condemn religious discrimination in employment, so they probably aren’t anti-Muslim)
“Worker Bee” although it’s not written as a socialist song, I think it’s basically about economic justice and is by a band that I’m pretty sure is in favor of social justice as well (I’m suspicious of bands, people, etc. who are economically progressive but not socially liberal).

There was one Soundgarden song about the environment called “Hands All Over.” Although I don’t feel like looking at the lyrics, I believe that there were at least a few L7 songs I liked politically (one example is “Pretend We’re Dead”).

This will require at least one paragraph. Although I’m not real familiar with this, I have gotten the impression that Rage Against The Machine were a bit to my left politically. One social-dem critic told me that the political forces RATM admired either would have told RATM to fuck off, or alternately, should be killed (I think that may have been a reference to the Peruvian leftist army/terror organization called Shining Path). I sort of stumbled onto RATM a little earlier than most of their fans. Somehow I knew that their performance at a small club in Boulder around late 1992 or early 1993 would inspire moshing, so I showed up. I don’t remember thinking about it much but I guess I liked the music enough and the general vibe and bought their album shortly after the show. At some point at least a couple months later they came to Denver with House of Pain and it was great listening and moshing KNOWING that they were promoting dissent in this country. At that concert I learned about Leonard Peltier, and generally drifted towards the Left. (Right before House of Pain came on stage they played the music sans vocals of a song I mention below called “Just Look Around” by Sick of it All). Yes, RATM was alternately politically vague and/or leaning towards the hard-left. But they contributed to me becoming a dissident of some sort and it’s slightly possible that wouldn’t have happened if not for them. And musically they were pretty cool.

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The Last 16 Years

This next section will be pretty brief. It’s about what music I have been listening to in the last 16 years.

Between about 1998 and about 2009 I only listened something like 4 hours a day to music. In 2008, for I think the first or almost first time I got on YouTube. Since then I have listened to almost all of the Megadeth and Metallica that I missed, plus the older stuff. I started listening to practically all Slayer and I started listening to a LOT of death metal. The following bands are the death metal bands I listen to: Carcass, Napalm Death (I love their music and I think that if I paid attention to their lyrics I’d agree with a lot of them), Deicide (MUSICALLY I LOVE Deicide, but I assume I would be offended by their lyrics if I read them), Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Morbid Angel.

I got caught up on Body Count albums that I missed after Born Dead and also listened to the first two albums. Although I don’t listen to them much I listen some to stuff I missed earlier from Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Testament as well as what I listened to earlier. Although I’ve barely looked at the lyrics I some times listen to stuff I missed by Sacred Reich, and I am even more sure than before that they’re progressive politically.

Yes, my very favorite genre is thrash metal (and/or speed metal- at the risk of sounding stupid, I am not sure what differences there are, if any, between speed and thrash).

I listen to the following Suicidal Tendencies albums, both now and in High School: Their first (self-titled) album, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today, Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit… DeJaVu, Lights! Camera! Revolution! and The Art of Rebellion. I haven’t listened to any ST that I didn’t listen to in High School. On a related note, I would say the same about DRI albums Definition, Crossover, and Thrashzone.

Today and in high school I listen(ed) to three Ice-T albums: The Iceberg, Original Gangster, and Home Invasion.

Until recently I took a 10-15 year break from listening to more than three songs by Public Enemy.

In the last 5 or so years I listened a little bit to Run DMC (albums Tougher Than Leather, Raising Hell, and probably King of Rock) and the Beastie Boys’ License to Ill and Check Your Head. I listen A LOT to the House of Pain song “Jump Around,” but it has been so long since I listened to the entire album.

I have a huge number of YouTube mix-tape playlists. A large chunk of it is miscellaneous 1990s stuff (some mainstream, some not), and another large chunk is some stuff where the theme of the fan-made video was anti-racist skinheads.

I found a massive playlist of mainstream 1980s pop hits and placed the ones I liked (about 58 of them) in my own playlist. To some extent (not a large one) I was exposed to many of those songs as a little kid (I was born in 1975) when watching a 1980s movie or when I occasionally was listening to the radio. I listen to that playlist about once a week. And one of the songs on it I have kind of fallen in love with- the music, the images in the video, but I have not examined the lyrics. It’s Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler.

I also fell in love with a great song by the Dropkick Murphys called “Out of our Heads.” In the last year I have probably listened to it an average of once a day and I listened to their first three albums once as well.

Since the early 1990s I have been a fan of two Tom Petty albums- Full Moon Fever and Into the Great Wide Open.

I was at least kind of exposed to ska starting when I got into Fishbone in High School and I’ve been increasingly curious about it in the last 23 years. Although they might be more accurately called “Ska PUNK,” I do enjoy listening to The Mighty Mighty BossTones for about half an hour a day on average in the last 5 years.

I listen to a small amount of Irish Republican music. I bought an entire album by Black 47 but for some reason, even though I get the impression they’re progressive, all I listen(ed) to were/are the two republican songs (one of which I believe is a Celtic rap song).

In the last several months I’ve started listening to about seven Beach Boys songs, I have fallen in love with the song “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and I like “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” by The Robins.

I have studied (i.e. read articles on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s web-site) skinheads in general and totally opposed Nazi skinheads specifically, and I listen to a fair amount of “Anti-Fascist Oi!” Oi! In general, both fascist and anti-fascist, might bear some resemblance to punk and might be defined by the lyrics (about violence, the working-class, and being a skinhead). The main such band I listen to is The Oppressed.

I listen to a small number of songs by the progressive (largely folk and/or punk) singer-songwriter David Rovics.

In the last 4-5 years I have spent a fair amount of time listening to YouTube playlists of music from the Vietnam era. For some reason I have used that word to find good mix tape playlists of classic rock, including classic rock that I vaguely remember from movies about Vietnam. (I believe that what we did there was wrong and I have evidence from more than just left-wing sources)

Alternative
Rage Against the Machine (the first two albums) Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger and Louder Than Love, and a little bit of some others that I didn’t listen to in High School), Nirvana (all 3 studio albums), Alice in Chains (Dirt and Facelift), Fishbone (Truth and Soul, The Reality of my Surroundings, and Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe), L7 (Smell the Magic, Bricks are Heavy), Faith No More (The Real Thing and Angel Dust from High School, and We Care a Lot in the last several years), Ministry (The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ), and Biohazard (I didn’t listen to  Biohazard until 1993) (Urban Discipline, State of the World Address, and Mata Leao)

I THINK that covers about 99% of the songs and albums that I should mention here.

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The Music of my Enemy

Since late 2008 I have spent probably an hour a day on average listening to Nazi Skinhead music. For multiple reasons, some a little vague, I enjoy listening to the music of my enemy. I stumbled onto it shortly after I first got on YouTube in 2008 and I recognized the name Skrewdriver that I had learned about in 10th grade when researching the racist right for a paper I was writing (primarily about the racist right in this country, but I’m not surprised some of the sources I read mentioned the BRITISH Skrewdriver). Anyway, I liked most of the music (not the lyrics) and just really enjoyed listening to the music of my enemy (yes, I also listen to a small amount of anti-Catholic N. Ireland loyalist music). I also learned a handful of things by studying the lyrics and the imagery in fan-made videos. Crucially, I quickly started to alter the lyrics into anti-fascist poems- in many cases, so that my poems were saying the exact opposite of what the original was saying (when there was a change in topic, there was always at least some conflict between my poems and what the authors of the original lyrics believe (and some times a LOT of conflict- a lot of the N. Ireland poems were based on lyrics by people who supported the British and Unionist causes)). The first poetry post is here.

I wish I could explain in better detail why I enjoy listening to the music of my enemy.

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The High School years- the PMRC and “musical intolerance.”

In 11th grade one of my best friends (James, of Portland, OR) and I did a “‘zine” (a very small and unprofessionally written/edited magaZINE). It was kind of political, kind of creative (well, James’ stuff was creative, my stuff less-so but the ‘zine in general (called The Conformist Monthly) seemed pretty popular with our friends and probably about 10% of the BHS students). One thing I did that I am a little embarrassed about is an essay about what I called “musical intolerance.” Although actually typing that and making copies of an issue that contained it is something I probably shouldn’t have done, I DO believe that most of my peers in High School were close-minded about different kinds of music, and at the time I believed that I was better because I listened to metal, rap, alternative, and punk.

Something I wrote for The Conformist Monthly that I AM proud of was an essay about the Parents Music Resource Center. The PMRC was created in the mid-80s, primarily by Al Gore’s wife Tipper Gore, and Susan Baker, the wife of senior GOP leader James Baker. It was largely supported by the religious right and practically no one to the left of Bill Clinton supported it. It’s been decades since I studied it, but the main thing it did was successfully push for an industry agreement to place “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” stickers on certain albums.

I really am not insensitive to the desires of many parents (probably around 95% of them) to keep young children from listening to songs about sex and drugs and songs which use swear words (I believe there is a spectrum between two situations- one involving children under 13, and one involving young adults who are around 15, and at the latter end of the spectrum I’ll be honest I am not sure if I care about parents wanting to keep their teenage kids away from that kind of content). And these stickers were a problem. In the past, MANY music stores wouldn’t sell those albums. In the past MANY of the artists negatively affected were people of color, and in general, many of the albums targeted contained songs with political messages that were liberal or progressive. This country might have been a better place in the 1990s if those songs had been heard by more people.

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“There Goes The Neighborhood”

(The title of a Body Count song about their presence in the punk and metal genres)

As I near a conclusion, the climax to this is something I want to talk about that is very special to me. That is the intersection of rock (or at least the heavier and/or faster variants of it) and rap (I’ll be honest, I think I’ve always failed to understand that many fans of rap and/or hip-hop define one as corporate and the other as something closer to the street, and I’m just going to use the term “rap”).

I don’t listen to a lot of music made between 1998 and today, so I’m going to focus almost exclusively on stuff from the 1980s and 1990s. Here is I think a complete survey of that topic up until some point in the mid- or late 90s.

1. In 1986 Run-DMC and Aerosmith collaborated on a new version of the latter’s song “Walk This Way.”
2. In 1989 industrial metal band Ministry did a song with a rapper- the song is called “Test” and is a great combination of rap and industrial.
3. In 1991 Anthrax and Public Enemy collaborated on a new version of the latter’s song “Bring Tha Noise.”
4. Shortly after that, Public Enemy and Anthrax went on a national tour together.
5. Ice-T and his musician friends created Body Count in 1990.
6. In 1991, Rage Against The Machine was formed with music that was sort of heavy and/or sort of fast and vocals that would often be labeled “rap.”
7. I am having some difficulty nailing down the details, but in the early and mid-1990s Biohazard, who were more or less a hard-core punk band, did at least two songs with a rapper (Onyx) and, crucially, did music videos for the two songs that involved Onyx that I can remember (one reason this is VERY significant is that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true that Biohazard had, years earlier, toyed with white supremacy as a marketing tactic in NY City’s competitive music scene, and may have done these 4-5 collaborations (including TWO videos) to make up for that).
8. In 1993 the soundtrack for a movie called “Judgement Night” was entirely devoted to collaborations between rockers and rappers.

I could and probably WILL do a lot of research on this topic in the next year or two and write something very substantial, but I have always had very positive political thoughts about this series of collaborations because I THINK they had some potential to positively affect race relations in this country. IF they HAD that potential it wasn’t something permanent, as 35 years later we are struggling to prevent a white supremacist from occupying the White House. I am not sure what is the status today of that potential- I’m not sure I should be making a big deal about the need for such intersections today, especially because there might be plenty in recent years and/or they are having no impact on American race relations.

When thinking about this topic, I wish I had a better grasp of sociology and psychology.

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Some miscellaneous thoughts

1. For about 10-15 years until recently, I took a break from being a fan of Public Enemy, although in hind-sight that didn’t involve changing the “Favorite Music” section of my blogger/blogspot profile page. I have listened over the years to about four albums by PE, all of which were either in the 1980s or the very earliest 90s. On one of them, there’s a song that includes two lines I have always found offensive, but which really got me pissed off about 10-15 years ago. One line is applauding homophobic VIOLENCE and another one implies it’s okay for a man to beat his partner if he takes her on vacation around the world. I am still very offended by those lines, but decided to listen to those albums from High School again).
2. In the early 1990s there was one song by the hard-core punk band Sick of it All that I really liked and which I have always really liked. For some reason I have practically never listened to any other SOIA songs. The one I listen to is called “Just Look Around.” The thing is, in 2001 I was at a party for progressives and one person asked the room what is the most progressive hardcore punk band? Part of me DID know that the correct answer was Fugazi, but because of that one SOIA song I said it was SOIA. The guy who asked the initial question said something about a pirate flag and slapping women. For some bizarre reason I didn’t respond. But if you look at the lyrics you’ll see that something like 2/3 of the lyrics are completely acceptable to progressives. The other third is some slightly questionable lines (i.e. mentioning anti-Semitism among blacks when that might not be helpful (for all I know it IS helpful)) and the very worst of the lyrics in that 1/3 is a reference to the “workingman” when “worker” or “working person” would be a lot better (this might be what the guy at the party was talking about when he suggested I wanted to slap women).

In the official music video, when the lyrics refer to “diseases and modern plagues of our times” they flash the “Silence=Death” symbol of the movement calling for a better national response to the AIDS crisis. I guess it could be a negative statement, but I have always assumed it was a positive statement about that symbol, which would probably also mean that SOIA are anti-homophobic. Lastly, another song on that album seems to be about attacking Reagan over Iran/Contra.
3. I organized my first fund-raising show (it was a VERY small venue) in 1995 to support the Left Hand Bookstore (in Boulder) and the college-years ‘zine that James and I did (it was called Subliminal Prison). The opening band was called Sonnus and I don’t have much to say about them. The other two bands were A) a High School band from the Denver area who were probably influenced by punk, and an amazing band called D-Town Brown. The latter’s music I have difficulty describing. I believe it was possibly influenced by rock (at least one of the 2-3 times I saw them playing a regular show there was moshing and 1-2 band members had earlier been involved with a band that was either thrash/speed-metal or death metal)) but I think it was more influenced by some other stuff (mariachi perhaps? (There were 4-5 members in the band and all but one were Chicano (the last member was black)). Although James and I did a publicity campaign in waves, very few people showed up. Not sure why.
4. The second fundraiser I did Involved Sonnus, D-Town Brown and a punk band called Dead Silence. It was for the Colorado Coalition for Single-Payer (the Canadian health-care system) and I gave Denver CCSP a LOT of flyers to put up in Denver (the venue was in Denver, where I didn’t live) and I don’t think any of those flyers were put up anywhere. I’m not saying I was totally blameless, but I do think that most of the blame was CCSP’s. The only reason that a significant amount of money was raised is that the owner of the venue (The Mercury Cafe) took less money than she usually did in that situation.
5. In high school and college, when I went to a show/concert I would dress in the spirit of taking nonconformity as far as I could. If I was at a Dead Milkmen show, I’d wear a Megadeth shirt, if I was at a Primus concert I would wear a Public Enemy shirt, etc.
6. You might like a post I did about whether or not Slayer is racist.

UPDATE 12/25/24 I unintentionally left out a handful of bands I should have mentioned, but with one of them I feel like I really need to do this update. In 10th grade I started listening to the heavy metal band Ugly Kid Joe, and after about two decades I just recently re-discovered them. I started listening to their EP "As Ugly As They Want To Be" (their first release) and their first full length album "America's Least Wanted" in High School. They describe themselves as neither glam nor thrash and I think that's accurate. In a minute I have something more important to say, but first a little story. In the Summer of 1992 there was a tour with (from top to bottom) Ozzy, Slaughter, and Ugly Kid Joe. I have pretty much never liked Slaughter, but I have always had at least some positive thoughts about Ozzy and in the last several years probably 1% of all the music I listen to is Ozzy. The concert was at an amazing venue called Red Rocks and although it doesn't facilitate moshing (I THINK I remember that right) I'm glad I went to a concert there. But I got lost on the way there, so A) I somehow missed almost all of UKJ's set (I think they may have started early??), and B) after I heard ALL of Slaughter's set I had to leave after about 30 minutes of Ozzy because my Mom didn't know where I was I and I was afraid if I got lost again I'd get home so late she would worry. BUT I GOT TO SEE ALL OF SLAUGHTER'S SET!!!!! (The important part of mentioning UKJ is that on the first full-length album there's a fairly good anti-racist song ("Same Side"). It's not militant, it's not angry, but I think it's pretty cool despite that. As I was typing this and listening more and more to the song, I started asking myself some critical questions about the idea that it's an anti-racist song and then I remembered that the vocalist, Whitfield Crane contributed to a special re-recording of the Motorhead song "Born to Raise Hell" where he and ICE-T did some of the vocals and in the official music video they appear together)

************

Conclusion

Although there was one gap that lasted about 3 years where I listened to very little music, it was a huge part of my life in High School and college and in the last 16 years. I find listening to it very enjoyable and it contributed to the several factors that led me to embrace progressive political values, and it generally makes me feel very good. Although I don’t think I’ll be expanding my interest in music any further (I don’t think I’m going to try bluegrass for example) I am (perhaps too) proud of the fact that I have fairly wide-ranging interests in music.

Most of the time I was typing this up I was listening to a song from the very early 1990s by a band called EMF. It’s called “Unbelievable” and I think it’s sort of a dance song but could also inspire moshing. The song, and to a greater degree the video as well, is very energizing and I got so much done with the multiple writing assignments I gave myself.

Proud Boys and Nazi Skinheads

Some of this is at this point widely-known but one part of it isn’t. After Trump’s endorsement of the Proud Boys (which he has kind of walked back) in the first presidential debate, a lot is known about the Proud Boys. A fair amount of background is available here and here.

They’re militant white supremacists but don’t appear to be skinheads. I had gotten the impression that the skinhead population had declined in recent years but was still surprised that there were reports of Antifa fighting the Proud Boys but nothing about them fighting Nazi skinheads. When I read stuff about Trump coddling the Proud Boys I thought it would be better if he were coddling Nazi skinheads because it would be easier to attack him over that.

I recently read a CNN article which said that they wear Fred Perry shirts. The thing is, skinheads, including Nazi skinheads, wear Fred Perry shirts. There seemed to be some connection between the Proud Boys and Nazi skinheads. When I brought this to the attention of several political friends, one of them (Dave Anderson, a columnist for the Boulder Weekly) responded and provided links to the following two stories:

1) Proud Boys and skinheads: MLS faces an incursion from the far-right.

2) Far-right skinheads join Proud Boys in assaulting protesters in New York City following Gavin McInnes event.

They indicate that there ARE connections between the Proud Boys and Nazi skinheads, something that I don’t think has been mentioned by the mainstream media in America.

Another aspect of this is, when did the GOP start believing that political differences should be settled with violence? In my experience they have believed that for a long time.

In 2005 when the Ward Churchill scandal broke, I went a protest at CU-Boulder in support of him. I was wearing an anti-Columbus shirt and a College Republican said that he loves Columbus. I explained about the genocide on Hispanola (when Columbus was governor of the island that is now made up of Haiti and the Dominican Republic at least 99% of the indigenous population was killed) and he said that when he moved into a new apartment he killed off the indigenous population of spiders. Instead of continuing to be patient and explaining how offensive that was, I called him a motherfucker. He asked if I wanted to fight and speculated that I don't believe fighting solves anything- he said it does solve things. I stood next to him but looked straight ahead silently until he was silent for 1-3 minutes and then I left.

Also, in 2003 right before a big anti-war rally I organized, I bumped into three college republicans who were going around covering up the flyers for the rally with their pro-war flyers. When I confronted them about that, one of them, who I think was Iraqi, said he wanted to beat me up. After a short confrontation we parted company.

Nazis Were and Are on the Right

There are a lot of people who believe that the Nazis were on the Left or that they were half on the Left and half on the Right. This is because the other way to refer to fascists is: “national socialist.” Here are some reasons why the Nazis were much more on the Right than on the Left:

* That Hitler guy was a total ass-hole- NO WAY was he on the Left : ).

(seriously though, here are some reasons)

* I can’t remember exactly what the details were, but Hitler’s regime had a mixed attitude towards capital- some good, some bad (for capital). I believe it was lower taxes on business, but more government intervention (overwhelmingly not for the workers or consumers or for other progressive goals, but for things like the re-arming of Germany). UPDATE 6/18/12 The Nazis also provided some companies with slave and/or conscripted labor.

A: One very good source says that Hjalmar Schacht, "was a staunch defender of capitalism." Although never a member of the Nazi Party, Hitler appointed him head of the Reichsbank in 1933. ++ p. 90

B: Hitler's first economic plan (the Reinhardt Plan) included tax breaks for businesses. ++ p. 91



* They simply got rid of the unions.

* They killed some communists and social-democrats and sent many to concentration camps.

* They elevated race and nation above class and tried to cover up class conflict without doing anything to erase or minimize income inequality.

A: In power the Nazis destroyed the trade-unions on May 2nd 1933. They were replaced by a Nazi employee organization which by the Fall of 1933 included “all working people regardless of economic or social position” including employers. It did two things which were sort of pro-worker: A) they improved some of the conditions that workers labored under- this included things like the playing of music, plants, good lighting, etc.; and B) made it easier for workers to go on relatively cheap vacations or attend concerts, etc.. ++ pp. 96-97
(But, it didn’t do anything to empower workers in labor conflict and did very little or nothing to narrow the financial gap between rich and poor)

* Probably the most important thing is to look at who allowed the Nazis into government. They were centrists and mostly conservatives (i.e. President Paul von Hinderburg). Even after Hitler created a dictatorship, many such politicians continued to be part of Hitler’s government.

* They got a lot of financial support from very successful, mainstream businessmen, especially in the last 2-3 years before they took power.

* A major leader of the Nazi’s left-wing, Otto Strasser left the party in 1930. His brother, Gregor, who had similar beliefs and was also a major leader of the Nazi left, was killed by Hitler’s men in 1934.

*They supported the right-wing side in the Spanish Civil War.

* Today’s neo-Nazis generally place themselves on the Right and in conflict with the left. This is found in the lyrics of Nazi Skinhead bands, and while they occasionally say something anti-capitalist, they much more frequently make anti-communist and anti-Left statements and pro-Right statements. American white supremacists spend much more time trying to work within the GOP than they do trying to work within the Democratic Party.


++ Jackson J. Spielvogel Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History Prentice Hall, 1996


In a blog discussion here another poster named "Ian" added three more facts:

* “They were ferociously anti-gay, imprisoning and killing thousands of gay men.”

* “They reintroduced Christian prayer into schools.”

* “They were anti-abortion, at least when it came to gentile Germans.”


UPDATE 8/9/12 The Southern Poverty Law Center published a good article about this, here.

Anti-Fascist Republicanism: Four New Poems

Here are four more new poems. The first three are based on lyrics I find politically offensive- I explain some more about that here.

The last one is probably my best and probably my last poem about anti-racist skinheads. There are some notes about those poems here that you might want to read.

1. In the Spirit of Connie Green. About Ireland and WWII.
2. Proclamation of the Republic. About the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence.
3. Irish Republican Socialist. Guess what it's about.
4. Frank Ryan Brigade. The anti-racist skinhead poem.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“In the Spirit of Connie Green” based on “European Unity” by Brutal Attack, original lyrics are here.

1. Connie Green was a republican Volunteer killed on active service in 1955. During World War II he was a British commando (he didn’t fight in Spain). It’s more or less sort of about those republicans who fought in Spain (most of the Irish people who fought fascism in Spain's Civil War were republicans) and certainly about those who supported the Allies.
2. At first I had so much trouble trying to alter the original lyrics. Then I got the idea of making it about Ireland and World War II.
3. It’s almost the soundtrack for one of my posts.
4. During WWII internment without charge or trial was used by the Fianna Fail government in Dublin against republicans. The government was very conservative, economically and socially. Republicans had done a lot to get FF into power when it seemed like a left-leaning republican party.
5. The South leaned a bit towards the Allies but were basically neutral.
6. The British Prime Minister, Churchill, tried to get the South to join the Allies, and at one point suggested that in return he would let Ireland be united. There’s some reason to believe he didn’t mean it. I believe that if Ireland HAD joined the Allies, the cause of Irish unity would have had a lot of support internationally after the war, and that might have resulted in Ireland being united even if London tried to renege on the deal.
7. Dev was the informal name for the Irish Prime Minister at the time.
8. “No Pasaran’ is a spanish anti-fascist slogan.
9. **76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
10. I give this poem four out of five stars.
11. UPDATE 7/9/11 I just realized that some of this poem suggests that all anti-fascists want socialism. Obviously that's not true and I might change those lines.
12. UPDATE 3/18/15  I added "and mothers."

You know the South’s been put in the hands of fools,
Mis-using their power, internment their No1 tool.
We're partly to blame for helping them get power
And now they’re neutral, in democracy’s darkest hour

Chorus 1:
Anti-fascist unity,
we want socialism and democracy
Unity of the Irish nation
Europe free from Nazi occupations

Our fathers and mothers fought for the South’s freedom you see,
We’re prepared to fight and die, for Irish Unity
We fought for democracy in Spain
But dev passed up a chance for us to attain...

Chorus 2:
Irish Unity
We want socialism and democracy
“No Pasaran,” that is our stance
In Berlin, Belfast, Spain, or France

Chorus 1

Chorus 2

So listen dev, listen very carefully,
You should take London’s offer and help defeat the Nazis
In return our island will be united
If the Allies stick together, Nazi Germany will be smited

It wont be easy, it'll be a long hard undertaking,
The Nazi german war machine, we’ll be breaking
And we'll win- we have the might, and we know we’re right
So on the eve of Irish unity let us join this important fight

****

“Proclamation of the Republic” based on “New Nation” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Lately I’ve been putting a lot of time, more so than usual, into trying to perfect these poems I do. This one, the last verse is not very impressive to me, but I have spent a lot of time on that and I don’t think I can make it any better.
2. The first verse is about the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. A description of the Rising can be found here. Almost immediately, support for republicans exploded, and in late 1918 Sinn Fein won the vast majority of Irish seats in a general election.
3. I believe that during the period 1916 to about 1922 that acting like there was a 32-county Republic made sense. I believe that changed gradually after the new borders of the South and the North were settled. The Northern statelet had no legitimacy. But I believe that with each election in the South, the Dublin state became more and more legitimate.
4. The reference to a war sort of makes sense with hind-sight- it’s kind of fairly accurate to say that the Easter Rising was the beginning of the War of Independence (“war” was the best option).
5. The 2nd verse is about the War of Independence (or the vast bulk of it, considering what I said in the preceeding note). When the 1916 Easter Rising took place, and until the leaders were executed, there wasn’t much support for the republican militants.
6. The Union Jack is the British flag.
7. Why do I think truth and reconciliation will happen as the British leave? As far as truth is concerned, I think there’s a good chance that will happen, partly because of the reconciliation part of this. Whatever sectarianism is experienced by the Protestant community will be a tiny fraction of what Catholics under British rule in Ireland have experienced for centuries. I offer some evidence for this here. As the Protestant community gradually learns that it has nothing to fear from living in a united, independent Ireland, they’ll probably be more receptive to a description of what Catholics went through. There are some more of my thoughts on sectarian divisions here.
8. The 3rd line of the last verse is about more southerners and more northern nationalists embracing republicanism, which goes beyond a general desire for a United Ireland (which close to all of those people support).
9. **53% of this version is me, 47% is the original.
10. I give this poem three stars out of five.
11. Skrewdriver were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.
12. About the War of Independence, when the IRA had the support of something like 90% of the non-unionist population.
13 UPDATE 2/20/20 In the last line I replaced "as" with "when."

The Tories are thrilled, as our leaders are being killed
The Brits are celebrating, they think they've won the war
They can stop their jeering, 'cos soon we'll be cheering
They think they have beaten us, but we have esprit de corps

(chorus)
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
Now the situation is so tense
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
If you fall, we'll fall in your defense

Our attacks are stunning, now the Brits are running
And people who weren’t on our side, now support the IRA
State money is always available, to pay those with info that’s salable
They may buy some traitors, but we will have our day

Chorus

They think they have won, but one day our time will come
They'll regret their ignorance, their bigotry, and partition
When our people come around, the Union Jacks will be torn down
When British rule fades truth and reconciliation will begin

*******

“Irish Republican Socialist” based on “White National Socialist” by No Remorse, original lyrics can be found here.

1. James Connolly was the greatest socialist/republican in Irish history.
2. A “stoop” is a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. They are the main rival to Sinn Fein (among the nationalist community). I describe why they’re so bad here.
3. The RUC was, between the statelet’s creation and late 2001, the police for N. Ireland.
4. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
5. I give this poem 4 stars out of five.
6. **83% of this version is me, 17% is the original.
7. This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
8. About a socialist republican.
9. No Remorse were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.

I live my life inspired by James Connolly
I pride my self on working-class solidarity
without these things I’d be nothing but a “Stoop”
But I support attacking, the RUC and the Britsh troops

Chorus
Irish Republican Socialst
proud to be and your can be- a
Irish Republican Socialst
Against capital and the RUC

x2

We need to seperate the North from the UK
And scare the bosses with our numbers on the first of May
By whatever means necessary, including the gun
Ireland, north and south should be united as one

chorus

we’re fighting for a 32-county socialist state
won’t stand for any injustice, inequality or any hate
Let’s drive out the British Army and unite our Irish land
We’ll vote out all the Tories and the unions will expand

Chorus

*******

"Frank Ryan Brigade" based on "Belfast Brigade," author unknown, multiple versions, mine is a combination of two I found on the Internet (plus 3 tiny changes I made), and thus there's no URL, the original is below the altered one.

1. The Hammerskins, or the Hammerskin Nation, most of the last 20 years have been America's and the world's leading Nazi skinhead organization.
2. Frank Ryan was an Irish republican leader of the International brigades on the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War. (THERE IS NO SUCH GROUP, I MADE UP THE NAME “FRANK RYAN BRIGADE” FOR A FICTIONAL SHARP CREW)
3. SHARP is SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice. Since the song implies left-wing politics, I should say that I am going to write the SHARP poems as a leftist, even though probably some small majority of anti-racist skinheads are not leftists.
4. Docs refers to Doc Martens, boots that something like 99% of skinheads wear.
5. "No Pasaran" means "They shall not pass" and is an anti-fascist slogan originating with the Spanish Civil War.
6. The Hammerskins started in Dallas, TX.
7. Although in America Nazi skinheads probably have an average of 2 guns each (that's based on anecdotal evidence) and often use them, I get the impression it's much less common for anti-racist skinheads to have or use guns. In any case, it was the best substitute and almost definitely makes sense to some degree.
8. CEO might be a stretch as it implies a large corporation, but there are wealthy people who support white supremacist organizations, and companies outside the Fortune 500 have CEOs, and it's possible a small % of the top people at Fortune 500 corporations give money to White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense and rhymed)
9. Elements of the GOP, including Saul Anuzis (see this) support White Supremacist or at least sort of White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense). (UPDATE 3/1/20 it makes a ton of sense now with Trump)
10. Skinheads indicate their politics or lack thereof with the color of their laces. White always/almost always indicates racism, red in America is often worn by racists, although it is also worn by leftists. Except for a few reports of white being worn by anti-racists, they wear colored laces (I'm pretty sure black is worn almost only by non-political skinheads and by those in the process of joining a racist organization (and occassionally, anti-racists)). So, it makes sense and rhymes.
11. **48% of this version is me, 52% of it is the original.
12. I give this version five out of five stars.
13. SHARPs are partly but far from completely about violence.

The Hammerskins went out to beat the people down
They thought that SHARP was dead in our cities and our towns
But they got a rude awakening, when with fists and with Docs
They met the anti-racists who will fight them block by block

Glory, glory to the working-class
Glory, Glory to those who struggle en masse
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Pasaran" is the war cry, of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Hammerskins came from Dallas, equipped with fascist hate
Men by the hundred, spreading state to state
But when they met the SHARPs they were seriously delayed
By true skinheads of the anti-fascist Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus

We have no guns or backing from the GOP or right-wing CEOs
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're fighting for our democracy and to hell with your fascist state
"No Pasaran" is the war cry of those opposed to hate

Chorus

So come all you gallant young people, and get your colored laces
We’ll strike a blow for freedom, equality, unity of all the races
You know our movement's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the SHARPs of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus


original lyrics:

Craigavon sent the Specials out to shoot the people down
He thought the IRA were dead in dear old Belfast town
But he got a rude awakening, when with rifle and grenade
He met the first battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Glory, glory to old Ireland
Glory, Glory to this island
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Specials came from Holywood, equipped with English guns
Men by the thousand, ammunition by the ton
But when they got to Seaford St. they were seriously delayed
By the fighting 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

We have no armored cars or tenders for to show
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're out for our Republic and to hell with your Orange state
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

So come all you gallant Irish people and join the IRA
To strike a blow for freedom, when there comes our certain day
You know our country's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Skinhead!! SHARP!!

(the title is taken from the title of a YouTube video I found and for some reason I decided that I liked it)

(The intro to this was re-typed and republished in Feb. 2020)

(SHARP is SkinHead Against Racial Prejudice)

As you know, I alter lyrics of songs I listen to and and post them. About half the ones below are based on stuff I politically despise, that's explained here.

There's some extra things I have to explain with this post. First, these are my poems about anti-racist skinheads. At some point I might do a post explaining why I believe them fighting Nazi skinheads is helpful to the anti-racist cause (including making it less likely Nazis will attack innocent people), but the legal stuff with that is iffy (if you want, email me and I'll email that to you). And although I focus in the poems largely on the violence, a lot of what anti-racist skinheads do that decrease the flow of recruits to Nazi skinhead groups is non-violent.

Also, I should point out that a HUGE part of this web-site is aimed at improving our anti-hate work and doing other things that will decrease the flow of recruits to Nazi skinhead organizations (although I haven’t read hardly anything on the web-site of the Southern Poverty Law Center for about 5 years, I get the impression that there may be fewer Nazi SKINHEADS today than there were 5 years ago, but when I first wrote this I had reason to believe they were still a serious part of the problem).

This will be the second post where I include stuff based on N. Ireland loyalist music which I also listen to (three of the poems below are based on it). Although I could point to the fact that I'm Catholic and Irish-American (which partly closes the gap between saying I shouldn't use those songs and saying I can do whatever I want with them), it can't hurt if I also remind people that I've done a lot to fight what that music stands for.

I have a small amount of knowledge about skinheads that is drawn from talking with them, and I have a lot from reading good sources, a lot of common sense, and 100% of what I have written in the notes and lyrics has gone uncritisized by a SHARP I know and an anti-fascist militant I know. The main thing is that I know that SHARPs are helpful to the anti-racist cause, and the odds are pretty good that I got the details about skinheads right.

Lastly, as far as i can tell, only some large minority of anti-racist skins can be considered solidly left-wing or progressive, probably a small majority in America would vote Republican (that's a rough, educated estimate) and many are sort of or very non-political. And probably most are very patriotic. THE POINT is that I'm not trying to give a slightly innacurate impression through my lyrics of the politics of anti-racist skins, but probably a small majority are more or less as left-wing as I am, and the fact is that I'm going to write these songs more or less as a leftist.

Also, some anti-racist skinheads identify as such just so that fewer people will think they're racist. These poems are certainly about those who go beyond that.

Since I originally wrote these poems, I have learned that what this or that color of laces means is even more confused than I thought. In general, white is fash, black is neutral, and non-black colored laces are anti-racist, but there are plenty of exceptions.

I also believe that even though they're skinheads, they're probably in some ways less violent than the Nazis. Fascism celebrates violence. And even though their numbers are small I would still ask, how often do you hear of anti-racist skinheads attacking innocent people? And they are anti-racist skinheads partly because they are worried about the image of skinhead, which I think makes it likely they are less likely to attack innocent people.

Lastly, I should address my frequent references to the working-class. Although there are probably some exceptions, skinheads in general are working-class and even when it’s warped by fascism, they have a strong sense of working-class pride. As far as the anti-racist ones, I’m not saying they’re at the heart of the working-class or represent more than some absolutely tiny percentage of that class or that they will play a central role in defeating fascism (I even wouldn’t be surprised if their numbers are fewer today than they were in the past). But I like to talk about what they are fighting for the way I do in the poems below.

Here and there I say that a "crew" is a skinhead gang. But, with the exception of the Nazis, it doesn't mean what you think.

I'm going to start with the least impressive and end with the most. I'll indicate which are based on racist, republican, loyalist or other stuff.


For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page). The rest of the SHARP poems are found, along with some other poems, here. There are three poems about Ian Stuart Donaldson here. Although it's partly a republican thing about N. Ireland, there is an anti-fascist video I found on YouTube and after I got permission from the person who created it, I uploaded it to my blog. It's pretty funny if you are anti-fascist and even remotely pro-IRA.


"Nazi Scum" based on "S.H.A.R.P. Scum" (RACIST) by Vinland Warriors, original lyrics are here.

1. The original says "back" instead of "black" but it almost sounds like "black" which is hilarious. Also, in 1998 in Las Vegas, two SHARPs (Lin Newborn, 25, and Dan Shersty, 21), were killed by Nazis, one of them was black, so I decided to do the lyrics this way and dedicate the song to the Black anti-racist skinheads.
2. Although I believe people should beat the shit out of them, and I can make an exception for this next part, I actually am more or less against people killing them.
3. There's an argument, that I believe, that the Nazi skinheads are not really skinheads, they usurped the skinhead identity. This is based on the idea that since the skinhead sub-culture was started in connection with Jamaicans, if you're a racist you can't be a skinhead.
**4. 6% of this version is me, 94% is the original.
5. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
6. Like many of my songs, I am writing with someone else voice. That's certainly the case here.
7. Based on some things I've learned, I believe black skinheads probably have some kind of black pride. In a SHARP youtube video, at the beginning, it says "pride without prejudice."

You take our style and our streets
We are skinheads, we're the elites
Get out of our way, we're coming for you
believe me that the talk is true

Chorus:
Nazi scum
You fucking scum
Nazi scum
Your time will come
Nazi scum
You're under attack
Class pride
We're proud to be black

We're gonna put all of you down
We'll put you six feet underground
You're gonna fall one by one
Now pay the price you fucking scum

Chorus

This war has just begun
We're coming for you with loaded guns
I want to put a bullet in your head
Put you in a coffin before you're dead

******

"Jan Kucera" based on "Billy Reid" (REPUBLICAN) author unknown, lyrics are here.

1. Jan Kucera was a Czech SkinHead Against Racial Prejudice killed by Nazis in early 2008. See this. Also, I found two commemoration videos (actually, there's others, but these are my favorites) here, and here (this one shows security camera footage of the incident, might be upsetting).
2. It's not likely the flags all flew at half mast, but they should have, and the best option seemed to be to leave it that way.
3. It's not clear, but I got the impression somewhere that the stabbing was in an apartment building, possibly Jan's. The impression I got was that the Nazis followed the anti-fascists from the pub and attacked again.
**5. 32% of this version is me, 68% is the original (that includes 100% of a new verse, where I twice altered the second-to-last verse of the original).
6. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
7. Bonehead is an anti-racist term for Nazi Skinheads.

I'll sing you a song, of a terrible wrong,
When the flags all flew at half-mast
A man he lay dead, he was killed by boneheads,
And he died because he stood fast

chorus:
And the radio said, a skin was stabbed dead
And he died an antifascist to the last
But they never said why, Jan Kucera had to die
Well he died for the working-class

It happened in 2008, when boneheads full of hate
Set out to start a pub fight
Dumb as the KKK, they thought the SHARPs would run away
But the SHARPs knew they were right

Chorus

Back at his place, returned the Aryan race
And when the fight had begun
His position was dire, but his spirit never tired
His courage was second to no one's

chorus

Allthough the fash had a knife, Jan readily risked his life
His fists flew and they flew and they flew
But the fash stabbed with the blade, and then ran away
And Jan lay dying surrounded by his friends and his crew.

chorus

And when he was dead, all remembered for what he had bled
The casket, 400 friends and family did surround
And the fash still fear him yet, and they'll never forget,
How brave Jan Kucera stood his ground.

Chorus

If you think he was right, come join in the fight,
And help to protect the working-class
For although he is dead, we remember for what he bled
And in our minds his memory will last.

Chorus


******

“Stand Up And Be Counted SHARPs/RASH” based on “Stand Up And Be Counted” (RACIST) by the Klansmen, original lyrics are here.

1. The original is a classic Ku Klux Klan song.
2. SHARP is SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice, RASH is Red and Anarchist SkinHeads.
3. Doc Martens are boots worn by something like 99% of skinheads.
4. Three Arrows is an anti-fascist symbol (that’s what I call it). Braces are suspenders.
5. Bonehead is an anti-racist term for Nazi Skinhead.
**86. 44% of this version is me, 56% is the original.
7. I give this song/poem two stars out of five.
 8. My thoughts about American democracy are here.

Chorus:
Stand up and be counted, help us stop the fash
Stand up and be counted, join the SHARPs or the RASH

We are anti-racists, who love the working-class too
We always can be counted on, when there's a job to do
We serve the working-class day and night, to keep it always free
Proudly wear our Doc Martens, protecting liberty.

Chorus

Survival calls for vigilance the symbols of our scene
Baseball bats and Three arrows, boots and braces, we’re anti-fash machines
Against hate and fascism we fight the fash hand to hand
We must defeat the boneheads to save our democratic land

Chorus

******

This song is based on "Skinhead Boy" by Prussian Blue (RACIST).

Here are some notes:
1) Towards the begginning, even though I'm not a sociologist, I feel comfortable saying that "race" is something we should stand up against.
2) I changed the color of laces from WHITE to BLUE (in my experience, blue stood for anti-racism).
3) "Pride." We know what kind of fucked up pride they mean, but skinheads also have a sense of working-class pride, so in this version it refers to that.

Unfortunately for me (depending on the circumstances in which I sing it) the original was written by two teenage girls who adore nazi skinheads. No matter what version I sing, I'm skipping the chorus for various reasons (the chorus, bearing in mind that "oi!" is a skinhead phrase, is "oi, oi, oi Skinhead boy, you're my oi boy"). Although under certain circumstances I'd be willing to sing the anti-racist version of "Skinhead BOY" (there's two lines I'm comfortable singing, but the chorus, at least the vast majority of the time I imagine singing it for people, it would not be appropriate) below are the anti-racist lyrics for "Skinhead GIRL." (a Chelsea is a skinhead girl haircut) The original lyrics can be found here (they get one line wrong- instead of "come inside give us a view" it should be "comrades like you are so few").

**2% of this version is me, 98% is the original (excluding sex changes).

I give this song/poem four stars out of five.

UPDATE 11/30/09 I'm tempted to change the 3rd and fourth lines to: Skinhead girl, courage unsurpassed/ Standing up proud for the working-class. Let me know what you think in comments or by email.
UPDATE 1/20/20 I just made that change.

"Skinhead Girl"
Skinhead girl, standing fast
Not afraid to kick some ass
Skinhead girl, courage unsurpassed
Standing up proud for the working-class
Skinhead girl, skinhead woman, please stay true to our plan
Skinhead girl, skinhead woman, some day you will save our land
Skinhead girl with the boots and braces
Your boots tied with bright blue laces
Chelsea hair and eyes so blue
Comrades like you are so few
Skinheads are my favorites
They're the real patriots
They have honor, they have pride
They have courage deep inside

****

"Get Out Nazi Boneheads" based "go On Home British Soldiers" (REPUBLICAN) by South Dublin Union (performed by lots of groups), original lyrics are here.

1. Bonehead is an ant-racist term for nazi skinhead.
2. The idea, quite credible, is that the nazis aren't real skinheads and don't understand what it's about. The idea is that the Nazi skinheads are not really skinheads, they usurped the skinhead identity. This is based on the idea that since the skinhead sub-culture was started in connection with Jamaicans, if you're a racist you can't be a skinhead.
3. Although there were explicitly anti-fascist skinheads before this, they got more explicit in 1987 by using the term "SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice."
4. I'm sure they're willing to keep fighting for as long as neccessary, but I decided to go with the original (which says 800). Besides, it gives the rest of the anti-fascist/hate movement incentive to make some progress, we'll only have our skin allies for 22 more years! : )
5. The ARA is anti-racist action, a group aligned with anti-racist skins which the nazis like roughly as much as they like SHARP (in hindsight I'm not sure I really HAD to refer to the ARA, but apparently when I was altering that line ARA worked best; I appologize if the ARA is offended).
6. In 1998 two anti-racist skins were killed by Nazis in Las Vegas, NV. They were Lin Newborn, 25, and Dan Shersty, 21.
7. I imagine that after making some effort to prove they've changed, nazis are welcome to join SHARPs, probably with some exceptions. I've heard of one who became a nazi because his dad was telling him what to do, but then the Klan started telling him what to do, so he became a SHARP.
8. Psychotic might not be the best word for what I was thinking, but makes more sense than "violent."
9. the red, white, and black are the colors of the nazi flag.
**10. 55% of this version is me, 45% is the original.
11. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
12. When I refer to the working-class united, that's not as weird as you might think. I can't remember the details but in a class on African-American history, I learned that sometime in the 1700s in America there were rebellions by the lower classes and that these were very diverse. In response, the upper-classes started talking up white supremacy as a way to divide and weaken the lower classes.

Chorus:
Get out Nazi boneheads, get the fuck out
Have you any fucking idea what Skinhead is all about?
for twenty-two years, we've fought you without fear
and we will fight you for twenty-two more.

If you stay, Nazi boneheads, if you stay
you'll never ever beat us or the ARA
the brothers in 1998, will be the last before we end your hate
so take a tip and join us while you may.

Chorus

skinhead's not fascist, it's not hateful it's not psychotic
It's working-class! and proud we are to be
so fuck your red, white, and black, we want our scene back
we want to see the working-class united once more.

Chorus

Well we're fighting nazi boneheads for the cause
we'll never bow to the fash because
throughout our history, everyone was born to be free
so get out Nazi boneheads leave us be.

Chorus

*****

"Jane Hawkins," based on "Joe Hawkins" (originally non-political skinhead song, now SHARP) by The Oppressed, original lyrics here.

1. To be honest, when I first read the lyrics for the original, I hated it. Mostly because of the anti-hippie stuff. I'm not in love with them, but as a socialist, I figure about half of them are my allies, and skinhead hostility towards hippies is, at best, stupid. And I have reason to believe there has actually been some harrassment-violence towards hippies. But then I watched the video (I think it might be official instead of fan-made), for some reason I can't figure (I'm pretty sure most of the skinheads in the video were non-political; if they're anti-racist, I like it even more), I really liked it, and I certainly like the music, and as far as their anti-fascist/left-wing stuff, I love The Oppressed.
2. I started changing it simply by switching it from male to female- I don't know how I got that idea, but considering the final result, I'm glad I did.
3. Bonehead is an anti-racist term for nazi skinheads.
4. Chelsea is a skinhead girl hair-cut.
5. Roddy Moreno is/was the leader of The Oppressed, and spread the message of SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice from America to Europe, and probably had some affect on the growth of SHARP elsewhere.
6. Suss, I think basically refers to smarts.
7. I left out the third line of the Chorus- "she cares about you" just sounds lame.
8. If there actually was a real Joe Hawkins, that makes it a little awkward, but odds are there wasn't.
**9. 15% of this song is me, 85% is the original (I didn't count sex changes).
10. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.

See her walking down the street
Doctor Martens on her feet
Levi Jeans, Ben Sherman shirt
Nazis fuck with her, they'll get hurt

Chorus:
She's a skinhead, and she cares
Marten boots and Chelsea hair

Walking down on the Brighton pier
Nazi boneheads filled with fear
Crunch of bone as the boot goes in
Jane's so proud to be a skin

Chorus

Roddy Moreno changed her ways
Now she's SHARP, she's her to stay
So if you think you've got the suss
Be a SHARP, be like us

Chorus

She's a Queen, Queen of the skins
What's her name, Jane Hawkins

******

"Skins of the RASH" based on "Men of the UDA" (LOYALIST) by the Thornlie Boys (wouldn't surprise me if the lyrics are originally by someone else, with loyalist and republican stuff the author is often unclear/unknown) (can't find original lyrics on internet, see this)

1. RASH is Red and Anarchist SkinHeads.
2. Orange County CA seems to have more than it's fair share of Nazi skinheads (that sounds wierd, like there should be a more equal distribution- I'd like to see more in Valhalla or Hell (preferabbly Hell, I'm not sure if people who gang up on (likely) weaker people because of bigotry deserve Valhalla (actually, I'm against killing them, for various reasons, and am mostly against permanently injurying them)).
3. I'm not sure if Nazi skinheads (boneheads) are disproportionately found in the former Confederacy, but it seemed like the best substitute.
4. "No Pasaran" is a slogan from the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War, it means "They Shall Not Pass."
5. All/most RASH wear red-laces, although a lot of Nazi skinheads also wear red laces.
6. The original is about the Ulster Defense Association, which has, to one degree or another been connected to British Nazis. So, this song is not one where I have not twisted the original lyrics into the exact opposite of what they were intended, but there is still great conflict between my poem and the original.
**6. 50% of this version is me, 50% is the original.
7. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.

in a dear little country they call America I joined with the skins of the RASH
and I was trained in combat with my comrades to defeat the fucking fash

now we'll go on down into Orange County, we'll go into the Confederacy
to seek out and fight the boneheads, and knock those fash down to their knees

Chorus:
"No Pasaran" is our motto, and this is why we fight the fascist threat
For none shall ever seperate the brothers and sisters of the Proletariat

our members, they're some of the bravest since the 1945 push for Berlin
and that is why they volunteer to join with the red-laced skins

you know they're all over America, and in this anti-fascist war they'll prevail
and when the working-class she calls on them, their courage it never fails

chorus

******

"Three Arrows" based on "Orange Wings" (LOYALIST) (multiple versions, can't find the right one, but a similar version is here)

1. Three arrows is an anti-fascist symbol; I'm certain of that, but besides that I know nothing of this symbol.
2. I wouldn't say they're America's best, non-violent anti-racists are even more important.
3. part "...before it's too late/We're gonna end, this fascist hate" is more or less borrowed from "Nazi Nightmare" by The Oppressed.
4. OC refers to Orange County, CA, where there's a LOT of Nazi skinheads.
5. I don't expect the ANC to endorse American anti-racist skinheads, but I don't think they'll complain about this either (it's clearly referring to the military wing, it's not referring to the organization in government, or the faction that broke off, but the military wing which doesn't even exist anymore).
6. It'd be nice if there were 10,000 anti-racist skinheads in America, there's probably closer to 3,000. Maybe if my arguements in favor of them get out there more, there'll be more.
7. obviously, I mean former Confederacy, although I'm not sure if Nazi skinheads are more common there than in PA or IN for example.
8. Bonehead is an anti-racist term for Nazi skinhead.
9. White laces are worn by Nazi skinheads on their boots (in America, if they're nazis and they wear red laces, that usually means they at least tried to kill someone).
10. I'm certain they don't pass on their boots, but it made the most sense, and rhymed. I'm not sure if Nazi skinheads are the grass-roots, but it's close to accurate.
UPDATE 2/2/11 I just realized that "bats," "Docs," (docs are boots) might have been better. Sometime soon I will look at the rhymes available with those words.

11. The original is about the UDA, a loyalist paramilitary with more or less strong ties to British Nazi organizations, so this is twisted.
**11. 56% of this version is me, 44% is the original.
12. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.

Three arrows, upon my breast
For we are anti-racists, America's best
10,000 of us will fight before it's too late
We're gonna end, this fascist hate

And when we go into the OC
Just like the soldiers of the ANC

10,000 of us will fight before it's too late
We're gonna end, this fascist hate
Three arrows, upon my breast
For we are anti-racists, America's best
10,000 of us will fight before it's too late
We're gonna end, this fascist hate

And when we go, into the Confederacy
The boneheads, will be brought down to their knees
The scum in white laces, we will smash their faces
We are skinheads, of all races

So when we're dead, we're in our graves
No fancy tombstones, shall we crave
Just give our boots, to the new recruits
And they will fight, the racist grass-roots

Three arrows, upon my breast
For we are anti-racists, America's best
10,000 of us will fight before it's too late
We're gonna end, this fascist hate

******

"SHARP" based on "CYC" (LOYALIST) by Rab C., original lyrics are here (this loyalist song is probably the most offensive thing I listen to, the lyrics might be upsetting)

1. The first two lines are almost unchanged and despite the fact that they oddly don't rhyme, they seem to work.
2. Ian Stuart was the world's most famous Nazi skinhead. UPDATE 2/2/11 Saying that they terrorized the entire nation is an exaggeration, but lots of people have been terrorized by Nazis.
3. SHARP is SkinHead Against Racial Prejudice.
4. The ARA is Anti-Racist Action, a group with some connections to anti-racist skinheads, and is mostly/entirely youth, (their website, which has changed sometime recently, used to emphasize the youth aspect of the group) the average age is probably 19 ((I feel odd referring to an actual organization like that and hope they aren't offended, but the original refers to a second group related to the first).
5. Fred Perry and Ben Sherman are kinds of shirts traditionally worn by skinheads.
6. For a while I wasn't sure about this, but it seems like there is a lot of conflict between cops and SHARPs. As I've said elsewhere, I'm sure there is some friendliness here and there between cops and Nazi skinheads, although it's probably not common at all- it sort of makes sense that the Nazis would hide behind the cops.
7. The Connolly Column was the main Irish contribution to the anti-fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, and were something like 50-90% former IRA members. Between that and the fact that the original is about a youth-wing of the UDA (a loyalist paramilitary with more or less strong ties to British Nazis) the lyrics are twisted.
**8. 29% of this version is me, 71% is the original.
9. I give this song/poem five stars out of five.

All told their partners when they got home that
They didn't know where the blood came from
They beat them with bottles and their fists and their feet
And they kicked them up and down the street

'cause they hate Ian Stuart and Nazi organizations
That's what's terrorized the entire nation
All the Nazis were acting like pricks
And the SHARPS beat them with their bats and their kicks

When the cops tried to stop their bus
The union driver said it's nothing to do with us
So on your way, and have a nice day
Up the boys and girls in the ARA

It was the maddest thing that you ever have seen
All the young SHARPs as an anti-racist machine
They beat them good, they beat them insane
They fought like the Connolly Column in Spain

When the cops tried to intervene
They got it too, the best you've ever seen
Nazis ran away and hid behind the cops
Up the young people in the Fred Perry tops

The crowds all cheered as the SHARPS marched by
All the soldiers with their heads held high
They clapped their hands and stamped their feet
Anti-racist fighters are on the street

So please love don't be mad with me
Send my Ben Sherman out for a wee dry-clean
And if the cops are at my door
Tell them I don't live here anymore

One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

The Stars and Bars

(As far as the anti-bigotry part of this blog, I decided at some point early on that I wanted to work around the edges of battling bigotry, offering ideas and information that most people are unaware of but which might help them here and there with anti-bigotry work. So that’s why there are a lot of posts that seem a little weird, including this one)

This is about the left, (what I call) the populist far right, the Confederate Flag, Nazi skinheads, and the Civil War (I actually worked in a very small N. Ireland connection, and could have added one more but decided not to). But first I need to spend 2 paragraphs explaining some relevant things.

UPDATE 2/28/09 I just realized that when I say militia, it might be more appropriate to say Patriot movement.

I do a lot of thinking, and often think about things from my past. There's one thing I've been thinking about that came up in the period 1999-2001 when I was doing left-wing activism (at the time I wasn't doing hardly any N. Ireland activism). The big thing about the Confederate flag and this skinhead woman I'll refer to towards the end I only learned recently, but the rest I basically knew at the time. Unlike 10-15 other times in the last 15 or so years, I don't think my failure to say this stuff at the time involved my brain freezing, I think that after the first time it came up (and I did some research into it at that point), it only came up one other time with the student group I'll refer to, and it was kind of questionable whether or not I should have said anything. There were two other times when it came up and I said something, plus I sent an email to some people, plus one more time it came up and it would have been maybe a little inappropriate for me to say something (this thing where my brain freezes and I don't say stuff I need to probably happened more with me than it does for most people, but it only happened something like 1-10% of the time depending on how you look at it, and I think there's a good chance now that it's gone, since I'm more aware of it).

As you'll see, part of this post is about 9 years too late, but it's probably still relevant, and I like telling stories about my activism, even when it involves me admitting that I was significantly less than 100% (of my organizing abilities) (for the most part I was probably about 50%-75%, depending on how you look at it).On average, my N. Ireland stuff had about 25 people at each event, my non-NI stuff was about 175 on average each event (that figure is ignoring several events I did, for example, in Denver or the dorms) and in some other ways I was often mildly-very successful with my activism) (also, there have been several things which weren't my fault that held me back here and there) (this is all about the period 1994-2004 and in 2003 I organized an event where 1,500 showed up) (I was about 50-100% responsible for about 30 events total during that time, plus about 10 more I was about 25%-50% responsible for).

Anyway, here's the background. In the late 1990s until about early 2001, there was a very large successful student organization at the University of Colorado at Boulder, called WAAKE-UP, World Awareness and Action Koalition of Equal United Progressives. I think the main organizations involved were Stop Hate On Campus (an independent CU-Boulder group), the CU-Boulder Student Environmental Action Coalition, and CU-Boulder Amnesty International (I think I might be missing 1-2 main or semi-main organizations). Although we were a very tiny part of it, my group Students for Justice in N. Ireland, I THINK was officially a member in 1998-1999. In 1999 until the coalition faded, my other group, the CU-Boulder Young Democratic Socialists were a small but not tiny part of it, I went to a few meetings and did some minor stuff. WAAKE-UP was founded by Scott Silber (who was the main figure the first two years), an amazing activist. WAAKE-UP did a LOT of very good work, the information on that wikipedia page seems pretty complete and accurate, although I believe they also did some anti-racist work, and even considered adding a bunch of diversity related demands to their sweatshop campaign but decided not to, probably because the sweatshop campaign was going to be enough work (which it was, it required a huge amount of effort). They probably did some other social justice stuff here and there too.

On April 15th 2000, in connection with the A16 activities worldwide in protest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, WAAKE-UP had a major demonstration. They had me give a 5 minute speech as a rep of YDS-CU and the CO Democratic Socialists of America. Another DSAer told me that at some point a WAAKE-UP member mentioned various groups that were there in support, and mentioned a group called the Tyranny Response Team, the local chapter (well, I think they were mostly from outside Boulder, primarily as far as I can tell, a nearby city called Longmont which is pretty awesome, and overall almost as liberal as Boulder, but I'm not surprised that there would be a TRT chapter there). This other DSAer had heard about them, and what he said prompted me to do some research.

I looked at the national web-site of the TRT, which had links to local chapter web-sites (or different parts of the national web-site, I can't remember). I got the impression that, aside from the web-site, there was no national structure, and if there was, it was VERY decentralized. But if they share a national web-site and a common name, they have to take some small degree of responsibility for what the other groups are doing, and it's safe to assume that the politics of the other groups and the politics of the national web-site were more or less reflected in the local group.

The TRT are more or less in the militia tradition, although probably different from most groups that were militias. At one point, in Longmont they showed up at a pro-gun control meeting (it was not a public event, it was a planning meeting) to videotape and intimidate people. On the web-site, it talked about a TRT chapter in New England, it was almost definitely VT or NH, that was protesting some move towards gay marriage. Another TRT chapter in the South (and you can bet that all the Southern chapters did the same thing) was demonstrating in favor of the Confederate flag, which I'll get back to in a second. I remember other stuff indicating opposition to Affirmative Action.

Although this guy might not have been with the TRT, I wouldn't be surprised if he was. Around 1996 there was a guy who was more or less militia in Boulder whose politics I'd like to describe. One night when I was volunteering at a left-wing bookstore, he came by because he wanted to know what the lefties were saying about some significant curbing of civil liberties at the time. At one point he said that the unions were collaborating with the corporations to force multi-culturalism on America. Another time, at a rally in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, he indicated that he thought supporting Mumia was ridiculous.

More generally, I get the impression that the militia types and this probably goes for the TRT, are more or less capitalist in the sense that they believe strongly in private enterprise and oppose regulation and taxes, and are also anti-union. What attracts some of them to progressives and some progressives to them (there was another time when a leading member of WAAKE-UP indicated she liked TRT)? It's possible the local TRT had some tendencies uncommon for that movement (I heard that one of them had earlier been involved in some progressive movement), but I'm pretty sure it's these two things- anti-globalization, and hostility towards government (at that point, probably somewhere around half of WAAKE-UP would have been anarchists).

Although I didn't say anything to WAAKE-UP directly, and I think I only mentioned their name in connection with this problem once (it's not just WAAKE-UP on the left that flirts/flirted with the less offensive parts of what I call the populist far-right), if it had come up more substantially I would have said something directly to them, even if it was a day late, as it might have been. But in any case, the left should not be working with those organizations. Organizationally (talking with them as individuals is a very good idea), the best approach is isolating them (winning support from people in that community, not giving them legitimacy (through, for example, welcoming them at your events), MAYBE trying to prevent them from holding meetings, etc.). After that, it might be appropriate to smash them organizationally. This could take the form of a law-suit, or getting the police to investigate criminal activities by the group and/or it’s members, or something else similar. (UPDATE 2/4/12 I having been meaning to further develop my thoughts about isolating and smashing, but for now this paragraph is what I believe)

(UPDATE 5/5/10- I just remembered that once (or twice) I DID say something to WAAKE-UP people that was critical of the TRT) (UPDATE 6/30/11 Of course I also recently remembered that the WAAKE-UPer (in response to me) said something even more offensive than his initial comment, and I failed to respond!!!)

So, in general, we shouldn't work with them. But now I want to come back to the Confederate flag, and why the association of the TRT with that flag and support for that flag in general is major problem.

First, I'm okay with it in certain areas- museums, plays/movies/etc. Civil War re-creations, and Civil War battlefields, I'm pretty sure that's it. I'm not okay with it as part of state flags or being flown at state capitols or anything like that, and when people display it at their homes or on their cars, or at rallies in support of it in general, including rallies that are not explicitly white supremacist. The thing is, that flag is drenched in white supremacy and slavery, and I'm not just saying that because the white supremacists have been using it. Although there were other factors with the Civil War, it's no coincidence that the South (and the vast majority of the slave states) broke off after the election of someone who was close to being an abolitionist. Also, towards the end of the war, the Confederacy considered ending slavery because it might improve their odds of winning, since it would affect European opinion in their favor. They decided not to, evidence that preserving slavery was more important to them than being independent of Washington D.C. (UPDATE 7/8/15 There's more about what the Confederacy was really about here)

So that flag is steeped in white supremacy and racism. We also know that, to one degree or another, people who display that flag (with the exceptions that I mentioned above and probably a hand-full of individual cases) are racists.

Here's another reason why it's not a good idea to legitimize the general use of that flag. In the Winter 2007 issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's publication, it talked about a woman who was a Nazi skinhead for about three years until she had a falling out and they almost killed her. The relevant part is where the article explains what led her to become a Nazi skinhead. It seems that very shortly before she became a Nazi skinhead, there was an incident at her school that the article strongly implies contributed to her becoming a Nazi, although clearly she was already mildly racist. Her school was 76% Hispanic and there were Mexican flags all over the place. She placed a Confederate battle flag pin on her back-pack and was reprimanded by school officials. She felt persecuted- all the Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans could display their flag, why couldn't she display the Confederate flag? She'd been given the impression that it was a legitimate symbol, and the article didn't say anything about her parents being racist, so the odds are that to one degree or another she got that idea from people who, to one degree or another, weren't racist. I mean, in the 2000 Republican Primaries John McCain (and probably most of the other candidates) expressed support for the Confederate flag, although he later retracted that. There is probably some small number of people who aren't racist but who support that flag. And in at least one case, it lead to someone becoming a Nazi skinhead- although based on the article, this woman didn't do anything horrible, but at the very least she gave comfort and encouragement to those who did, she probably spread hatred, and she may have recruited people.

I'm not saying Mexico is above criticism, and it's possible that if the Confederacy had lasted hundreds of years like Mexico, the history associated with that flag might have been less than 100% bad (slavery might have ended after a couple generations), but all we have is five years during which the Confederacy fought to (almost) the death (when I said "almost," I was acknowledging that they did surrender, not every rebel solider or sailor fought to the death) to defend slavery, and singled out Black Union troops captured for hanging. The Mexican flag is not at all comparable to the Confederate flag.

The Confederate flag stands for something about 90% as bad as what the Nazi swastika stands for. And no one says that the Swastika is an appropriate symbol for the German people, even though it represents a larger chunk of German history, and on average, things for non-Jewish Germans during those years were probably better than things were for White Southerners during the five years of the Confederacy. But even with those two things, no one argues that the Nazi flag is an appropriate symbol for people to use. That is, overall it would make as much sense to use the Nazi flag as it would to use the Confederate flag- so if people think it's very inappropriate to use the former, why do they think it's so okay to use the latter?

UPDATE 12/10/15 I found an important article (via a link from the blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center) about why so many Americans have a messed up opinion of the Confederacy. It's here. 



Which leads me to the last point I want to make. In about 2002 or 2003, I was at some rally, I think it was anti-war. One speaker said something about how the Civil War was the one good war America fought (I'd add WWII, and to a small degree Yugoslavia in the 90s, maybe the Revolution and I guess the War of 1812, to a small degree the original invasion of Afghanistan (I've believed since about 2003 that we should get out) I'm pretty sure that's about it). Someone in the audience booed. The odds that the person was anywhere near being a White Supremacist are very low. Much more likely he was an idiot. The likelihood is that his opposition to war and/or government is greater than his opposition to slavery and racism. The odds are that slavery was going to continue for at least a couple more generations in the Confederacy if they had been allowed to secede, and it might have possibly continued for a similar amount of time in the Border states that did not secede if the issue hadn't been forced by the Civil War. Early in the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation resulted in what turned out to be permanent freedom for thousands of slaves immediately, with more freed every day as Confederate territory was taken by the Union Army. There was reason to believe that this would happen, based on Lincoln's' attitude towards slavery which went right up to the point of being an abolitionist (without actually being one), and the fact that after the 1860 election, the leader of the Republicans in the House, which had a large Republican majority, was a Radical. In fact, in July 1862, something similar to emancipation was passed by the Congress and signed by Lincoln. Anyway, with hindsight, the Civil War ended slavery and that makes it a good war, although as I often make clear, even "good" wars are still horrible, but some things are worth horrible things.

UPDATE 2/23/09 I found a national web-site for the TRT, odds are it's newer than the one I looked at 9 years ago (I actually found 2, but they seem to be the same group of people). On chapter sites, I found the following links:
1. Free Republic. A very conservative/right-wing web-site.
2. Those Shirts. I provide a link because the shirts are interesting and it provides some idea of the TRT's politics (it's kind of a right-wing version of snorg-tees, and last time I checked, most of their shirts were pretty cool). About Those Shirts:
A: About 1/3 are only mildly-moderately offensive (1/2 aren't offensive, just right-wing), but they indicate politics that the Left should not be working with.
B: The one about the Buerau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is kind of funny, even though I have roughly zero interest in those three things.
C: One shirt contains a quote from Ann Coulter right after 9/11 in which she said,. about Muslims "we should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to christianity."
D: Another shirt says "I'd rather be waterboarding."
E: Another shirt shows 5 days of weather, at the top it says Mecca Weather Forecast. The last day's weather forecast shows a mushroom cloud, and at the bottom it says "Partial Sunnis, Scattered Shiites."
F: Another shirt has a list of slogans for the US military abraod. The first one is "We don't like collateral damage, but it helps to stay the @#$% out of our way."
G: There's a few other shirts with material roughly as offensive as those four.