Much as the groups in question may detest the phrase “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” might go far in describing Love Music Hate Racism. In exchange for the performances on offer you are expected to turn out and vote for anyone other than BNP. Not to much to ask, for sure, but the sort of groups that care more a bout this much more than anything are perhaps not likely to be typical Tories. This was made pretty clear as the moment the Bethnal Green train station a loyal lady of the SWP handing out fliers proclaiming “Stop the BNP” one the hand sided over and “Vote Left List” upon the other.
That she was a loyal SWP member was an assumption of mine, of course, but a fairly safe one and something quickly concerned when I asked her. She admitted {confessed?} to membership but demurred when I asked “So you’re the SWP then…” Apparently the Left List consisted of a majority of non-SWP but curiously when I asked around none of these elusive Left Listed non-Socialist Workers were in attendance.
Given that they had been instrumental in the organisation the last time around their presence was hardly a surprise, but it was surprisingly heavy but rather forlorn given that they weren’t able to call themselves what they were this time around. Why they didn’t just drop the pretence altogether when it became clear that they weren’t going to be able to pretend to be Respect is beyond me.
Irrespective of my dislike of the party as an edifice, though, the trend of every SWP member I meet being immensely nice and totally approachable held true. After warily asking if I was a member of the Galloway faction of Respect in a rather wary fashion and receiving a response in the negative the guard was dropped and she spoke in earnest about her experience of the Tower Hamlets schism of November last year. According to her it was nearly entirely the fault of Galloway and although there were differences caused by the “Electoralism” {the SWP like their “-isms” a lot} of the Galloway faction but it seemed like the two groups were to be reconciled until Gorgeous George fouled everything up repeatedly. This I could entirely believe given Galloway’s diplomatic skills but her absolution of the CC was a tad suspicious, so far as I was concerned.
She sneered at George’s magnificent bus and claimed that he had lost his activist base. Given that by the time I arrived there was nobody around to represent him she most probably had a point there.
This was especially true as the Respect Coalition was amongst seemingly a handfull of parties not represented: most obviously absent was the BNP. Besides this was UKIP and its splinters, the Conservative Party and the LibDems. The last were the most surprising but perhaps they just didn’t have their act together or their eye on the ball.
Besides them, though…Seemingly nobody.
The left was out in force and bunched up together in all its unshifting diversity and shabby splendour. The sheer quantity of groups contained in so small a space was quite something to behold. Besides the aforementioned Socialist Worker Party there was the easily but not oft confused Socialist Party, International Socialist Resistance, the New York newspaper Militant, Revolution and probably a few others I have forgotten. The former group were out there first though and after getting me to sign a petition I decided to engage in a quick talk with one. I considered RL trolling {the aforementioned SWP by the station had been told “Actually I’m pro-fascist” by a bearded man as I passed by} but decided instead to get into their ideology a little. She seemed very passionate and gave a quick list of people appropriate for the SWP. Apparently this included students, which rather surprised me. It seemed that, upon probing, her definition of someone not of the proletariat covered people who went into the city in suits or worked for banks, which certainly less inclusive than I had imagined. Indeed she went so far as to call me a “Working class man” which I found a very pleasing, as well as certainly a first.
She said that she could not see the two sides of Respect ever being reconciled but seemed happy enough, as they all do. The SWP is nothing if not active and despite the high turn-over it has constantly had people out doing things, even if they are mostly non or counter-productive. They were a heavy presence throughout the day, having three tents and a balloon inside the festival proper and numerous stalls in the socialist walkway.
I did my best to speak to all the socialist groups around, all of them offering me a newspaper. ISR I sort of forgot about but Militant was being offered by an elderly man who I found quite charming. For the sake of clarity it should be explained that this was not the Militant who attempted to take over the Labour Party from the inside during Thatcher’s reign, which also had a newspaper called Militant which it used to defend itself from claims of entrism using with the line “Militant? That’s not a faction, it’s an in-party newspaper”, but instead the version which began in New York in the late 1920s and has been published internationally since, with a short intermission in the 1950s when British Stalinists stamped down on all their rivals. This I learnt from the chap selling the things, who was reluctant to describe his ideology, or the paper’s, initially but then said that although some would call them “Communists” he deemed the terms “Marxist” and “Socialist, revolutionary socialist” to be more appropriate. He was opposed to the Stalinites, especially since the aforementioned shut-down performed by a bunch of thugs following their brutal master’s lead. They were also opposed to Maoism although were very much in favour of the Chinese Revolution. The rather strange disconnect between the event and what directly followed was rather curious, but barely distinguishable from the standard Marxist stance on the Russian Revolution. Apparently the paper took a firmly internationalist stance {utterly appropriate for any Marxist group, I would argue} and was connected with a group that operated in support of the remaining Communist countries, such as Cuba. They seemed harmless enough and it was quite impressive that their organ had been running for so long, perhaps having been bolstered by the true “Crisis in capitalism” that followed.
Perhaps that also served as an admission of failure: after making so little headway in creating an American revolution after so long and having witnessed various crises encountered and overcome by capitalism perhaps it should have become clear to the publishers that they were making an error somewhere.
Perhaps that is being unkind, however, they had at least turned up which was more than could be said for George Galloway’s Respect Party. This left two groups that I had an interest in: Revolution and the Socialist Party. Unfortunately I opted for the latter first and thus got swept away to a meeting in the opposite direction to the former. This was an exceptional pity, especially given a rumour that Fenby had told me. The exchange I had planned would run as follows:
Me: I hear from reliable sources that you have orgies. Is this true?
Revolution: Yes. Yes we do.
Me: That’s my sort of socialism, where do I sign?
Instead though I approached the SP, who were packing up shop and heading off for an informal gathering of those interested in the anti-fascist struggle. Or at least that’s how they’d put it. The Socialist Party seem to define themselves in contrast to the SWP, who they dislike considerably. I found that, as is often the case, getting along with this bunch was less a matter of agreeing with everything they said and more a matter of insulting the right people. Jibes about the SWP, honed by reading the blogs from the rest of the Left who are entirely united in their loathing, went down very well and it was considered impressive that I’d read the blog of A Very Public Sociologist. I was packed off to the meeting with a woman named Naomi, who apparently shared my interest in observing far-right groups and was amused at the forum infiltration I staged earlier this year.
We walked across the park and it was revealed that the Socialist Party were in fact Militant renamed and operating autonomously after its failure to ascend to the Labour Party’s head. They clearly considered this a pity and deemed it a consequence of Labour lacking “Internal democracy”. When asked if they were Trotskyites she confessed as much, something which made the clear and obvious division between them and the SWP even more curious. The reason was for suitably esoteric causes, with the Worker Party apparently doing it wrong when it came to Trotsky. They lacked internal democracy, much like Labour, used the term “State capitalism” that the SP consider a contradiction in terms and use method that the Socialists deem ineffective. They also thought that their methods against the BNP {“Smash the BNP” petitions and so on} were ineffectual since they weren’t working with the masses enough. They weren’t keen on Antifa’s approach towards taking on the BNP either, since they focused upon the actions of their own group instead of getting the public involved.
Their approach was more focused around getting people to oppose the far-right to get whistles and arrange themselves to outnumber and scare away the hard-right activist. It struck me as a rather absurd prospect, especially when she told me about how they had had what can only be described as a BNP-drill, but apparently it proved effective and they had managed to get their city head quarters shut down, which rather reminded me of Scientology’s retreat from the efforts of Anonymous in part of Germany. A lot less lulz, though.
The Trotsky connection was interesting, though. Apparently there was even a third Trotskyite party, which I forget the acronym of. They of course felt that only they were pursuing matters in the correct fashion, with their international focus and their masses-focused approach and superior democracy. I still found it rather strange, though, that even those following the same ideological off-shoot of an ideology which is hardly popular as it is could not develop some form of unity. There is presently no comparable party on the left to the British National Party, despite the conditions. At present there is a discontent with the extent of the wealth of a tiny minority in Britain that is far from confined to the usual suspects, indeed it has even spread beyond nationals such as The Independent and stirred the pages of The Times and Daily Mail. This combined with the continuing mess of the Iraq War, a “Crisis within capitalism”, union action and an international trend towards socialism and the left that has touched everywhere from America to Cyprus {although sadly missing Italy} the conditions in Britain are ripe for a strong socialist party to emerge. As it is the largest and most promising party has torn itself into two in a fashion that would have made the National Front wince and the remnants are now squabbling amongst themselves.
Perhaps aware of this but doubtless having felt this way for a while longer the Socialist Party, probably knowing that it isn’t really up to the job, advocates the creation of a “New worker’s party” that includes the unions and can act as an alternative to Labour, which is a goal it shares with various other elements upon the left. The odds of this occurring are minimal and almost certainly doomed to failure while FPTP remains in place. Some may see this as as fine a defence of the system as any but personally I find it a bit of a pity.
The socialist, incidentally, was also from Tower Hamlets; which seems to be something of a Vatican City for leftists. Her take on the Respect affair was not favourable to the SWP, as I’d expected, and her recollection was that the CC’s role in the split had been far more active than SWP activist #1 had claimed.
The meeting was an informal affair that consisted of two SP-ers talking about the BNP and their efforts against it. It seems that in response to LMHR the BNP were organising an effort, reminiscent to the “Rock Against Communism” drive undertaken by Blood & Honour in reaction to RAR, which the Socialists dubbed “Love Music Love Racism”. They intended to picket the event, although were limited in terms of options owing to the event occurring upon private farmland owned by a BNP member. After this they opened the floor to any questions or points, with everything feeling friendly and democratic, all as it should be.
As a supreme irony while this was ongoing Lindsey Graham took to the stage, visible clearly across the field over the vast screens. Her rhetorical style was a lot more harsh and abrasive but she clearly mattered about defeating the BNP, which was enough, really.
Meanwhile the softly spoken Socialists had a blonde man making a point, starting immediately be quoting Trotsky. The point was pretty simple: for every 10 people the fascists put out on the streets there should be 100 communists, if they put 100 out then 1000 communists should present. This piece of Trotsky-tech was met with approval but personally I found the tactic put the entire affair in a new light. I knew that the original Rock Against Racism had been organised by the SWP, at least partially, along with the unions {as was LMHR} but had no idea that this was following explicitly the suggestion of the influential communist revolutionary. Although I doubted many in Victoria Park were aware of this either they had certainly been counted.
The dependence upon the words of wisdom provided by Bolsheviks seemed considerable, though: much of the activity pursued by the Socialist Party was dependent upon it and even though they claimed that their efforts to make it relevant and in context was superior to “Some other socialist groups” {a weak code for “The SWP”} this I found rather peculiar. Not exactly a breach of the authority fallacy but still rather too close for my comfort. It also triggered a recollection of Scientology again, in this instance their dependence upon “LRH” {socialists like acronyms about as much as Scientologists} and his “Tech” for every activity and method. Still, the Socialists of either party seemed a nice enough bunch and frankly the risk of them actually beginning a revolution is about as great as that of them forming a government.
My suggestion for them was something inspired by the aforementioned infiltration: they’d raised the point of the BNP seeking respectability and I suggested that getting a look of the inside, footage and photos, would assist their efforts to unveil this. They were wary of the idea as it would require a volunteer. I certainly wasn’t prepared to shave my head.
After this a Labour member suggested that the party’s opposition to his was not unfounded but rather excessive. They agreed that there were many Labour Party members who pleased them but that the party’s lack of democracy made their presence futile. Their stance on the Greens was more favourable but, like the SWP, said that they should have had a “Class basis” for their party. This raised my other concern with entire affair: woeful liberal that I am I deem people as entirely undefinable by the category which they “Belong” to. This is not the case with these socialists, perhaps mainly due to them all being some form of Marxist. Their opposition to racism seems to be mainly based around the ideological argument that people ought to be defined not by their racial identity but their position in society and wealth. To me this seems to be barely anything of an improvement, and not only because I fear some of the revolutionaries might disagree with SWP lady #2 concerning which class I belong to. If the opposition was purely to bigotry then all would be splendid but as it was it seems that many of the forces arranged against the BNP, especially those organising this affair, were instead suggesting simply switching one prejudice for another.
The unease I felt with the entire affair was compounded by the rather alarmist proclamation of “Don’t vote Nazi” flashing across the screen. Given that we were attending an event named “Love Music Hate Racism” I doubted that most of us would be inclined to vote for the BNP anyway and fear that simply proclaiming them to be national socialists would help. As it happens the BNP does seem to be headed by a surprisingly great number of Nazis, or at least admirers of that grim regime. This obviously indicates them as utterly unsuitable for power {not least because they allege nationalism while harbouring fondness for an expansionist government that intended to make Britain a Germany colony} but it does not reflect upon their membership, which is increasingly growing convinced that the claims are unfounded slurs.
But it is, perhaps, possible to worry too much about politics, especially given that the event is largely one for music and that was what almost everyone was there for. Bearing this in mind I took my leave of the Socialists and went off to enjoy myself.
The stages were divided between the main stage, other stage and dance tent, all of which were devoid of sponsorship thanks to the unions. Unfortunately the planning was a mess since the programs failed to tell you which stage between other and the tent bands were playing in, let along when.
So I’m afraid that I can’t identify one of the bands I saw, although I shall call them The Same because they were utterly indistinguishable from every other identikit indie outfit out there, although I shall forgive them for they had a song which I enjoyed immensely.
I moved on to the dance tent, which featured a massive queue but proven worth it thanks to having Skream and Benga on the decks. It’s strange to consider that since the original RAR, that was filled with roots reggae {rightly castigated by Julie Burchill for rampant homophobia} the amount of black music created has been truly immense. Hip-hop, drum&bass, dubstep and bassline are just the ones I enjoy. For all of these genres it was not exclusively
black artists involved, simply a disproportionate number. Much of the audience are white, however. This leads to youth culture effectively being antithetical to
Skream and Benga are perhaps the epitome of the difficulty the far-right encounter: although both operative as producing DJs in their own right they were today upon the stage together. Skream is a white who with his shaved head could probably pass as a skinny skin. Benga is black and packs a mean ‘fro. Together they make a potent partnership, producing a brutal, murky dubstep wash of depth and rumbling intensity. The heavy noise kept the crowd grinding to the fierce grooves and together they worked to create a vigorous assembly of snaking beats.
Dubstep keeps the bass heavy throughout and beats vicious, although moving at a blazing crawl. This resulted in a swaying, shuffling dance motion from people who were perhaps still a bit uncertain of how to reaction to it, despite giving a hollering response to the strongest tunes. Not being too up on my Dubstep I didn’t recognise much besides the most notorious tunes but in many instances the sound was immediately enjoyable.
They were joined for the last few tracks in the mix by an MC, who filled the gap of the left by the entirely instrumental tracks that they created. This is a common trait of Dubstep {besides Burial} but besides the darkness, beat structure/focus and speed it is nearly the only one. It still very much feels like a genre defining its identity, although the unmistakably joy-inducing melancholy mood is never shifting, and this results in its creators having a type of liberty and license not open to many.
They closed with the aforementioned Burial’s Archangel, a strong contender for the finest single DubStep track ever created, although irksomely quiet and bass-devoid as they were being “Get off-stage” hints for over-running. This was nothing compared to the treatment of who was to follow.
The reaction to hearing that we were to receive a d&b work-out was exuberant, and that it was to be delivered by DJ Hype received even greater joy. To give you some impression of his skill I need only say that while attending the night where Fabric was taken over by Pendulum and filled up with their selected acts their own set was one I missed the {lengthy} DJ section of since I was too stunned by Hype to realise that they were on. This is unremarkable but the interesting thing was I didn’t feel like it was a massive pity.
Easily one of the most respected figures on the d&b scene Hype is not a flamboyant performer, which only serves to emphasise the skills that serves as a solid foundation for his reputation. The shift in mood was palpable and it was highly striking to observe the shift from firm and rocking dance moves to the all out rapid raving that suited the swift break-beats blasted out. The genres are similar in tones but the delivery of the older is far more thrilling on its own level. That one being total absorption into motion. The rippling sub and only occasionally relenting beats of Hype drove the crowd into a thrashing mass, assisting along the process by a strong MC who led the call&response chant of “When I say DJ, you say Hype” that follow the jockey wherever he goes and generally contributed to the crowd’s mood.
A master at his craft Hype often triggered moments where the collective assembled before him staggered reeling from his offensives during lulls and then surged forwards in total rapture, self seeming to fade as the mass leapt ecstatically and the beats struck fast and firm. In-between these motions there was dance-moshing and shoving of a scale and ferocity certainly not seen during the Dubstep display.
Hype continued to work his craft until suddenly the show was abruptly ended. It seemed that the crowd had packed the tent far too lightly and none other than the police had demanded the music cease. There were furtive discussions between the organisers and the MC and Hype, an immensely long pause occurring before finally the MC proclaimed that we would receive more so long as we all took a step back, especially those around the tent flaps. There was a distinct failure to do so, although many within the tent retreated none around it left, so after a few more requests of the same the MC lapsed into silence.
I was not departing until the set was through but the pause dragged onwards, with Hype himself finally taking the mic to explain “It’s not me, it’s them. I’ve got 2 hours lined up.” After another stretch of purgatory most inside the tent had gotten bored and wondered off elsewhere. Only a dedicated cluster remained and finally the MC returned with a beam of “Four minutes” and Hype honouring us with an exclusive set. The screen behind him had ran out of animation to display and gone blank but this was a matter of no consequence.
The crowd’s devotion was total and the tunes superb. After what felt like considerably more than four minutes the show was finally brought to a joyful close and we quickly filed out as the tent was disassembled. Damon Albarn’s new band The Good The Bad and The Queen were playing upon the mainstage, including Paul Simonon who was perhaps the only performer present when the entire affair began. Unfortunately I was rather distracted by the sight of a brightly coloured figure from across the other side of the park. I had a woeful suspicion over who this could be and pelted across the green to find myself sadly correct: Patrick Wolf was just finishing the last lines of Magic Position when I arrived, proclaiming “Love Music, Fuck Racism!” exuberantly as the fiddles struck to a halt.
Irked at Hype again being too skillful and enjoyable for my own satisfaction I headed back to TGTB&TQ. They introduced a horn section while I bought a cornetto, with Albarn once against proving his musical polymath abilities.While they performed rappers joined them and spoke before finally a man I believed might have been from The Specials played us his own arrangement of Ghost Town, which was performed by an urban singer who took far to long to get on with it. This closed the festival and the talented compare urged those of us legally capable into the polling booths on May 1st.
And then it was done, a horde of assorted but mostly young anti-racists heading off through the park and then through Hackney, a mixture of all races {it reminded me of the Underage festival that had occurred in the same green, only adding inner city blacks and asians to the white indie kids} merging and mingling.
Whether the downfall that befell the National Front soon after RAR will be repeated by the BNP after LMHR remains to be seen.
Just as long as we can stop them clawing a foothold now there’s a strong chance they’ll tear themselves apart. Much like their predecessors {or the Republicans, for that matter} only momentum holds them together. We have a strong chance now, perhaps our last. And by “we” I mean everyone, really. Anyone who feels that they are distinguishable instead of defined by their race. You could even vote English Democrats or UKIP and fend off the true threat.
Given that they are dependent upon a tiny turn-out to win any power at all and feed their delusions of representing the “Silent Majority” of Britains a park filled with their opponents gave me hope. They’ve changed their name and to some extent their targets but what’s within remains the same. “As long as our own cadres appreciate the full implications of our struggle there is no need for us to do anything to give the public cause for concern”, said Nick Griffin. So it’s up to us. “We must at all times present them with an image of moderate respectfulness”. But we aren’t fooled, we can tear that open. We’ll beat the bastards yet, just like we did last time around.