Image from the documentary 'White Riot', by Rubikah Shah / SYD SHELTON (MODERN FILMS) SYD SHELTON (MODERN FILMS)
“Normal people can do things.
You can change them. "
The phrase comes from the mouth of Red Saunders, photographer, activist and founder of Rock Against The Racism, the popular movement created in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a result of the rise of the far-right party National Front (National Front in English) and the attacks that immigrants suffered on the British streets.
Spoken with conviction and resounding, Saunders's phrase sounds solemn in one of the final moments of the documentary
White Riot,
directed by Rubika Shah and which was released in the past In-Edit.
Still available on the new
online
platform
of the best Spanish music documentary festival,
White Riot
delves into a cultural movement that demonstrated the political responsiveness of British punk in its heyday.
It was the mid-1970s when the extreme right was gaining ground in a UK plunged into a deep economic and social crisis.
The National Front, a fascist party founded in 1967, benefited from discontent and reached the peak of its popularity with a racist and xenophobic discourse.
In 1974, in full swing, it promoted as a cornerstone of its political program the mandatory repatriation of all "non-whites" or immigrants "of color."
As can be seen in
White Riot
with valuable archival footage, British society lived in a continuous state of alert sponsored by the conservative media.
The right-wing press carried covers charging immigrants with headlines such as: "They besiege us."
The populism of the National Front took advantage of the situation to hold public rallies where they launched slogans against "all those who have brown, black or yellow faces."
White supremacism, a direct inheritance from the British colonial legacy, was the order of the day.
Rock Against The Racism, supported by the Anti Nazi League, emerged as a response to the extreme right.
Although, as Red Saunders tells in the documentary, there was a straw that broke the camel's back and led them to take action with a concert.
That drop was seeing a British rock star like Eric Clapton publicly support former Conservative Minister Enoch Powell, known for his
Rivers of Blood
speech
, warning of waves of immigrants from former British colonies like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, but also the Caribbean.
Clapton told the crowd that the country had become "overpopulated" and that they should vote for Powell to prevent Britain from becoming "a black colony."
Then he repeatedly shouted the National Front slogan "
Keep Britain White
."
White Riot
brings out this little-remembered Clapton position.
British punk not only attacked the British guitarist for representing a psychedelic and outdated rock past of the previous decade, but also - and above all - for his political stance.
As Saunders, who was part of alternative theater groups with other members of the Rock Against Racism movement, says: “Really?
The greatest colonialist in British music saying this! "
Saunders sent a letter to
NME
magazine
claiming they were "disgusting" comments of the kind that covered himself with a version of Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff'.
He also asked people to help form Rock Against Racism.
They received hundreds of responses.
Rock Against Racism proclaimed the black roots of British music.
Punk claimed its direct thread with the primitivism of rock'n'roll, with Chuck Berry, Little Richard or Bo Diddley.
Also with its communicating vessels with reggae, put into orbit by Bob Marley himself.
In
White Riot you
can see Gang of Four, The Clash, Sham 69, Steel Pulse, Buzzock or Tom Robinson Band, but formations like The Specials, Burning Spear, The Mekons or 999 could also be added. They all had ideology.
They all faced the extreme right with songs.
As they improvised organizing in different cities or neighborhoods in London, punks and activists turned to Rock Against Racism's call for a rally in Trafalgar Square in 1978. Amid tight security and recent tensions, it seemed doomed, but ended up being a success: it brought together 80,000 people.
The culmination was an open-air concert in Victoria Park with Steel Pulse, Tom Robinson Band and X-Ray Spex.
And with The Clash closing the concert singing their song 'Whiot Riot' with Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69, authors of the anthem 'If the Kids Are United'.
Starting in 1980, the extreme right began to lose steam.
White Riot is
also seen as a document that explains the present. As the British historian Tony Judt said in
On the Forgotten 20th Century
, "the recent past may be with us for a few more years." History, rather than repeating itself, seems to never completely end. Populism and the far right are part of that past that still accompanies us in Europe, including the United Kingdom, weighed down by the historic
Brexit
. However, there are important differences: punk is now a vague memory and music does not have the same countercultural responsiveness. And The Clash are dissolved forever.