Keep On Keepin' On
Jeez but nostalgia is raising its head, cobweb shrouded and smelling faintly of boiled sweets, this week. Last time it was Ted Grant and now someone is putting out a Redskins tribute album. Vinyl only which is nice, except not so easy to rip to MP3 and somewhat tricky for those whose 'record players' haven't been used for some years. I guess it also restricts the target market to 30something lefties like me as we are the last generation still to own 'record players', superstar DJ's excepted.
The Redskins were public schoolboys from Surrey, who got involved in a tiny Maoist (or Hoxhaist, leftist trainspotter opinion is divided) group who ran around buying landrovers for Ethiopia. Unsurprisingly they left this bunch for the Socialist Workers Party, moved to Yorkshire and started speaking with Northern accents, bless 'em. In case I sound negative, I loved the 'skins at the time and saw them live a couple of times. Had all their stuff, including the fantastic CNT records compilation containing unionize/lean on me.
In 1984 my family were heavily involved in the miners strike and at the tender age of 15 the 'skins had a big effect on me, as did Billy Bragg. It is easy to forget that the 80's were a time of social upheaval in Britain, an intensely political time. Today's media would have you believe it was all red braces, enormous mobile phones and 'the hitman and her'. History being written by the victor.
Anyway, props to Bazza in Middlesborough for the comp and the website.
And speaking of the SWP..
Formations for the Next Left by Mike Marqusee, looks at the future for the English left.
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