![]() It’s a broad subcultural scene with thriving communities across the United Kingdom, from communists to anarchists, socialists to hunt saboteurs, as well as politically charged punk bands, many of whom express their views through their songs.Įvery major city in the United Kingdom has a punk scene, from Leeds and Liverpool to Bristol and Glasgow, and there are countless major punk festivals, like London based Chimpyfest every September, Manchester Punk Festival in April, and Rebellion Festival in Blackpool in August. Punk is political, it always has been, and punk in 2020 is more politically engaged than ever. As the saying goes: better to squat than rot and DIY than die, because punk’s not dead.” “The greatest hope for peace, anarchy and freedom for future generations lies in these communities more than anything offered by mainstream society. By embodying and acting in a spirit of defiance, autonomy and collective liberation, these communities represent a lived alternative to the smothering suicidal logic of capitalism and the passive subordination of consumerism.” “This not to say that punks should be othered, fossilised, or fetishized, as often happens with ‘pre-civilized’ societies, but instead it should be realised that today’s DIY/punk/squat communities represent the smouldering ember of possibility to save not only the entire fucking world, but the very soul of our species. Before there were concepts such as private property, fashion, consumption, service and capital, all communities ‘squatted’, all practices were ‘DIY’, and all fashion and music were ‘punk’ – even if we would not recognise it in the limited manner that society does today.” ![]() “What we experience today, expressed in terms of the aesthetic and ideology of these groups, predates the current capitalist, authoritarian, consumerist society that is destroying our peoples and our world, and has existed in some form throughout our shared history. “Far from being a new or recent subculture, the DIY/punk/squat communities are the last vestiges of the original culture of all humanity,” says George F, author of Good Times in Dystopia, which chronicles his time spent around punk and anarchist scenes around Europe. Now less about the Sid Vicious’s and Malcom McLaren’s of the world, the punk scene in the United Kingdom is an inclusive, broad community, made up of people with a wide range of experiences who all hold together one of Britain’s most important subcultural communities. Since its inception, the subculture has been sustained by passionate promoters, bands, activists and artists. Despite the newfound absence of people donning leather jackets and mohawks stomping up and down British streets, punk never really died. ![]() Bands like The Clash and The Sex Pistols, who helped put punk on the map, had split up, the shock factor had faded, and other subcultures had become more popular. This political backdrop helped inspire the rise of punk.Īs we reached the millennium, the subculture that had many parents across Britain clutching their pearls, seemed to be over. Her parties dismantling of the United Kingdom’s industrial jobs, such as closing coal mines, along with her attempts to dismantle unions, led to the 1984 miner’s strikes which saw 20,000 miners lose their jobs and left many young working-class people feeling disillusioned with society and politics. According to the Centre for Public Impact, by the time she left power in 1990, her government had privatised 40 UK state-owned businesses that were employing 600,000 workers, and employers like British Telecoms lost more than 100,000 jobs due to privatisation. Her time as Prime Minister was also characterised by privatisation. During the rise of punk, the political climate in England was extremely volatile, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was elected in 1979, presiding over mass unemployment with over three million people out of work by 1983. The punk explosion of the late 70s and early 80s took the United Kingdom by storm, with its alternative fashion styles, loud anarchic music and rebellious attitude, the subculture was adopted by disillusioned youth across Britain. David Pratt looks back at how the scene began, and meets some of the characters keeping it alive. By David Pratt British punk never died, and in 2020 it’s as subversive as ever.
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