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Omnia sunt communia! Support Minor Compositions / Purchasing Books The PDF you are reading is an electronic version of a physical book that can be purchased through booksellers (including online stores), through the normal book supply channels, or Minor Compositions directly. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university or local library purchase a physical printed copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions please contact the publisher: [email protected]. T A HE ESTHETIC O A OF UR NGER Anarcho-Punk, Politics and Music Edited by Mike Dines & Matthew Worley Minor Compositions 2016 The Aesthetic of Our Anger. Anarcho-Punk, Politics and Music Edited by Mike Dines & Matthew Worley ISBN 978-1-57027-318-6 Cover design by Haduhi Szukis Cover image by Savage Pencil Interior design by Margaret Killjoy Released by Minor Compositions 2016 Colchester / New York / Port Watson Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life. Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia www.minorcompositions.info | [email protected] Distributed by Autonomedia PO Box 568 Williamsburgh Station Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.autonomedia.org [email protected] CONTENTS 4WORD: AN.OK4U2@32+1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 George McKay Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Mike Dines A Blue Tomato And A Packet Of Gauloises. . . . . . . . . . 21 David Solomons Big A Little A: The Graphic Language of Anarchy . . . .43 Russ Bestley Rival Tribal Rebel Revel: The Anarcho Punk Movement and Subcultural Internecine Rivalries. . . 67 Ana Raposo The Political Pioneers of Punk: (Just Don’t Mention the F-Word!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Helen Reddington ‘Stop the City showed another possibility’ . . . . . . . . .117 Rich Cross From Protest to Resistance: British anarcho-punk Zines (1980-1984) as Sites of Resistance and Symbols of Defiance . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Matt Grimes Dirty Squatters, Anarchy, Politics, and Smack: A Journey Through Bristol’s Squat Punk Milieu. . . 179 Peter Webb Anarcho-Punk in the Republic of Ireland: The Hope Collective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Michael Mary Murphy ‘They Can Stuff Their Punk Credentials ‘cause it’s Them That Take the Cash.’: 1980s Anarcho-Punk: Ethical Difference and Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Alastair Gordon Let Your Self-Determination Over-Ride Indoctrination: Dick Lucas, Culture Shock, and the Anarcho of the Everyday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Mike Dines More Than Music? Confusions of Musical Style and Political Attitude in Anarcho-Punk From Crass Onwards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Pete Dale The End Result: An Interview with Steve Ignorant. . 287 Matthew Worley The Kids Was Just Crass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299 The Free Association Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors would like to say thanks to the contributors and to all those involved in the Punk Scholars Network. In particular they would like to thank Alastair Gordon, Russ Bestley and Rich Cross, and Vyvy for their additional comments, edits and proofing. Thanks, too, to George McKay, whose 4word makes a worthy contribution, to Steve Ignorant for agreeing to be interviewed, and to Dick Lucas for his interview and insightful views into the anarcho-scene. Throughout, the support offered by Stevphen Shukaitis and Autonomedia has been exemplary; and we are proud to be associated with such an eminent, independent publisher. The editors would also like to thank those of you that made the movement possible, the musicians, artists, writers and activists. Onwards and Upwards! For Sheila Whiteley (1941–2015) George McKay 4WORD AN.OK4U2@32+1984 That first time in Norwich, Crass and Poison Girls were astonishing, not just to me, but to all the punks who knew about the gig and had turned up, the more so because the bands were so casual about it, wandering around the half-empty hall before and after playing, wanting us, waiting for us, to talk to them. They were out front drinking tea – I’d never ever seen bands doing that at the end of a gig before. Music was material to them, and they showed that; the perfor- mance was an object, clearly delineated, which they involved themselves in and then exited. Music hap- pened for a while and then it didn’t happen. The bands extended the performance entirely and indefinitely, to include the pre- and post-show, the setting up of the PA, the draping of flags and banners and subsequent transformation of the hall, Crass in their problemat- ically paramilitary black garb and red armbands, the