The birth of Rock against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League – a 🧵
Eric Clapton performs drunk at the Birmingham Odeon - 5 August 1976
He singled out ‘fucking wogs’ and ‘fucking pakis ‘ - “I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country,” Clapton declared.
#Defiance
Red Saunders (on the right) gives this reply to Eric Clapton:
“Come on Eric, own up. Half your music is black. You’re rock music’s biggest colonist. You’re a good musician but where would you be without the blues and R&B? Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you.”
Soon after – Rock against Racism is born, bringing together black and white bands like The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Steel Pulse, The Specials, Misty in Roots, X-Ray Spex, Tom Robinson and others.
The following year, the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) is launched.
One of the original Chairman of the ANL, Nottingham Forest Manager, Brian Clough:
‘When you tread in something on the street you don’t talk to it, you scrape it off your shoe. Nazism is just as much a disease as cholera and leprosy and it must be treated to stop it spreading.
Clough went on:
‘I believe the Front must be removed from the life of this country and I will play my part in whatever way I can.’
“Anybody who doesn’t know what the Nazis did to our world with their poisonous philosophy should be forced to visit Auschwitz or Belsen.’
The Anti-Nazi League managed to create a broad-based mass campaign, not seen since the 1930s, bringing blacks and whites together to stand up to the fascist threat.
However, in 1978 there were further racist murders, this time in the East End of London.
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