Matthew Worley

Shot By Both Sides: Punk, Politics and the End of ‘Consensus’

This article examines the ways in which political organisations of the far left and far right responded to punk-informed youth culture in Britain during the late 1970s. It examines how both tried to understand punk within their own ideological framework, particularly in relation to the perceived socio-economic and political crises of the late 1970s, before then endeavouring to appropriate—or use—punk for their own ends. Ultimately, however, the article suggests that while punk may indeed be seen as a cultural response to the breakdown of what some have described as the post-war ‘consensus’ in the 1970s, the far left and far rights focus on cultural expression cut across the basic foundations on which they had been built. Consequently, neither left nor right proved able to provide an effective political conduit through which the disaffections expressed by punk could be channelled.

Oswald Mosley and the New Party

Introduction: Failures: The New Party in History Here are the Young Men: The New Party in Context From Reform to Revolution: New Party Policy Visions of the Near Future: New Party Ideology A Party of a New Type? New Party Organisation London Calling: Journeys Through and Around the New Party Going into Battle: The New Party and Public Politics Outside the Gate: Alternative Routes to Power Leaders of Men: Masculinity and the Promise of a New Life Hurrah for the Greyshirts: The New Party and Fascism Conclusion: a Life of Contradiction: Mosley and the New Party Endnotes Bibliography Index

Towards a comparative history of Communism: the British and German Communist parties to 1933

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 inspired the formation of communist parties across the world. These, in turn, affiliated to the Communist International founded by the Bolsheviks in 1919, through which the national parties adopted a uniform organization, policy and theory. This article seeks to survey the development of the German and British communist parties between 1918 and 1933, examining the extent to which their experiences can be compared and contrasted within the increasingly uniform paradigm established by the Communist International under pressure from Stalins Soviet Union. By so doing, it rejects traditional monocausal arguments based exclusively on the machinations of Soviet power politics, suggesting instead that to understand the history of communism both nationally and internationally, it is necessary to consider a complex interaction of indigenous and external factors.

Marx–Lenin–Rotten–Strummer: British Marxism and youth culture in the 1970s

Abstract This article uses the debate on youth culture that took place in the pages of Marxism Today (1973–75) to explore the ways by which cultural changes and identity politics began to challenge, complement and redefine the British left. The debate revealed much about the tensions that ultimately pulled the Communist Party of Great Britain apart. But it also uncovered faultlines that had ramifications for the left more generally and, perhaps, the wider British polity.

Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End of ‘Consensus’ in Post-War Britain

Modern British historians have rarely shown much interest in questions of youth, youth culture or popular music.1 Though it would be over-stating matters to suggest that young people have been writ...

‘Does it threaten the status quo?’ Elite responses to British punk, 1976–1978

The emergence of punk in Britain (1976-78) is recalled and documented as a moment of rebellion, one in which youth culture was seen to challenge accepted values and forms of behaviour, and to set in motion a new kind of cultural politics. In this article we do two things. First, we ask how far punk’s challenge extended. Did it penetrate those political, cultural and social elites against which it set itself? And second, we reflect on the problem of recovering the history and politics of moments such as punk, and on the value of archives to such exercises in recuperation. In pursuit of both tasks, we make use of a wide range of historical sources, relying on these rather than on retrospective oral or autobiographical accounts. We set our findings against the narratives offered both by subcultural and mainstream histories of punk. We show how punk’s impact on elites can be detected in the rhetoric of the popular media, and in aspects of the practice of local government and the police. Its impact on other elites (e.g. central government or the monarchy) is much harder to discern. These insights are important both for enriching our understanding of the political significance of punk and for how we approach the historical record left by popular music.

Introduction: Making a Difference by Making a Noise

Youth Culture and Social Change maps out new ways to historicise two overlapping political responses to economic and social change: public unrest and popular culture. Throughout the 1980s young people took to the streets, whether in formal marches organised by trade unions, political groups like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) or Reclaim the Night, or in spontaneous, collective outbursts of disorder. Wherever young people were present in forms of protest there, too, was music. The riots of the 1980s have their own soundtrack that has formed part of the collective memory of the decade. People rocked against racism, sexism, ‘the bomb’ and the fragmentation of working-class communities. The popular music charts recognised the voices of protest in singers like Pauline Black, Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Morrissey and Paul Weller, whose songs of resistance gained both commercial and critical success.

Youth Culture and Social Change

This book brings together historians, sociologists and social scientists to examine aspects of youth culture. The book’s themes are riots, music and gangs, connecting spectacular expression of youthful disaffection with everyday practices. By so doing, Youth Culture and Social Change maps out new ways of historicizing responses to economic and social change: public unrest and popular culture.

'I Wanna See Some History': Recent Writing on British Punk

Tucked away on the b-side of the Sex Pistols’ third single, ‘Pretty Vacant’ (1977), is a cover version of The Stooges’ ‘No Fun’. The song had long been a staple of the Pistols’ live set; on record, however, Johnny Rotten chose to open the track with a diatribe against those attempting to imbue the punk culture he helped instigate with broader socio-economic, cultural or political implications. ‘Here we go now’, he snarled, ‘a sociology lecture, with a bit of psychology, a bit of neurology, a bit of fuckology’.

Introduction: communist youth, communist generations: a reappraisal

Organisations of youth […] which openly declare that they are still learning, that their main task is to train party workers for the socialist parties […] must be given every assistance. We must be patient with their faults and strive to correct them gradually, mainly by persuasion, and not by fighting them. The middle-aged and the aged often do not know how to approach the youth, for the youth must of necessity advance to socialism in a different way, by other paths, in other forms, in other circumstances than their fathers. 1