Music on the picket line

Music and protest go hand in hand. Throughout history music has rallied protesters. Lyrics and tunes have been used to bring people together to enact change, to emphasise political issues and the will of collectives. In Britain there is a long legacy of this, and protest music has been made on all sides of the political spectrum.

Protest music takes many forms, in some cases parodying or taking on the tune of a pre-existing song, in others original music is written along with the lyrics.

After a period of die back in the circulation of protest music in the New Labour years, described by some artists as resulting from a wider culture of apathy, protest songs have been on the rise again in the last decade. Grime has emerged as a key genre to convey political messages to wide audiences in a new form.

In 1988, British rock band Chumbawamba released an album called English Rebel Songs 1381-1984, it begins with the track ‘The Cutty Wren’ a folk song that some historians have cited as being written during the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. Our Subversive Voice, a project exploring the creation and circulation of English protest music, curates 750 songs onto an online database. The earliest song they interrogate is from 1603. Come all you Farmers out of the Countrey was a socially conservative song complaining that a new law (to knight all men with an income of over £40 for James I coronation) was bringing about a degradation of honour and the existing social order. Also in the 17th century, but with very di erent intent, the Levllers movement utilised a ballad The Diggers’ Song to call people to rally with them on the issue of land right as they called for an extension of su rage and equality before the law.

In more recent history, the Thatcher years saw an expansion in the popularity of protest music in a range of forms, from post punk rock to ska. As a Prime Minister many songs were directed at Thatcher as a political figure and many more protested the impact of her policies on di erent communities. Some who were particular forthright were The Red Wedge, a group of musicians and artists who toured the UK in outspoken defiance of Thatcherism, with the aim of electing a labour government. The North East of England, was an area that su ered great unemployment during this period and protest music both about and from the area emerged. The Angelic Upstarts a punk rock band formed in South Shields refers to the closing of Consett Steel Works’ closing in 1980 in thier lyrics ‘Those Consett men had their pride, and thier jobs of steel, Now they stand in the dole queue with their hands outstretched. Yes thats the way to kill a town.’ Protest music cannot be defined uniquely by songs calling out particular figures or policies. The 1970s Rock Against Racism movement protested wider cultures of hate. It aimed to disempower fascist bigotry and institutional racism. A carnival event that they held in April 1978 saw a crowd of 100,000 anti-fascists march from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park, seven miles through an area seen as a stronghold for the National Front.

Many of the issues that protest songs have platformed have not been solved. Institutional racism, income inequality, and lack of opportunity are contemporary issues in the UK in 2023. When The Jam’s Paul Weller was asked why he was no longer writing political songs in 2015 he stated ‘I would just write exactly the same fucking things I wrote thirtyodd years ago’. The parallels that can be drawn to today’s Britain demonstrating the longevity of issues make protest music of the past all

1. Ghost Town – The Specials

2. Town Called Malice – The Jam

3. Fuck these Fuckin Fascists – The Muslims

4. To Have and to Have Not – Billy Bragg

5. Streets of London - Ralph McTell the more powerful. Present day issues aren’t purely represented by older music, British rap and Grime scenes have developed nuanced political and social commentary on the 21st century.

Striking, as a form of protest, is not immune to the culture of protest music. Picket lines are often be punctuated with chants and songs. I spoke to strikers and their supporters on Durham’s University and College Union (UCU) picket lines about their thoughts on protest music.

The UCU voted in favour of strike action this term, announcing eighteen days across February and March. The dispute is over pay, working conditions, and pensions; university sta across the UK have seen pay fall by 25% since 2010, pensions cut by 35% and face growing job insecurity. I asked strikers at the picket lines by Elvet Riverside and the Science site about how music comes into strike action at Durham University. A classic chant used by the UCU is:

‘Education is a right, is a right, is a right – not a privilege’ to the tune of London Bridges. Durham’s academics have not been limited to chanting and exisiting protest song, they have previously written their own lyrics. Three years ago, they wrote a version of Bobby Shafto with lyrics about Stuart Corbridge (the university’s

music@palatinate.org.uk vice chancellor at the time) singing this as they stormed the Palatine Centre.

The strikers described a moving rendition of Bread and Roses by Sol Gamsu the Durham Branch Leader of the UCU as promoting a strong collective feeling last year. This year, however, the strikers at the Science Site picket described the music being played as ‘ice rink music’, listening to a lot of 70s disco to stay warm on the picket line in the cold winter months! An inflatable dinosaur keeping moral high performing the macarena. Dolly Parton’s 9-5 received a resounding reception and the more socialist minded strikers have been known to play a bit of Billy Bragg! Two members of sta stated that they have musical talent as violinists but, that the cold weather conditions prevented them from bringing their instruments to the picket line.

At Elvet Riverside, the atmosphere on the picket line was equally passionate and steadfast. Despite this, there was no music to accompany or raise the collective feeling. The strikers stated that last year there had been a singular beautiful operatic solo rendition of a protest song before the security let the strikers know that the police would be called over from the station across the road to break up the singing. They have chosen not to play music or sing on their picket this year.

I asked the strikers for the titles of songs that they feel have depicted their feelings on the picket this year, I have collated these into a playlist that can be accessed through the QR code below. The sixth song, was described by one of the strikers as holding particualr resonance to her with the lyric: ‘Lets give our teaachers so much more to do, Then we’ll sit back and force them to strike for their pay, ‘Cos tomorrow will follow today.’

Music that the strikers described as defning the mood in this term’s UCU strikes:

She explained that she had seen it live last year, requesting it in concert as she was on the picket then too.

From my conversations with the UCU strikers, it did not sem like protest music is a key tactic in their e orts this year. Most of their stories about the power of song came from previous years’ strike action. The UCU strikers seemed to be standing firm despite this, the songs they chose to describe their feelings on the picket showed their true spirit even if they were not playing them aloud.

With the cost-of-living crisis raging on and the wealth gap ever expanding (thinktank The New Economics Foundation estimates that by 2024 43% of households in the UK will lack the resources to put food on the table), 1980s protest music articulating an anger at establishment politics and economic structures still sing true while British rap develops new narratives.

It should be noted that protest music is not always a force for good and can be used to promote bigoted ideas, the far right and white power movements have their own track record with protest song. The government are placing increasing limits on rights surrounding protest with ‘noisiness’ receiving attention in new provisions. Last month, Ciaran Thapar wrote about his role as an expert witness in British courts and his concern with the trend of UK rap and drill lyrics being relied upon to convict people (mainly young black men). These developments are deeply concerning.

Protest songs have the power to impassion a collective, give voice to the oppressed, convey a political message coherently and (sometimes) beautifully. I have also included a track list of protest songs that move and invigorate me:

Ghost Town, a haunting ska track by The Specials from 1981, makes a strong statement about youth unemployment and lacking opportunities. The Jam’s Town Called Mallace from 1982 has been described as a ‘class-war tirade set to a post-punk northern soul groove.’ Fuck these Fuckin Facists by The Muslims from 2021 is a cathartic, punky indie track. Billy Bragg, widely described as the exception to the rule of the protest singers of the eighties having no more to say in the new millenium, gets your heart racing with To Have and To Have Not Listening to the Streets of London by Ralph McTell brought about my love of folk music, it is beautiful, political, and devastating.