12 THE PLANT
Punk Rock, Anarchy, and How They Relate to Each Other A sub-cultural history paper SANAD HAMDOUNA Staff Writer
A lot of people have heard the word “punk” or “punk rock” but not many are familiar with the subculture, or its origins. Punk is a musical, politically charged, grassroots movement that emerged in the mid-1970s. According to Jon Savage, a scholar of the Punk movement, Punk mainly originated in the UK and North-East America as a partially cultural response to the happy-go-lucky attitude of mainstream and hippie culture in comparison to the political and social issues of the time. The movement was additionally said to rekindle the teenage rebellion rock and roll culture of the 50’s. The Cambridge dictionary defines Punk in a more mainstream way: “a culture popular among young people, especially in the late 1970s, involving opposition to authority expressed through shocking behaviour, clothes, and hair, and fast loud music”. Although punk rock was born from garage bands in New York’s trash culture and underground rock movement, the popularization of this cultural phenomenon was initiated in the UK by one of the best known punk bands, the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols were loud, violent, crass, and in their own words “nasty little bastards”, something unheard of for bands in the UK at the time. Their crass and “in your face” lyrics expressed anarchist themes such as anti-consumerism and anti-establishment. In the short time they were active, they became a source of inspiration for many alternative rock musicians and had a significant influence on the development of punk aesthetics. The rock music scene was never the same after their shocking appearances. Anarchy (in both the literal and political sense) has always been an important theme in punk music and culture. Anyone even a little bit familiar with the subculture knows that the symbol of the circled A is inescapable. But what this letter really represents can be unclear since Anarchism is
ever-evolving and unfortunately often misrepresented. A very general and to the point definition of Anarchism supplied by Dr. Andreas Wittel, a professor at Nottingham Trent University, is that it is a political ideology and school of thought that bases itself in the belief in a horizontal organization of society. This means that it opposes any long-standing and/or unjustified hierarchies. It’s an organization of society that has been ever-present during the course of human history but has become a minority belief and adapted to our modern times as a practice of resistance within the system.
It is a political ideology and school of thought that bases itself in the belief in a horizontal organization of society. There are 8 main types of anarchism but the one that seems to be most present in punk is Insurrectionary Anarchism. According to Anarchy 101, this form of Anarchism opposes any formal organizing (such as NGOs and political parties) and instead supports small, group based, and informal organization. Insurrectionary Anarchism completely refuses to negotiate with class enemies and instead goes straight for the attack. This is the strain of anarchism that’s the most obvious within punk, even though there are many subsets of the punk subculture that align better with different strains. Two things that all anarchist schools of thought have in common are anti-establishment and anti-consumerism values. The Oxford English Dictionary defines these concepts as the following. To hold anti-establishment values is to be opposed to the established beliefs of society when it comes to things such as social principles, politics, and economics. To hold anti-consumerist values, is to be opposed to the constant purchasing and consuming of material goods by our society. Punk culture shows clear align-
ment with all of these values. Opposition to strict social principles is expressed most strikingly through fashion and attitude while opposition to mainstream politics and economics is clear in the upholding of far left beliefs and values. Similarly, opposition to consumerism is seen through alternative supply chains and the strong DIY (do it yourself) ethic. Punk music tends to have very explicitly political lyrics, the following well known punk songs are only two of many that portray this quite clearly. This first song is called “1312” by an American-Mexican punk band called The Casualties. The name of the song itself is already very political and anti-establishment since “1312” stands for “ACAB”, meaning “All Cops Are Bastards”. To drill this message in harder, the song starts with a chant of ten “1312, ACAB”, immediately followed up by lines about corruption and police brutality related to racism. The chorus is more “1312, ACAB”, and the verses after that are as anarchist and insurrectionary as it gets, with a barely concealed call to violence against the police in: “We’ve had enough Let’s get together Let’s show them what’s up.” The song continues with similar messaging, including 4 Spanish verses, and ends with ten more chants of “1312, ACAB” with a loud “1312” at the very end to deeply emphasize the anti-establishment values. This next song is called “No, your product” (or “know your product” depending on where you look), by an Australian punk band called The Saints. The song starts in quite a mellow way, with the first few verses being the singer telling a story about listening to an advertisement for cigarettes on the radio. The chorus comes on as a reply to the advertisement, “cheap advertising, you’re lying”, a direct criticism of the dishonest advertising culture and a big part of consumerism in general. The chorus then continues, and the third verse of the chorus begins “I said, smooth talking, brainwashing” this verse clearly refers to the crushing hold