In 1988, Joe Strummer embarked on a tour across Britain called ‘Rock Against the Rich’.

The tour was endorsed and organised by the anarchist group, Class War. Ian Bone, former leading member of Class War, has published this on the history of the tour.

..”Remember, in the late ‘80s, rock had zero street credibility – hip hop and sound system bass ruled the streets of the inner cities. The music may have changed, but the politics of the street remained the same: Class conflict, with a varying intensity of class warfare, raged the length and breadth of Britain. Strummer recognised this, and saw in the Class War people he met, the passionate intensity that he lacked and needed. He tried to use the media’s fixation with Class War to re-launch his career with a radical edge. And to a degree it worked well for him…”

Amongst a collection of newspapers and journals that I recently obtained, I found a copy of Class War that featured Joe Strummer and the Rock Against the Rich tour.

A scan of the paper can be found here.

I also found this on YouTube which is a recording from the tour: https://www.youtube.com/embed/UqoKwtRCS9I?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

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Published by hatfulofhistory

Australian-British academic interested in history, politics and criminal justice issues, with a little pop culture on the side. View all posts by hatfulofhistory