Rubika Shah’s documentary explores Rock Against Racism, which united punk, ska, reggae and new wave against the National Front in the 1970s
An excellent brief documentary about a heroic grassroots political movement whose importance reveals itself more clearly in retrospect with every year that passes.
In late 1970s
Britain, fascists and racists were gaining ground and members of the nervously silent political establishment were showing themselves the heirs of Neville Chamberlain and Paul von Hindenburg. A photographer and underground theatre activist called Red Saunders realised something had to be done. He co-founded Rock Against
racism to mount demonstrations and concerts against the far-right National Front and it was the great achievement of RAR to help to bring together the forces of punk, ska, reggae and the new wave – whose fanbases might otherwise be indifferent to each other – to present a united front to counter and mock the ugly bigots. This film confronts some uncomfortable truths: it wasn’t simply a matter of harnessing the innate progressive liberalism of pop
music against prejudice.