The close relationship between Crisis and RAR was facilitated by the fact that the punk groups bassist Tony Wakeford was a dues-paying member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Claiming that there is a consensus about British punk rock of the seventies being essentially solid with the anti-racist cause, Sabin sees a punk alliance with the organisations Rock Against Racism (RAR) and the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) as providing the capstone of this myth.

Sabin deflates what he sees as the fable of punk anti-racism by trotting out a few examples of unsavoury lyrics and media sound bites.

While Sabin suggests that some of the bands who played RAR benefits suffered from unconscious racist blind spots (Joy Division, Sham 69, the Art Attacks, and Adam and the Ants), his article would have been more illuminating if hed examined the relationship between musicians who have been accused of expressing racist andor fascist views and SWP front groups as well as the effect (if any) this anti-racist organisation had on the subsequent development of those who supported it.

Since bands with managers were able to appear at RAR events without having any contact with the organisation, I will deal with an example of this type of non-connection before moving onto more complex interactions between punk rockers and Trotskyism.

Edwin Pouncey who fronted the Art Attacks in the late-seventies was horrified to discover that Sabin considered his bands song Arabs In Arrads to be racist: I didnt write the lyrics to that song, they were by our drummer John Haney.

But all our songs were little stories, they werent necessarily written from our point of view.

We certainly never shopped in Harrods, so it didnt bother us who went there.

We played Arabs In Arrads for RAR and no one complained about it.

RAR phoned us up and asked us to play, our manager dealt with them.

He thought it was a good idea to do RAR, we didnt have any problems with them, they paid our manager and he split the money between us.

However, RAR was not averse to putting on bands that could draw a crowd but were considered politically suspect by the music press.

The official RAR publication Temporary Hoarding ran a Lucy Toothpaste interview with Adam and the Ants, a band that Sabin takes to task for their song Puerto Rican.

The feature is accompanied by a picture of the band playing a benefit for RAR on 17 June 1978.

Despite allowing the Ants to play RAR benefits, the organisation nevertheless shows considerable hostility towards them: Adam and the Ants phoned us up to say they wanted to play gigs for Rock Against Racism.

This didnt seem to fit in with the accusations their reviewers are always making that this band have an unhealthy interest in the Nazis.

I mean surely I must be the most anti-Nazi and anti-racist bloke If the National Front ever get in power Ill be kicked out of the country right away.

I wouldnt go around supporting people who wrote songs in favour of Nazism.

But the whole Nazi thing is often treated as though it had a sort of sordid glamour about it, which might appeal to people who are fed up and frustrated and think it sounds more exciting than boring everyday life.

Dont you think that doing songs like these might encourage that DAVE: The blokes I went to school with are all in the National Front now, theyve told me to my face, and Ive been beaten up by the NF, my brother has, because I live in Wood Green and if I thought I was playing in a group that was furthering bringing out their fantasies and making them a reality or sort of helping the National Front, Id leave.

Fucking hell. Theyre just humorous songs, theyre really funny, you can laugh at Nazism in those songs, instead of being frightened (RAR) Dave says the songs make fun of Nazism.

But then Adam lets the cat out of the bag (and it is a tom cat).

Perhaps he finds the concentration camps appalling but you wouldnt know it from the song (DAVE): Im not a politician cos I cant get it together to think the moment I start thinking about politics all these things start coming up, and I wonder how they got there in the first place.

And so the only thing we can do is play these gigs and raise some money for you and support you publicly.

RAR conclusion addressed to the reader rather than the band) So now you know.

Punk Goes Pop 5 Disc 2 Rar