Includes Q&A with Rick Blackman and Debbie Golt (Resonance FM) Manchester ROCK against racism 1976-81
White Riot
Rock Against Racism: A fascinating documentary about the heroic, grassroots political movement, featuring Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Poly Styrene, Tom Robinson, Topper Headon, and Pauline Black.
Director: Rubika Shah
Cast includes: Joe Strummer, Poly Styrene, Paul Simonon, Tom Robinson, Topper Headon, Pauline Black and Many more
Hosted by Printed Matter bookshop
80 Mins / 2019 / UK
*Please read our important information about our Covid-19 safety precautions before visiting.*
Rock Against Racism (RAR) was formed in 1976, prompted by 'music's biggest colonialist' Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. White Riot blends fresh interviews with queasy archive footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation's youth, RAR’s multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. As founder Red Saunders explains: 'We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika'.
The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978's huge antifascist carnival in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and of course The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR's message to the masses. — London Film Festival
"Three times in the last 60 years musical movements have played a vital role in confronting the rise of fascist organisations in Britain - The Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship in the 1950s, Rock Against Racism in the late 1970s and Love Music Hate Racism in the first two decades of the 21st century. This book is a tribute to those three musical movements and the musicians, activists and youth subcultures that surrounded them, and an in-depth study of the rise of modern fascist movements and the political strategies needed to defeat them" - Rick Blackman, author of Babylon's Burning: Music, Subcultures and Anti-Fascism in Britain 1958-2020.
Join us for a Q&A after the film with author Rick Blackman and Debbie Golt (Resonance FM) Manchester, Rock Against Racism 1976-81.
All tickets £9.
Event hosted by Printed Matter Bookshop, Hastings.
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