How an ambitious project inspired youths of the 1980s to take up political causes.
'There was a terrible element of despair in large sections of Britain and especially the young because the post-war consensus had been torn up and trashed by the Thatcher regime' (Daniel Rachel, 2017).
The 1980s is often depicted as a fun decade in terms of popular culture, but politically it was one of the most divisive and revolutionary. Margaret Thatcher's Government had rejected one-nation Conservatism and instead embraced the cult of the free market, sink or swim. The effect was particularly noticeable for the young — the political establishment did not appear to speak to their lived experiences of unemployment, sub-standard housing, racism, sexism and lack of social justice. The Government promoted so-called Victorian values and introduced socially conservative measures such as banning the 'promotion' of homosexuality through the notorious Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1986.
This left many young people feeling disengaged from politics and politicians. The post-war consensus was about building a society that cared about its citizens, including encouraging a mixed economy with full employment; establishing the Welfare State to help the unemployed, disabled and elderly; to support the National Health Service (NHS). This was all to be systematically dismantled by Thatcher's Government, which by March 1981 helped to make her the most unpopular prime minister since the Second World War. But after the 1982 Falklands War, her popularity soared and she seemed indestructible.
Animal rights (anti-fur, anti-vivisection and vegetarianism) became a hot issue
There was plenty of political activity at the time, though. The anti-apartheid movement spurred on by the injustices in South Africa; USA interference in Nicaragua; the so-called second Cold War, with USA President Ronald Reagan promoting the development of space weapons (the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or 'Star Wars' as it became known), which had helped to encourage membership of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
A new TV channel, Channel 4, started broadcasting in 1982 and included the types of programmes people just had not seen before, including 'The Animals Film'. This graphically portrayed 'mankind's degradation, exploitation, and often pointless torture, of the creatures who share our planet … Proves, beyond contradiction, that this behaviour is not just random or personal but part of our organised society, with drug companies, government departments, scientists, military authorities, factory farmers, university research laboratories, for their own selfish ends, for profit in money or prestige' (from 'The Animals Film booklet', Alan Brien, 2008). Animal rights (anti-fur, anti-vivisection and vegetarianism) became a hot issue.
In 1986 a huge CND march snaked through London. I was there with my husband, sister, mum and dad (an ex-Royal Navy officer and Second World War veteran). In Trafalgar Square, the historian and peace campaigner E P Thomson addressed the gathering and urged us to 'feel your own strength!' Annajoy David, a teenage CND spokesperson also made a moving plea to us all to reject the immorality of nuclear weapons and the sheer madness of the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).
To some, the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 was a political education. Billy Bragg has said that it gave him an alternative view of how Britain worked against certain sections of the population: '… we were part of a long tradition of struggle in which the people won their rights from a ruling class that opposed them all the way' (from 'The progressive patriot', Billy Bragg, 2007). To those similarly-minded it almost felt like a personal vendetta by Thatcher. As they saw it, Prime Minister Edward Heath had been defeated by a previous miners' strike and the Tory Party wanted revenge. Thatcher's Government stopped benefits for families whose 'breadwinner' was on strike.
But support for the miners was buoyant and widespread, with regular food collections, fundraising gigs and rallies. Even Wham! did some benefit gigs. Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners held a fundraising concert and also helped to change attitudes: one National Union of Mineworkers official said: ' … now 140,000 miners know that there are other causes and other problems. We know about blacks, and gays and nuclear disarmament, and will never be the same.'
Around the same time, the Greater London Council (GLC) was seen as a thorn in the Conservative Government's side since Labour's Ken Livingstone became leader. The GLC sponsored lots of free gigs and rallies to support LGBT and BAME communities and helped promote a sense of solidarity. The GLC building, right opposite the Palace of Westminster across the Thames, prominently displayed a sign showing the inexorable rise in the numbers of unemployed.
Thatcher's response was to abolish the GLC. This action was deemed by Labour MP Tony Banks as 'brimful of prejudice and utterly vindictive' (from Hansard, 27 March 1986).
It galvanised left-wing activists. Following in the footsteps of music and political activism like Rock Against Racism (RAR) in the 1970s and Live Aid in 1984, Red Wedge was formed by Billy Bragg and Paul Weller. Weller had heard Annajoy David talking on LBC radio about her work with CND and invited her to join them. Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock welcomed the movement with open arms and allied Red Wedge with the Labour Party's 'Jobs and Industry' tour, highlighting youth unemployment, training opportunities and urging young people to vote.
Red Wedge's main aim was to get young people simply to think about politics in their own lives
The participants are too numerous to mention here, but as well as Paul Weller and Billy Bragg, there was Lloyd Cole (& the Commotions), Richard Coles, Sarah Jane Morris and Jimmy Somerville (Communards/Bronski Beat), Tom Robinson, Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet), Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Kirsty McColl, Suggs (Madness), Glen Gregory (Heaven 17) and Bananarama on various legs of the touring schedule.
While linking themselves to the Labour Party, with an office at the party's Walworth Road HQ, Red Wedge's main aim was to get young people simply to think about politics in their own lives and to use their vote. One leaflet stated: 'Check out all the major political parties and see what they're offering. Then make up your own mind'. There was information about how to register to vote. Gigs and other events were attended by Labour politicians, who talked to anyone who wished to have a chat.
Their publication, 'Well Red', featured interviews not only with musicians, but also politicians, community activists and trade unionists. Phill Jupitus, who had acted as compere on the music tour and also performed as Porky the Poet on the comedy tour, volunteered in the office and recalled the Wedge people were at first seen as a frivolity by Labour Party staffers, an attitude which soon changed.
Trade unions such as NUPE (National Union of Public Employees) and the GMB (General, Municipal and Boilermakers) also got involved, and helped with funding and venues. The slightly anarchic, creative types mingling with office-based organisers was described as 'like herding cats', but as Tom Watson said: 'Red Wedge was a movement. It wasn't an organisation.'
Red Wedge toured extensively, bank-rolled by Paul Weller who was the only one making enough money to do this. They did not confine themselves to larger venues, but played local community halls, divvying up the gigs between a pool of artists. Musicians with a local connection teamed up with local politicians, youth workers and activists. These local events gave them direct contact with 'ordinary' people — unemployed youth, striking miners — and acted as a counter to pop music as consumerism.
For many of the Wedge musicians this resonated: they saw their music as art, not a commodity, part of a long tradition of art as subversion and part of the counter-culture. In Edinburgh, they performed at the Playhouse, and the 'Wester Hailes Sentinel' devoted three pages to their visit, interviewing Paul Weller, Jimmy Somerville, Billy Bragg, Junior Giscombe and others. As the editorial put it: 'There were many different events but they all had one common aim: to raise the political awareness of youth by demonstrating the links between pop, politics and the issues that affect young people'. The Style Council drummer, 19-year-old Steve White, claimed: 'Music has found within itself the power to move people in more ways than just to the next hairdresser'.
Wester Hailes was then a deprived area of Edinburgh with high unemployment and crumbling infrastructure, but with a vibrant local community. When a General Election was called in 1987, the Red Wedge comedy group started touring, which included a gig at the Wester Hailes Education Centre.
As well as producing copies of 'Well Red', the Wedge movement published their manifesto that year: 'Move on Up: a socialist vision of the future'.
From a distance of over 30 years, the Red Wedge project may look naïve and a bit naff. But the feeling at the time was that although you might not be able to influence the Government of the day, then at least music made you feel there was a voice of opposition. Alternative comedy, similarly, was consoling — 'every joke is a tiny revolution' as George Orwell said — because there were people out there, who also rejected racism and sexism and were hungry for change. Ultimately, though, alternative comedians found the constraints of the political left too much for their necessarily anarchic style.
Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party won the General Election in 1987. Some said that perhaps the whole Red Wedge movement ultimately failed because it was mainly speaking to the converted. And was self-interest the real motivation?
'The new breed came tumbling out of polytechnics with a Red Wedge sticker in one hand and a burning sense of injustice — not towards the overnment but towards the fact that they hadn't got their own Channel 4 series yet' (from 'Beyond comparison', Bryan Boyd, 2002). However, there was a 7 per cent swing to Labour among 18- to 24-year-olds in that election year, and Red Wedge's main aims had been to engage young people with politics and encourage them to vote. But although continuing its work with the Labour Party and trade unions, the 'Wedge' failed to build on this success, winding up the collective in 1990. Up to then, they continued on a smaller scale, supporting various local initiatives and performing support gigs, such as the 'Night for the NHS'.
But there was disillusionment: music was changing. Rave culture, which perhaps didn't lend itself so well to political activism (one Red Wedge member called it 'mindless psychedelic clubbing'), was starting to enter the mainstream. By 1997, when young Prime Minister Tony Blair staged the 'Cool Britannia' stunt (drinks and mutual back-slapping at 10 Downing Street), it was regarded with cynicism — were rock stars part of the establishment now?
I'm not writing off Red Wedge — they had some success, albeit limited. But they were the first musicians to do more than play support gigs for individual causes. They had allied themselves with a major political party. And although the political right may have had the electoral advantage, the left helped shape social consciousness in its attempts to reject racism and re-embrace notions of post-war social justice.
Today political choices are wider than ever and the platforms (social media) are vastly bigger, making opportunities for gatherings of like minds much greater. The mainly youthful Momentum movement has helped Labour to become the largest political party in Europe, with over half a million members. In echoes of Red Wedge, Paul Weller played a gig in Brighton in 2016 to support Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Stormzy was at the forefront of a movement of Grime artists encouraging young people to register to vote using the hashtag '#grime4Corbyn'.
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg has inspired young people to take action through the hugely popular school strikes and is supported by musicians and other 'celebrities'.
The vote was extended to 16- to 17-year-olds in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and there is a push to extend this to Wales and then UK-wide. Watch this space.
