IT is that time of year again, and for many groups across Britain (and the world) musical summer schools are running, sharing wonderful music together and making a hell of a noise. The Workers’ Music Association (WMA) is no exception and now we finally get to enjoy the 75th edition of the summer school, one strange upside of the pandemic being that we get to celebrate the summer school twice!

The summer school was founded to bolster the various activities the WMA was doing shortly following World War II. These other activities included journal publications, an LP subscription scheme, score publications (including songs for Morning Star stalls), and supporting the various socialist choirs. However, over time, due to costs, people power, and a variety of other factors the summer school went from strength to strength and outlasted some of the other elements of work. 

When you are reading this, we’ll be getting stuck into the variety of activities, making new friends, and simply having a go at lots of other musical things. The courses are varied, and currently run by a collection of talented volunteers, many of whom making up the backbone of the WMA today. As a big anniversary, the 75th is a chance to reflect on the past of the summer school. 

Though the WMA is a socialist organisation, and was founded by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (including Alan Bush and Rutland Boughton) the summer school itself has always been a melting pot – ultimately with the view of “come for the music, stay for the politics.” Similarly, because of its eagerness to make music-making accessible to working-class people, it has meant that for many this was the only entry into music at all. The WMA even gets to boast having had the esteemed conductor Martyn Brabbins and composers like Edward Gregson coming through our summer school. 

Similarly, due to the political viewpoint, the WMA have been able to use the summer school to carry out some incredible moves of solidarity – be it early championship of the fight against apartheid in South Africa (with many songs being written especially for the summer school), politically charged opera performances, including a rare performance of Alan Bush’s Wat Tyler and Men of Blackmoor, as well as the opera The Partisans, dedicated to the Yugoslav partisans and written by a summer school attendee. It has even included singing songs of the Vietnamese (and other Asian peoples) in the fight against US imperialism. 

This year, we have the pleasure of welcoming Grup Yorum, a Kurdish band from Turkey known for their political songwriting, to join us in Ingestre Hall, both as an opportunity for them to share their experiences with the summer school attendees, and also to carry on this proud history of defending those facing repression, and defending and promoting the arts of those who fight against repression. 

Realistically, the summer school, like the rest of the WMA, is slowly rebuilding itself. However, what is eternally promising is seeing how the WMA has managed to survive the shift away from openly discussing working-class people and music, and to manage keeping this core principle as central to their work. 

As I have written elsewhere, access to music education and to chances to make music are becoming harder and harder for working-class people, and organisations like the WMA become even more vital and important. 

Readers of the Star will want to keep the dream of bread and roses alive, and the WMA and its summer school are a practical step to make it happen. If I don’t see you at the summer school this year, I hope to see you coming along and singing our songs with us in Ingestre Hall next year!