Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
The rebirth of Rock Against Racism
STEPHEN ARNELL hails the comeback of RAR for the 21st century in the form of Love Music Hate Racism
Rock band, Hard-Fi, perform at the Love Music Hate Racism festival in Victoria Park, London, April 2008

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” — Sir Isaac Newton.

WITH the recent Summer of Crypto-Fascist Riots, it’s perhaps heartening that far-right agitation prompted a swift, semi-spontaneous rebuttal in the form of mass anti-racist counter and pre-emptive demonstrations.

‘Oh Farage! Up Yours!’ 

After X-Ray Spex’s “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”

And with this two-fingered salute to the Faragist tendency we can perhaps also welcome the return of 1970s British phenomenon Rock Against Racism, in the shape of Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR). I’m just about old enough to remember RAR and the galvanising effect the organisation had on some of the formerly apathetic youth in the 1970s and early ’80s.

Tomorrow belongs to Lee?

‘What is all this communist sh*t?’

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Roosevelt mixing ideologies in his speeches in this 1912 editorial cartoon by Karl K Kneecht (1883–1972) in the Evansville Courier; (below) Cover of the 16-page 1912 campaign booklet with the platform of the new Progressive Party
Features / 13 August 2025
13 August 2025

STEPHEN ARNELL casts a critical eye over the sudden rash of challenges to the two-party system on both sides of the Atlantic, noting that today’s performative populist politics sadly lacks Roosevelt’s progressive ‘Bull Moose’ vision of the early 20th century

Party leader Nigel Farage speaks during a Reform UK press conference in Royal Horseguards Hotel, London, July 21, 2025
Features / 26 July 2025
26 July 2025

While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL

Crowds watch Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Saturday June 28, 2025
Media / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL

The Channel 4 logo outside offices in Horseferry Road, London
Features / 25 June 2025
25 June 2025

With the news of massive pay rises for senior management while content spend dives STEPHEN ARNELL wonders when will someone call out the greed of these ‘public service’ executives

Similar stories
Live Music Review / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
MARK TURNER is staggered by a gifted jazz pianist from the Welsh Valleys
NO PASARAN: (Above and below) Anti-racism protest organised
Features / 17 October 2024
17 October 2024
We need the biggest possible mobilisation next weekend against Tommy Robinson and the forces of the far right, who are looking to exploit social misery to spread division and hatred against minorities, write MARK SERWOTKA and KEVIN COURTNEY
Tom Robinson
Gig Review / 6 October 2024
6 October 2024
ANGUS REID time-travels back to times when Gay Liberation was radical and allied seamlessly to an anti-racist, anti-establishment movement
Rock band, Hard-Fi, perform at the Love Music Hate Racism fe
Britain / 28 August 2024
28 August 2024