First off, how are you? It’s really been a while and I hope that everything is coming up roses for you and yours.
Just over a year ago I needed a break, and boy did I take one. I avoided all things Profane related and focused on my girlfriend, my son, school and work. Just before that point I’d had about a year of intense stress (all personal) and I was at the breaking point, so rather than let everything go to shit I took a sabatical and gave myself the time that I needed to recharge my internal battery. I think that it’s important to do that from time to time. Step away for a moment (or a year) and come back to what you love when you’re ready.
Now let’s get into it shall we? A couple of weeks ago I was hipped to the fact that Death in June was playing the Mezzanine in San Francisco. Not too shocking that the band is touring again, but I was annoyed at the fact that I people that I knew, and like were attending this bullshit. Now there are numerous debates on the internet about whether or not Death in June is a fascist/nazi band or not. I think the evidence is clear, that Pearce is a fascist sympathizer and an elitist xenophobe and members of Death in June have been involved in the National Front. The fact that DIJ uses fascist imagery is indisputable. Those arguing in his favor say its all shock, “the punks do it after all!”.
No. The early punks did it, for a little bit before it quickly (and rightly) became clear that using these particular images were not just annoying to those who fought in WWII, offensive and hurtful to people whose families were slaughtered, but using these images also drew in elements that truly held racist and fascist ideology and saw punk as a racist and fascist sub-culture and that punks could be coerced into joining the BNF or any of the Fascist goups in the U.S.
So though there was some use of fascist imagery in the beginning, there was a backlash from within the community. We stopped doing it and many punks started stating that they were anti-nazi, anti-fascist and anti-racist.
Death in June and Douglas Pearce in particular does not denounce the fascists who show up at his shows, not the “artists” like Boyd Rice, a self proclaimed nazi and total piece of shit and Tony Wakeford who was a member of the National Front, who have worked with Death in June, nor the boneheads (skinheads/nsm motherfuckers) who show up to DIJ shows. He won’t answer to his work for the Croation fascists during the conflict in Yugoslavia, and has pulled out of playing gigs upon discovering that they were anti fascist/racist.
Why is this important to me? I don’t listen to Death in June, Burzum, Skrewdriver, Rahowa or any of that shit so why is this important? Because punks, some of them people I consider my friends go to these shows. When I bring this up, I get simple excuses like “it’s all shock”, or they point out that Pearce was in Crisis and played some Rock Against Racism gigs. The worst excuses I heard were: “Pearce can’t be a facsist, he’s gay!” , or “I’ve met him, he’s very charming” and “When he’s in San Francisco he and his partner cruise the castro…” First, being gay does not mean you are immune from being an asshole. I know a lot of assholes who happen to be gay. Ernst Roehm, Hitler’s number 2 in the early days was also gay, and one hell of a fascist, hence an asshole!
See, the whole “since he’s queer he can’t be a fascist” argument don’t hold no water.
It’s time to get off the fence, you can’t waver about this sort of thing. If you go to the shows, buy the records and wear the gear, you are supporting fascism. In interviews he makes xenophobic statements about the poor and immigrants that he feared so much he fled his native england, claiming it had been soiled.”BRITAIN IMPORTED MILLIONS OF UNSKILLED LABOURERS FROM THE COLONIES FOR THAT KIND OF WORK AND LOOK WHAT A HUGE SUCCESS THAT WAS! THE HATRED IS BARELY RESTRAINED INTO THE OCCASSIONAL RIOT. I DON’T LIKE BEING IN A PLACE WITH SUCH AN ATMOSPHERE. EVEN GERMANY, THE FORMER RICHEST COUNTRY IN WESTERN EUROPA SEEMS TO BE TANGIBLY FALLING TO BITS. IT IS NO LONGER AS CLEAN AND AS WELL ORGANISED AS I REMEMBER FROM, SAY, 10 YEARS AGO. IT HAS BEEN FLOODED BY THOSE WHO WANT BUT, WITH LITTLE TO GIVE! THE WEST’S LIBERALISM WILL BE ITS DEATH.”– Douglas Pearce
Is this the kind of behavior you want to support?
I’m pissed because people don’t think that by buying a patch or a record that it’s making any difference. They want music not politics. Well, the two are combined. You can’t have one without the other and the money and support that you give these assholes go to support their causes, so while you may not want to support NSM or National Front groups, there is a good chance that you are giving them your money by buying records from New European Recordings, or DIJ in person. Certainly if you are getting their stuff online you are likely supporting a fascist or racist DIY label, because they do small labels and distros too. There is no excuse to supporting shit like this and so it has to stop. You have to make a choice, and if you choose to support bands and artists with sketchy politics, be ready to defend yourself. I’m calling on you to confront your friends when they do this shit. I’m calling on you to call out strangers when they do this. Don’t be afraid of the consequences because our silence is their greatest weapon.
Keep on truckin’
-bot
some source material…
http://www.whomakesthenazis.com/2013/09/queers-to-shut-down-death-in-june-in.html
http://libcom.org/library/death-in-june-a-nazi-band
Profane Existence 