Joe Strummer, Rock Against the Rich and Spycops

In 1988 Joe Strummer embarked on a 'Rock Against the Rich' tour organised by anarchist group Class War. The tour had its origins in the Warwick Castle pub in Notting Hill where Class War's Ian Bone and the ex-Clash lead singer came up with the idea over a few pints.

 

As part of the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry, thousands of  reports filed by police infiltrators have been published. Among them are many reports from 'HN10' Bob Robinson (real name Bob Lambert) who infiltrated animal rights groups in north London in the 1980s but also kept an eye on anarchists and others he came across in London Greenpeace and similar groups.

Lambert, who was married with children in his 'real' life, notoriously had a number of  intimate relationships while undercover (none with informed consent) including fathering a child before vanishing. Part of his schtick was  to use music to develop connections with activists, travelling to the Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festivals and peppering his letters with references to Steely Dan and Van Morrison and, seemingly, his police reports with references to The Clash.

In his reports to his Special Branch and security service bosses he notified them of the emerging plans for the Strummer gigs. The first report in March 1988 includes the claim that Strummer was 'contacting Mick Jones and other former members and associates of The Clash with a view to reforming the notorious punk band especially for the gig'

A second report on the 10th May from this 'secret and reliable source' noted that 'Ian Bone and. Darren Ryan, leading Class War activists continue to have regular discussions with veteran punk music star Joe Strummer in connection with a series of planned Rock Against the Rich concerts... certain to attract a high level of interest amongst London's resilient punk community'. The report also mentions a forthcoming Rock Against the Rich launch party at the Golden Lady pub in Albion Road with disco provided by an Animal Liberation Front activist'.

There's a couple of pages about the tour in Class War newspaper, no. 28 (1988), some extracts follow:

'Welsh band Anhren are bringing out a Rock Against the Rich benefit single'

Round up of Rock Against the Rich gigs, including Strummer playing in Brixton (at the Fridge) and Camden. The latter was at the Electric Ballroom on July 7th 1988, supported by Chelsea and World Domination Enterprises. Found an account on facebook from somebody who was there: 'Set included his single Trash City , covers of Big Audio dynamite songs V13 & Sightsee mc, Keys to your heart from his pre Clash 101ers days & the stuff most of us were there for White man in Hammersmith Palais,Police & Thieves, Police on my back ,This is England, Somebody got murdered, he also chucked in a lively Pogues cover If i should fall from grace with God'. 

'At a time when rock music and its surrounding cults and causes are about as threatening as a bowl of marshmallows, Class War has initiated Rock Against the Rich to put class politics back onto the agenda, using music as a weapon'

Class War's Darren Ryan has written an account of the tour, conlcuding: 'It may not have been how we originally intended it, but it was moderately successful in some ways. And it was a lot of fun. But I look back in anger at it, as we had such great ideas for it, and it still gets my blood boiling the way it was turned from potentially dangerous to pleasantly adventurous by people who used it as their ticket into the music industry. And such are the best of working class ideas, watered down for safe consumption for the middle classes. However, the original idea and plan of Rock Against the Rich remains as relevant and as dangerous as it was then'. Not all planned gigs happened, in particular events on the Isle of Dogs and at Hackney Empire were blocked.

Probably shouldn't romanticise all this too much. I think some of these gigs at the time were seen as being quite shambolic, Strummer backed by an unprepared band. In a way it was a bit out of time in emphasising rock when other musics were becoming more important. Other things were stirring in 1988...

From NME, 30 July 1988 - a Rock Against the Rich gig at the Tunnel Club in Greenwich with Anhrefen, Sign on Valley Rangers and the Mega City 4. Another South London gig mentioned in the Class War article was apparently scheduled for July 2 1988 in Lewisham, with The Dispossessed and Beethoven.

See previously:

Unite Against Racism demo in East End 1994 + a spycops report on David Bowie donating to Anti Nazi League

Unite Against Racism demo in East End 1994 + a spycop report on David Bowie donating to Anti Nazi League

In 1993 the far right British National Party achieved a breakthrough in the East End of London when one of its members was elected as a councillor on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets. This was a period of racist murders, including the killing of Stephen Lawrence not far from the BNP HQ in Welling, SE London. The BNP still had a street presence in East London too, selling papers on Brick Lane.

It was also a period of mass opposition to the far right, one of the largest manifestations of this being the 'Unite Against Racism' demonstration called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on 19 March 1994. Around 50,000 people took part in the march through the East End, from Spitalfields to London Fields. This was part of a wider mobilisation that among other things led to the BNP losing their council seat in new elections in 1994.

Photos from an amazing set from the day taken by Pete Marshall, very evocative of the whole period

As has been confirmed in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, anti-racist groups were infiltrated by undercover 'spycops' who dutifully reported on everything that moved.  In July 2024, the Inquiry published a series of reports seemingly written by Trevor Morris who had infiltrated the Socialist Workers Party and Anti-Nazi League using the name Bobby Lewis (HN78). This includes an assessment of the SWP/ANL's planning for the TUC march, in the context of which it is mentioned that David Bowie had recently made a donation of $1000 to the ANL. Thus we have the unusual billing at the end of the report where the list of  'Special Branch References' - usually referring to people/organisations of interest to Special Branch - is headed by David Bowie and followed by Anti Fascist Action, the Anti Nazi League, Newham Monitoring Project and several Turkish revolutionary organisations reported to be joining the TUC march.

During the 1970s of course Bowie's brief apparent flirtation with fascist imagery had been  one of the instances that prompted the formation of Rock Against Racism, but his subsequent actions show that he decisively moved on from that time. Doubt if he had a Special Branch file (I believe that the letters n/t next to his name stand for 'no trace' in their records), but who knows?

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