Marxism in Music: Constructing a Communist Contra-Culture with The Redskins, Rock’n’roll and Revolution

'80s British alternative band, The Redskins, are a case study for examining the relationship between music, politics and revolution and the development of a contra-culture. In Marxism in Music: Constructing a Communist Contra-Culture with The Redskins, Rock’n’roll and Revolution, Gregor Gall examines how The Redskins, so-called for their skinhead aesthetics and commitment to a socialist ideal, were a deliberately political band and built a counter-hegemony through their music and activism.At the height of Thatcherism in Britain, The Redskins were aligned with the politics of the Socialist Workers Party, though the party did not accept their idea of that a working-class culture could exist.Despite resistance and contradiction, The Redskins created stirring and danceable music that introduced young people to socialist politics, playing over 250 gigs between 1982 and 1986, of which one quarter were benefit gigs for, as an example, striking miners. Featuring a foreword by Redskins bass pla