I have been looking at information to use for my double page spreads I had come across this article about the ‘History of the Skinhead movement’. I feel like this article is relevant to my designs and would give the reader an insight about the subculture itself. I will be using most of the information however due to my design layout I may use parts rather than all of it.
I got this information from: http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php/arts-culture/history/336-history-of-the-skinhead-movement
No Pasaran
Skinheads are not racists nor fascists. In this article one can see how the root of the movement started to grow with immigrants and the rest of the working class youth. Boneheads, the fascist/racist intruders, appeared afterwards trying to take over the movement.
The Beginning. 1960’s
The Skinheads movement began in Great Britain during the 1960’s. It was began by two movements of their own, both part of the proleteriat.
The first one was called the “Hard Mods”. They belonged to the Mods movement. This was strongly influenced by the hippies. The main members of the Mods belonged to the ruling/middle class youth and were mainly concerned with spiritual matters. They talked about mystical experiences and peace but they did not pay attention to the problems of the country and those of the poorest of the poor. Therefore the Hard Mods separated. The other founder of the Skinheads Movement were the Rudeboys who were Jamaican immigrants that met them because they both lived in the working class’ areas.
This encounter created the movement. So it was from the beginning with anti-racist ideas and a movement of the proleterian youth. There is no racist, nazi or fascist here. One of the main problem was that they were not political. Those with any feeling of class struggle were a minority. Among one of the main features was the dress code. What they wore was an intent to make of fun of the ruling class’ youth. They also started wearing boots like Doc Martens to show that they belong to the “lower class”.
The Punk and Skin Movements. 1977
In 1977 the Skinhead scene became more important because of Punk music. The Punk musical style hit the charts and the British youth started listening to it. But, like Hip Hop, the Punk culture was created by the poor youth and once it became too influential Capitalism used it to earn dollars. This type of commercial punk is famous for its nickname “MTV punk”. This style remplaced the idea of revolt and class struggle with the appearance of a “rebel without a cause”. Still there are a few bands that quit being so fake and became more political in defense of the proleterian movements. Also, around this time started the music”Oi!” which represents the expression “Hey You!”.
Fascists/racists. 1978
As we saw around this period the Skinheads and the Punk culture began to become famous and popular. As well as this, we know the former was not too political, they just knew they were exploited and that made them rebelious. These two aspects allowed the extreme right, especially the “National Front” (political party), to influence the youth that wanted to fight the system of exploitation but didn’t know how. This tactic is always used by the far right. They always intent to take the working class’s associations, bands, minds… to better control and used them.
The Antira/Antifa Fight Back. end 1970’s till start 1980’s
The invasion of the extremists woke many skins up and they ,thus, decided to fight back. A new sub-movement starts with the return to Ska music endorsed by the 2-TONE trend. As a symbol they used the word “SKA” in black and white as a symbol of “racial” unity.
With this type of music appeared new anarchist, communist, anti-racist and anti-fascist Skinhead groups among the youth. Examples of this are “SHARP” -Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices- and “RASH” -Red Anarchsit Skinheads-. These groups want to fight for the end of Capitalism, a system founded on the exploitation of those that own nothing, but remplacing it with a fair and equalitarian system. Unfortunately the journalists prefer to focus only on boneheads in order to “scare” more the public and make tabloid-style articles, thus earn more money.
charlottemartindesigns 