Paul Micklethwaite is a musician who wrote this piece for the current issue of Socialist Resistance.
The newly-thriving British folk music scene has recently been disturbed to find itself attracting the attention of the far right British National Party.
The BNP evidently feels it may gain a sympathetic reception from the traditional folk audience. This has provoked a strong collective counterblast from the contemporary folk music world in the form of the Folk Against Fascism campaign
The anti-BNP response centres on a contention that “folk” music, as a contemporary cultural form, by its nature excludes the extreme nationalist politics and values of that far right party. Any attempt to claim solidarity is therefore misguided and unwelcome. But is this so clearly the case? Is there any basis in the BNP’s tactic?
The politics of folk music
Defining folk music, and it limits, is clearly a challenge. Folk performers are drawn to debate their genre more than any other musicians. The notion of tradition, and a healthy respect for it, is a strong consideration as is inclusivity.
The contemporary folk music scene might be characterised in terms of: respect for an inherited musical tradition; politically on the left (deriving from a recent Communist heritage); musically reactionary (the fact that folk musician Jim Moray is constantly billed as a controversial innovator proves the rule); white, middle-aged and middle class (despite the proletarian perspective of much traditional folk music). These are generalisations, but will be recognisable to anyone who participates in the culture of folk clubs and festivals, magazines, radio shows etc. Above all, the folk world is culturally homogenous.
The aspect of the folk scene which the BNP has apparently picked up on is its sometimes uneasy relationship with notions of place, region and national identity. The traditional folk repertoire is often concerned with specific regional locality and identity. Socialist songwriter and performer Ewan McColl famously insisted on performers confining themselves to the songs of their home county. The otherness of, for example, “gypsies” is also a common lyrical theme. What the BNP is perhaps trying to engender is a development of local and regional pride into nationalism, jingoism and perhaps even xenophobia.
Wolfgang Becker’s 2003 film Goodbye Lenin portrays the co-opting of (quite possibly invented) folk “traditions” to reinforce national identity by the government of the old East Germany. Unease surrounded the St George’s Day 2009 concert in Trafalgar Square, conducted under the auspices of Boris Johnson, Conservative mayor of London. While many leading folk performers were happy to take part in what was billed as a celebration of “the best of everything English” (1), some were uneasy with the association. A rival event took place simultaneously elsewhere, commemorating the historical protest in support of the Tolpuddle martyrs. Several performers intended to attend both events, seeing no tension. ‘You can’t not celebrate something for fear of somebody you don’t like misunderstanding the reasons’, commented Jim Moray.
BNP leader Nick Griffin is a declared fan of folk music. The BNP’s website sells British folk compilations under its imprint Excalibur Records, including an album of songs written (though not performed) by Griffin himself. According to journalist Marek Kohn “folk culture and myth are at the heart of the BNP’s vision”, and “the party is a folkish nationalist group based on a belief that peoples have essences that must be preserved by keeping blood and culture mixed together, and separate from those of other peoples.”(2)
A keen interest in regional authenticity is certainly an element in folk music culture. Much traditional folk music adopts the perspective of the dispossessed working class, and commonly portrays the otherness of “gypsies” and outsiders generally. Thus the BNP might see the folk audience as potentially sympathetic to the party’s far right political agenda. After all, the BNP has had success in appealing to just these kind of sensibilities in Burnley and other constituencies in the north of England.
Folk against Fascism
The folk scene is having none of it.
Folk against Fascism (FAF) is taking stand against “the BNP’s cynical and unsettling targeting of folk music and events in the UK”. It sees the party’s message of hatred and cultural purity as completely out of step with the inclusive and multicultural unity within the folk world. In a recent folk events email Folk Against Fascism said: “They (the BNP) have no right to associate themselves with us and a unified voice is needed to make this clear. Sign up now on the FAF website to see how you can help and partake in the celebratory events being run to show that the folk community as with most other communities actively does NOT support this party or their ideals!”(3)
Martin Simpson, one of contemporary folk’s biggest stars, began a recent show with a song he introduced as an English version of an American version of an Irish song. ‘That’s folk music right there, which the BNP should take note of. They should also fuck off,’ he said. He repeated this, more politely, at Cambridge Folk Festival, inviting the audience to participate in the Folk against Fascism response. For Simpson and most others, folk music performance is fundamentally about transmission of tradition though adaptation, not arbitrary historical preservation.
Internationalism may not have been encouraged in folk performance settings historically, but is increasingly the norm, as a glance at recent Cambridge programmes will show. ‘Our evenings … are for traditional folk music, and run along the lines of a traditional folk club… If you like traditional folk music, of any country or culture, do come along.’
British sociologist Anthony Giddens has written that “fundamentalism is beleaguered tradition” (4). It opposes cosmopolitanism and multiplicity of perspective, and focuses on the uncritical upholding of a politically or culturally expedient dogma. The nationalist fundamentalism of the BNP represents an attempt to cling to a carefully selective historical precedent which privileges the currently dominant cultural group in Britain.
It is possible to see the reasoning behind the BNP’s attempts to co-opt the British folk music scene. Yet the hostility of that scene’s concerted reaction demonstrates that the BNP’s relationship to (and indeed its idea of) British “tradition” is quite different to that found in contemporary folk music culture. The possibility that a concern with localism is a cover for xenophobia seems unfounded.
Further information: www.folkagainstfascism.com
Footnotes
(1) Irwin, Colin (2009) The battle over British folk music. The Guardian, Thursday 23 April.
(2) Kohn, Marek (2009) A faded vis
ion of folk. guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 July.
(3) The Magpie’s Nest events email, 16 July 2009.
(4) Giddens, Anthony (1999) Tradition. BBC Reith lecture, number 3.
Paul Micklethwaite is a folk musician who has performed at or attended all the clubs and festivals mentioned here; hopefully they’ll welcome him back.
Liam redux 
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