Dave Randall on the government’s latest culture war idiocy

Gaza is the issue. Our government and media establishment have been complicit in genocide. Let us never become desensitised to that word and everything it implies. Genocide. This is the shocking truth of our times. 

Of course, those same people want to distract us from this grim reality. In their latest attempt to do so they have been busy flinging spurious accusations at Bob Vylan following the duo’s performance at Glastonbury. Anyone who has followed the rock/rap act will know that their use of language is always direct and uncompromising and their politics are on the side of human liberation. Did their choice of chant make it easier for our opponents to manufacture another distracting ‘culture war’? Perhaps. 

Strategy and tactics in the field of music and politics should be taken seriously and discussed. Thanks to a leaked letter, we now know that our foes in the music industry do precisely that. High powered individuals from WME talent agents, ATC/Courtyard management, CAA talent agents, Metropolis Music promoters, Warner Music UK, Atlantic Records and others, signed a secret letter attempting to get Kneecap cancelled from Glastonbury. How out-of-touch and fanatical they appear now. 

Our side needs slogans that unite the largest possible numbers around radical, achievable demands: such as the immediate and complete cessation of arms sales to Israel and imposition of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Precisely such demands echoed from every one of Glastonbury’s 100+ stages across the weekend, as performers of all genres and across the arts spoke out. Bob Vylan added calls for death to the reapers of war. 

As Michael Rosen and others have pointed out on social media, they are not the first to do so. Among the many songsmiths who have done the same is Bob Dylan. In 1998 he performed his song ‘Masters of War’ at Glastonbury in which he declares: ‘And I hope that you die, And your death will come soon, I’ll follow your casket, By the pale afternoon, And I’ll watch while you’re lowered, Down to your deathbed, And I’ll stand over your grave, ’Til I’m sure that you’re dead.’ But is it true that when the IDF are named, such sentiments can reasonably be interpreted as anti-Semitic? Categorically not. In fact the reverse is true. When the Chief Rabbi and the BBC imply that depraved genocide perpetrators represent all Jews, they are the ones committing anti-Semitism. 

Indeed the whole hysterical establishment attack on Bob Vylan appears rather unhinged. These are people who know they have lost the argument. These are people who can no longer deny their own complicity in one of the most appalling crimes of our time. 

Dave Randall is a musician who has toured with Faithless, Dido, Sinead O’Connor and others. An updated 2nd edition of his book Sound System: The Political Power of Music is published by Pluto Press in August.