Rock Against Racism, Punk and Post-Punk

Rock Against Racism (RAR) was created at the end of 1976, and it soon became closely linked to the nascent punk movement. In the eyes of many activists, journalists and historians, the close relationship between the two was symbolised by the "Carnival Against the Nazis" held in London in April 1978, at which Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 performed the song "White Riot" with the Clash. However, their vision of a homogeneous, highly politicised punk movement is problematic. It glosses over the complex nature of the relationship between punk and RAR and ignores changes within punk, particularly the appearance of post-punk, and their possible implications for RAR. In fact, punk bands supported RAR for a variety of reasons, while the emergence of post-punk had a number of practical consequences for RAR.