Why Punk Is A Total Failure (1982)

Punk's not dead - so what? Is any youth cult worth salvaging long after history has sent it to the rubbish tip? Of course not, punk is now obsolete, incapable of being a threat to the system,+ is still easy pickings for the record companies. All cults come full circle, punk is no exception. The rebels of the seventies are now the trash of the eighties. This leaflet has been put out, not by leftists or N.M.E. Readers, but by a group of anarchists who are fed up with the farce of 'punk anarchy'.

The proof of our criticism is obvious,just look around you + see how much revolutionary activity goes on at a gig. A few bands trying to fight the state with a fearsome array of guitars + mike stands, making their 'sociably relevant' statements (usually limited to songs about Maggie Thatcher or the bomb, seems any outraged liberal can become an anarchist these days as far as gigs demonstrate). Collect their expenses + fuck off home in hired transit vans. The audience, meanwhile, work up their energy, but instead of going out + starting up a riot, as you'd expect from such self-professed subversives.

They get rid of it by jumping up + down on the spot. The circus ends + the spectators troop home in an orderly fashion, tired but happy, convinced they have 'done something' against the state.

Last year, CS gas was used for the first time on the British mainland. Liverpool police murdered a cripple during the riots by running him over. Manchester police ordered sub machine guns from West Germany, weapons whose only effective role is in dealing with crowd disturbances. Porton Down doubled its output of riot gas. All in all 3000 were arrested, many of them are still being held in special internment camps as they await trial. Britain is collapsing as an industrial nation, there will be no future of democracy or general wealth. A country allows as much freedom as its economy can afford. We are already feeling the pinch. Britain is heading towards a state of total class war. Already Manchester police chief John Anderton has said that the police's most important job will not be dealing with rape or robbery but "an increase in activity designed to subvert the state". Where will punk, with its naive sloganeering + its entire apathy be then? No doubt punks will continue to daub anarchy symbols on their jackets as they pose at the right gigs, while in Toxteth + Moss Side, kids even younger than themselves hurl petrol bombs at the police + the army,+ in turn get killed by rubber bullets. What use will the bands + their lyrics, or the vanity of the so-called hard core punks be then?

Neither punk nor any of its offshoots, such as the cult of Crowley worship, hazy anti-clericalism (the church is always an easy target, in Britain it tends not to fight back + thus makes itself a marvellous outlet for those punks too cowardly to break the law) or offensive, wet-arsed pacifism. Music will never succeed in changing society, especially punk with its moronic uniform + clumsy attempts to 'shock' the public.

The only language politicians understand is that of molotovs + burning police vans. But to believe that punk will change for the better is futile, we've waited six long years for punk to produce anything approaching a will to fight back (not just by buying the Discharge single of that name) against the state + all those who offer to change society on our behalf.

What anarchists demand may seem impossible, but only by doing this do we remain true to ourselves.our enemy, the state, is vast + formidable. Thus the business of revolution is serious, it isn't something to do on a Friday night at the Pied Bull in Islington or at The Lyceum. We do not wish to become a debating society. We aim to be a political fighting force. We need total commitment, not teenage weekend rebellion.

Our message to those amongst you who wish to pretend at being anarchists is simple. Get off our backs + go home to your parents. The system is harsh + brutal, those who need to fall back upon a set of lyrics or painted leather jackets to prop themselves up will not survive. But those who are willing to challenge the state, to work for its downfall, these are the ones who can earn the right to call themselves anarchists. We do not pretend to be able to foresee everything that will happen in the next few decades, but there will be little time for the half-hearted. Punk could never survive. It was only a matter of time before historical facts raced up + killed it outright, leaving plenty of meat for C.B.S. + E.M.I. to pick. Out of all the people at any gig, how many of those with showy haircuts + slogan covered jackets will be on the streets when the army is sent in to deal with those who resist? What relevance will the bands + their followers have then? Still, perhaps, we are going ahead too fast.