Accusing From Afar Pt. 2
Yesterday I blogged about my first days on campus as a student.
Billy Bragg, a British songwriter and political activist, has a knack for summing it up succinctly.
What is fascinating are the racist comments below his song on You Tube. When I grew up in London in the 1970’s, the Jews, Blacks, Asians and Irish were all victims at our schools and in the streets of the National Front, now the British Nationalist Party.
Sometimes, unfortunately, we just never learn. Still, it helps inspire people like Billy Bragg to write the caliber of songs that he does. Every cloud…
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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at www.alonshalev.com
Left Coast Voices 
all the way back to 1983:
http://wallernotweller.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/review-billy-bragg-life%e2%80%99s-a-riot-with-spy-vs-spy-go-discs/
Wow! I remember those John Peel days. And you are absolutely right that Bragg had trouble maintaining himself as a political songwriter after a string of such amazing hits.
We have someone like him out here on the West Coast. Check out Dana Lyons and look for his political songs.
Take care,
Alon
http://www.alonshalev.com/
The British National Party is now the leading neo-Nazi party here in the UK. However the National Front does still exist although it is the BNP who tend to get the lion’s share of media attention. Both the NF and the BNP pose a threat to minorities (not just ethnic groups but people with disabilities etc also).
Kevin
Thanks for the update, Kevin. I can’t help feeling there is a connection between their ability to survive, based upon feeding off of peoples fears and a scary economy. As economies continue to implode, as natural resources diminish, I can’t help feeling we are going to see more extremists, religious and secular, emerge and grow.
Alon
http://www.alonshalev.com/