How Clash singer inspired politics of a generation of Scots

It took his death to fully reveal the extent of his political influence in creating many socialists. I found this out when researching for my book The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer.

This involved taking testimony from well over 100 people about what influence Strummer had on their political values and beliefs.

What struck me was the number of Scots who were inspired to become and remain socialists because of his influence. Among them are leading figures in the union movement – the teachers of the EIS, the firefighters of the FBU, the rail in the workers, RMT, the civil servants in the PCS and those in Unite and Unison – in community campaigns, in socialist politics, and in cultural life.

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Some became paid union officials, others lay union activists, councillors, political activists or cultural operatives, in the form of writers, poets, musicians and performers.

Of those from Britain that gave testimony, the proportion of Scots was far higher than you would ordinarily expect, judged by respective population sizes. This should statistically be about 8% but, in fact, it was more than double that at nearly 20%.

Strummer was often said to have changed people’s lives as a result of not only fronting The Clash but also writing most of the lyrics for the band, especially when it came to songs such as White Riot, Clampdown, Spanish Bombs, Washington Bullets and Know Your Rights.

He continued to write and perform progressive, politically charged songs with his last band, The Mescaleros, from 1999 until his death.

Strummer was for the whole of his life on the left and for the left even though he became somewhat disillusioned by “new” Labour’s subservience to the Thatcherite agenda of free market reform.

He moved from being a hippy to a socialist and then a humanist, advocating for an ethical form of capitalism. He had a long history of playing benefit gigs for progressive causes. His first gigs with his first band, The 101ers, were for political exiles from the 1973 Pinochet military coup against the democratically elected left-wing government in Chile.

With The Clash and his subsequent bands, he played gigs for refugees, sacked miners, community causes and disenfranchised youth as well as against racism and fascism.

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Strummer's passionate performances meant people took seriously what he was saying. As The Hold Steady said in their song Constructive Summer, he became something of an educator, opening eyes to issues and events that were not necessarily covered in schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

Thus they sang: “Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer, I think he might’ve been our only decent teacher.”

In an age before the internet, many went to local libraries to find out more about the Spanish Civil War or the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Some of these went on to read George Orwell’s Homage To Catalonia while others joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign – a few even went to volunteer to work in Nicaragua.

So, it was a case of more than just agreeing with Strummer, for he encouraged people to do something about these causes if they agreed with him and felt strongly enough.

He was never prescriptive. Individuals could choose how and what they got active in, whether it was a union, political party, social movement or community campaign.

Strummer realised that music was a terrain that the left could use to fight right-wing ideas. This was because music is a mass cultural pastime, making it too important to be left to just lyrics about love and loss.

In his lyrics for White Riot, he sang: “All the power’s in the hands of people rich enough to buy it”, and in Clampdown he implored: “Kick over the wall ’cause governments to fall. How can you refuse it? Let fury have the hour, anger can be power. Do you know that you can use it?”.

Young Scots in the 1970s and 1980s were inspired and sustained by Strummer. Many of them ended up supporting independence, even if this was not directly as a result of Strummer’s influence.

Although The Clash were always very popular in Scotland, it was not until the latter part of Strummer’s life that he overtly supported the right of self-determination for Scotland. This was after reconnecting with his Scottish roots on his mother’s side of the family.

But it’s not hard to see that Scottish socialists’ support for independence sprang from what they heard years earlier.

Strummer wrote songs about yearning for freedom and liberty and opposition to exploitation and oppression. They are a fine tribute to his continuing political legacy.

The Punk Rock Politics Of Joe Strummer: Radicalism, Resistance And Rebellion is published by Manchester University Press, priced £16.99, manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526148988/

Professor Gregor Gall is an affiliate research associate at the University of Glasgow