The Brown and the Green Part II

( I am NOT Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey NOR am I connected to her in any way. I discuss naming it after her in the "notes" post)

I had a weird feeling with the last post when I said that I was twisting the lyrics, turning them on their head (see this for an explanation). The thing is, the original is racist (crucially, AMERICAN) and the altered version is Irish republican. Before I posted it, I had sent it out to someone, and although I actually made one tiny change, I was reluctant until now to make another change. First, I'm going to add the word "fascism," second I think I'll explain something about me taking racist songs and turning them into republican songs.

1. Almost all the stuff I've done that is racist turned republican is from British Nazis. They hate republicans.
2. I did one song by band from another part of Europe, I think they're Dutch, it contains an anti-right-wing line.
3. Almost all the stuff that's republican contains either anti-fascist or anti-right or left-wing or anti-bigotry stuff.
4. The only exception to that, which I'm going to fix right now, is the most recent song "Belfast Republican" based on a song by Final War. I just saw a picture of the band, and although it's probably non-political, one of them was wearing a shirt with a shamrock. Between that and their enthusiasm for violence, there's not a bad chance they are supporters of republicanism.
5. Final War are probably still very fond of British Nazis (they covered a Skrewdriver song). In general, I figure of those people on the American racist right who take an interest at all, I think it breaks down like this:
A: Some large minority support physical force republicanism. Probably all the Irish-Americans and some of their buddies. The odds are high that they don't support Sinn Fein if they have even the slightest idea of how SF feels about them, and they are probably unlikely to support the cease-fire (what kind of fascist supports a cease-fire when there are battles to be won?).
B: Some large minority take some kind of middle-ground position. In recent decades that movement has become very internationalist, in a twisted sense of the word. They have a concept called "no more brothers wars," meaning no more fighting between white nations (they'll fight/kill you if you're white but you disagree with them or look at them the wrong way). In that sense many of them just condemn the conflict. Some evidence for this is the song "Divided by Hatred" by the popular American White Power band Bound For Glory.
C: Some large minority support the British/Unionist position. What was for most of the last 25 years the largest American Nazi skinhead group, the Hammerskin Nation, has or has had a chapter in N. Ireland and I will have to see some good evidence to stop me from assuming that they're Unionists. At some point in the last 10 years, someone who it sounded like was one of the top 30 people in the American racist movement is from N. Ireland and used to be associated with the Ulster Defense Association. Tom Metzger, who in the last 30 years has been one of the top 3 people in that movement, was scheduled to speak at an anti-IRA rally in Britain but the authorities wouldn't let him in the country. They probably love Skrewdriver and Ian Stuart, and they loved the loyalist paramilitaries. Also, since I've done a couple poems based on stuff by No Remorse, I should say that they're British, too.

So, to a large degree, taking American racist songs and turning them into republican is turning them on their heads. Also, beyond certain countries (Ireland, America, Australia, Canada, possibly New Zealand) it's a safe bet fascists, even those who admire the tactics and organization of the IRA, do not support republicanism, as their links with British Nazis are probably stronger than their links with Irish Nazis.


On a related note... THE BROWN AND THE RED.

About 4/5 of them I take politically offensive lyrics and twist them into more or less the opposite of what they were originally. Almost all of those poems are based on white supremacist lyrics. Often I turn them into something very much in conflict with what the original was saying. Sometimes, not so much. The largest group of poems like that are those about N. Ireland and based on AMERICAN Nazi songs.. With the American ones, there is a decent chance that the band members are in support of Irish republicanism. I would say the same thing about other countries with a large Irish-descended population. As far as bands from countries that have no significant Irish population and that are not the UK, I imagine their white supremacists go with Ian Stuart’s position on N. Ireland, which was in support of the unionist and British causes.

The thing is, with the bands in countries with a lot of the Irish diaspora, I usually put something anti- racist/homophobic/anti-semitism/fascist in there to twist it. Sometimes all I do is put something pro-Left or anti-Right. The white supremacists overwhelmingly identify with the right, and the left is overwhelmingly against the bigotry of the white supremacists. So something pro-Left or anti-Right is twisting the lyrics.

UPDATE 4/5/12

I somehow forgot when I added the “The Red and The Brown” section, that a lot of people, including a lot of liberals and some progressives, need more information than I offered to understand that pro-Left stuff is hostile towards the Nazis. This is because the other way to refer to fascists is: “national socialist.” People frequently say the Nazis were on the Left, or that they were half on the Left and half on the Right. Here are some reasons why the Nazis were much more on the Right than on the Left:

* That Hitler guy was a total ass-hole- NO WAY was he on the Left : ).

(seriously though, here are some reasons:)

* I can’t remember exactly what the details were, but Hitler’s regime had a mixed attitude towards capital- some good, some bad (for capital). I believe it was lower taxes on business, but more regulation; I think in the next few weeks I can find the details for this.

* They simply got rid of the unions.

* They killed some communists and social-democrats and sent many to concentration camps.

* They elevated race and nation above class and tried to cover up class conflict without doing anything to erase or minimize income inequality.

* Probably the most important thing is to look at who allowed the Nazis into government. They were centrists and mostly conservatives (i.e. President Paul von Hinderburg). Even after Hitler created a dictatorship, many such politicians continued to be part of Hitler’s government.

* They got a lot of financial support from very successful, mainstream businessmen, especially in the last 2-3 years before they took power.

* A major leader of the Nazi’s left-wing, Otto Strasser left the party in 1930. His brother, Gregor, who had similar beliefs and was also a major leader of the Nazi left, was killed by Hitler’s men in 1934.

*They supported the right-wing side in the Spanish Civil War.

* Today’s neo-Nazis generally place themselves on the Right. In the lyrics of Nazi Skinhead bands, they occasionally say something anti-Capitalist, they much more frequently make anti-Communist statements. American White Supremacists spend much more time trying to work within the GOP than they do working within the Democratic Party.



In a blog discussion here another poster named Ian added three more facts:

* “They were ferociously anti-gay, imprisoning and killing thousands of gay men.”

* “They reintroduced Christian prayer into schools.”

* “They were anti-abortion, at least when it came to gentile Germans.”


For all of the lyrics posts, click on the "lyrics" label.