Punk And The Swastika

The wearing of Nazi regalia was not a new thing. Originally US veterans from the second world war lacking excitement decided to add captured Nazi regalia to their leather jackets when they formed motorcycle gangs. This fashion passed over the Atlantic and soon every rocker had some kind of Nazi symbol on his leather jacket. The difference was these boys hadn’t fought in no war: it was a way of saying ‘them and us’ and a way of antagonizing the authorities and their parents’ generation.

To further emphasise their separateness these boys also liked dirty rock’n’roll. The biker following, films like ‘Easy Rider’, became the rock’n’roll outlaw. Look at the Stones in Hyde Park with their Hells Angels guard all wearing Nazi helmets and regalia. The swastika had entered rock mythology via the bad boy outlaw image.

Left Peter Fonda in Wild Angels. Leather Jacket? Check. Badass motorbike? Check. Iron Cross? Check (Photo Credit AIP-The Kobal Collection) Right – Hells Angels at Roling Stones Hyde Park July 1969 (Getty images)

As a bridge to the Sex Pistols, it’s worthwhile pausing to note that McLaren and Westwood were at that time (1972) involved in their shop ‘Let It Rock’ which catered to this style. The image below shows some of their clothing evolving to the fetish/controversy side as well in the costumes they provided for Ken Russell’s controversial 1974 film Mahler which borrowed heavily from the biker/Hells Angel image.

In early 1976 The Sex Pistols sound was still developing. Dressed in Malcolm’s and Vivienne’s clothes some of the strands of the look we come to know as punk was also developing. In that look, the pair continued developing their use of confrontational symbols to provoke and shock. Clothes would feature Marx, anarchist slogans and Nazi regalia in equal amounts. They would also feature rapists and porn, rubber wear and fetish wear. In short anything to elicit a response.

It’s no surprise that ‘Sex’ assistants like Debbie Wilson and Jordan began to wear the shop clothes out to Pistols gigs and events. (Trouble had already come in their filming of their ‘So It Goes’ appearance in late 1976 when Jordan had been forced to wear gaffa tape over a swastika armband she was wearing.)

Jordan I was really a bit bemused by it all…He (Clive James) was really so seriously affronted and yet, it was just commonplace to us. – ‘I Swear I Was There’, David Nolan

After all, it was good publicity and didn’t hurt sales for McLaren & Westwood. This included swastika and destroy t shirts. At that time the amount of people who knew the Sex Pistols could be counted on two hands.

The problem was they looked so damn cool. The Nazi uniforms, banners and regalia were designed to impart an overwhelming impression of power, and power is always attractive. The Black Leather Jacket, Mick Farren.

Bertie Marshall (Bromley Contingent) I liked the movie Cabaret, especially Fosse’s aesthetic mixed in with Isherwood’s eye for detail and brilliant recording of that era in Germany, so evocative. There seemed to be some correlation to London in the 1970s. I particularly liked the Nazi look, so well tailored, and all black. 3:am.com interview

Siouxsie also provided the second swastika confrontation after Jordan at the 100 Club. The Clash refused to let a swastika armband-wearing Siouxsie and her band use their equipment as it was distinctively sprayed pink and they didn’t want to be associated with the swastika.

Bands and fans were keen to distance themselves from the political meaning of the symbol while happy to play with the provocative side of it.

Here’s Steve Severin in Rotten’s autobiography

Steve Severin …the swastikas…To us these weren’t badges of intolerance, but symbols of provocation to an older generation that had to get out of the way to make room for younger voices. ..When it was a small movement you could use symbols like that.. No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Johnny Rotten

For these fashionistas of the early ‘in crowd’ there was no need for justification. Alan Jones worker in Malcolm’s & Viv’s shop ‘Sex’ on the swastika and Anarchy t-shirt. “I never tried to justify it, and I didn’t feel I had to. I liked the look. Not Abba The Real Story of the 1970’s, Dave Haslam

Chrissie Hynde The beauty of the punk thing was that …non discrimination was what it was all about. There was little or no sexism or racism. For a start everyone loved reggae music…There was a kind of innocence, and when I say innocence, I mean innocent! No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Johnny Rotten

So at the moment before Punk is about to go public with the Pistols on the Bill Grundy show you cannot realistically say it was in any way Nazi, associated with right-wing ideology or attempting to push said ideology with its use of swastikas. That said, it was playing with a loaded gun when the current political climate had the far right gaining more power and attention and when impressionable kids would latch onto the symbol to copy as well.

And so the wearing of swastikas proliferated as people made aware of Punk rock by the Grundy incident became punks adopting and adapting emblems and dress from the first wave of fans including swastikas. Look at the pictures captured and they’re scrawled on or painted swastikas – hardly the stuff of political affiliation.

Don Letts It was a very small part of it and for a very short time. They were just kids. When you are at school what’s the most rebellious thing you could draw on your book? Exactly. A swastika. Punk 77 Interview 2005

I can’t vouch for the political beliefs of these people, but as people came to view the emerging far-right National Front as a threat and more publicity was given to it in both the fanzines and rock weeklies, the swastikas disappeared (Siouszie who did like a 3rd Reich symbol dropped them,but not for the Sex Pistols and particularly Sid nor the incredibly popular Destroy t shirt for punks)

Click on the below for larger images…

Only punk could wear the swastika and detach its meaning from Nazism while attempting to shock.

Marco Pirroni That’s what I thought, if punks could wear it, and we were trying to look decadent and imperfect that should piss everybody off, including Nazis. I always thought that if gays had adopted the pink swastika instead of the pink triangle that would have said it all. We just wore swastikas coz we thought they looked cool. We weren’t Nazis nor did we have any political views at all.

We had no problem with Jews, Pakistanis, gays, or anyone else we just hated everyone who lived in the straight world. None of us fitted in anywhere and that’s the way I liked it. Sorry to go on about this but people loved to misunderstand it, even now especially skinheads who were just naff straights anyway, keeping England white. Who cares? Let the fucking shithole sink into the sea I thought at the time. I still do. Punk 77 Interview 2002

However as punk proclaimed itself working class and ever more populist, its superficial violence and far-right symbols attracted a football hooligan element along with more distinctly right-wing skinheads. They latched onto bands like Sham 69 and the Lurkers often disrupting punk gigs sieg heiling and causing fights to promote their cause. It didn’t work and bands quickly allied themselves to RAR and in case of bands like the Cockney Rejects fought fire with fire and kicked the fuck out of the nazis.

Here the swastikas and far-right symbolism were for real and they thought punk rock could be an ideal recruiting ground. However, they thought wrong as the astutely mobilised anti fascist forces of Rock Against Racism and the Anti Nazi League outmaneuvered the far right in the quest for converts.

It wasn’t all sweetness and light. In Leeds the National Front launched its own punk fanzine ‘Punk Front’ and there were a couple of Leeds bands like the Dentists, Vents and White Boss who were openly right wing and even managed to play a Rock Against Communism gig at Conway Hall to a massive stadium crowd of 150. That said Leeds was a hotbed of anti-nazi activity as well. Searchlight was a magazine that exposed fascism and reported the below which includes an interesting reference to Skrewdriver given the date of 1979 and quotes from Grinny about him and Ian joining the local National Front at about that time.

What happened In the late seventies/eighties as punk fractured into a myriad of forms such as anarcho and oi the latter became associated with more nationalistic, but not necessarily racist tendencies, is not the concern of this site but looking at the picture above in the Searchlight article they sure don’t look like punks but there were punks who supported the National Front/British Movement.

I’ll finish off with a quote from Hebdiger’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style

We must resort, then, to the most obvious of explanations – that the swastika was worn because it was guaranteed to shock…The signifier (swastika) had been willfully detached from the concept (Nazism) it conventionally signified and placed in an alternative context ( ie punk music)…it was exploited for an empty effect.

Indeed!

If punk was to be considered right wing in any way then there really should be some sort of evidence of it expressed in the lyrics and record covers.

Point 1 – No record cover from 1976-79 featured a band or cover with any swastikas or racist/right wing overtones.

Point 2  – A handful of songs have contentious subject matter some of which can be explained away by irony and cynicism and some can’t –  they are just stupid. In a movement like punk, it’s inevitable the line will be crossed at some stage.

Point 3 – Every band below at some stage made some anti fascist statement either in the press or in action at RAR gigs.

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Adam had even more form with Dirk Wears White Socks about the Nazi and even more with Deutscher Girls which was a light-hearted romp about death camps and blonde German SS maidens and danced to by Legs & Co on the popular nighttime music programme Top Of The Pops.

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