Antifascistische klassieker du jour: Which Side Will You Be On

De Rotterdamse maoïstische punks van The Rondos slaagden er als enigen in zowel rechtse skinheads, de CPN als Crass tegen zich in het harnas te jagen. The Rondos opereerden vanuit Huize Sonderloo en vormden samen met inmiddels – helaas – bijna vergeten bands als de Sovjets en Rode Wig het Rotterdamse ‘”Red Rock” collectief.

In september 1979 wisten The Rondos de Guardian te halen met hun betrokkenheid bij wat bekend kwam te staan als “The Battle of Conway Hall”, toen leden van de Anti Nazi League tijdens een benefietconcert in Londen op de vuist gingen met skinheads en leden van het National Front. Drummer Penny Rimbaud van Crass schuift in zijn autobiografie de verantwoordelijkheid voor de veldslag volledig in de schoenen van The Rondos: “All hell broke loose when we attempted to play a benefit for Persons Unknown at the Conway Hall, London. Sharing the bill with the Rondos, a Dutch band who we had thought were anarchists, but turned out to be hard-line Maoists, the gig had its tensions from the start. “We are not in favor of patronising the Right,” they had declared on hearing about the skinhead faction of our following. “If there is trouble, we will reciprocate.”By then, I was pretty certain that if there wasn’t trouble, the Rondos would create it, but I needn’t have worried, there was plenty of it without their help…..Shortly before we were due to go on, a commotion broke out at the door. We were under attack, not from the British Movement, but from the Red Brigade, Trotskyists who, in their crusade for peoples’ power, had taken it upon themselves to rid the hall of ‘Nazi scum’. Anyone with hair shorter than half an inch, plus a scattering of those unfortunate enough to be wearing a hat that disguised their allegiance, were regarded as fair game. The resultant carnage was ugly, unnecessary and utterly indefensible. The Rondos were nowhere to be seen throughout.”

Volgens The Rondos lag het allemaal iets genuanceerder (en eerlijk gezegd lijkt hun versie me ook waarschijnlijker): Then all hell broke loose. It all happened very fast. People were getting punched and kicked. Panic broke out. The audience scattered. We lifted small skinheads on to the stage so they wouldn’t get trampled. They cried with shock and fear and were barely eleven or twelve years old. People were lying on the floor. The police arrived and cleared the room. The skins were told to hand in their shoelaces. Peace returned and staff scrubbed the floor and mopped up the blood. Apparently, members of the Anti Nazi League and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) had clashed with skinheads of the British Movement and the National Front, who had stayed behind in pubs around the Conway Hall after the NF meeting to come to Crass’ gig that evening. A Jewish activist from the SWP walked up to the stage and pointed his finger at Crass. Your fault!

when this country is another Vietnam

when streets turn into battle-fields again

on the day this system falls

on that day with our backs against the wall

which side will you be on?

which side will you be on?

when the army takes over factories

when law and order spreads its fatal disease

when they protect property with guns

when they send in the remote-controlled cunts

which side will you be on?

which side will you be on?

is it a choice — resistance or condemned

is it a choice — freedom or a concentration-camp

is there a choice when fascism is a fact

is there a choice when fascism is a fact

which side will you be on?

which side will you be on?