The Dark Skies Above Us: HOW TO OPPOSE FASCISM IN THE EXTREME METAL SCENE

Τετάρτη 30 Αυγούστου 2017

HOW TO OPPOSE FASCISM IN THE EXTREME METAL SCENE

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE FOR COMRADES AND FELLOW ANTIFASCISTS

Article written by Barbarie and originally published in Italian at this address: "Come opporsi al fascismo nel metal estremo"

Download the PDF [A5] ready-to-print:

Very often the extreme / black metal scene has not been the most welcoming place for non-white and/or LGBTQIA people. These people would like to go to black metal concerts and be part of their scene but often don’t feel safe by the consistent presence of racists at gigs and festivals. The heavy presence of racists in Black Metal even produced a completely new and autonomous subgenre: the infamous NSBM, or National Socialist Black Metal.

WE MUST OPPOSE RACISM IN ANY FORM, MAKE SURE THAT DANGEROUS PEOPLE AND THEIR DISGUSTING IDEOLOGIES ARE NOT WELCOME AND THAT METAL IS A PLACE FOR ANY KIND OF PEOPLE APART FROM BIGOTS, SEXISTS AND PEOPLE WHO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE COLOUR OF SOMEBODY'S SKIN.

This pamphlet is just a tool aimed at solving this stifling problem. Boycott has always been a revolutionary tactic: we just need to find a way to use it effectively. First, just for simplicity, we need to divide the problem of nsbm in 2 parts: the bands and the scenes.

1) THE BANDS

Openly NS bands like Graveland, Satanic Warmaster, Peste Noire or less popular ones must be hindered and boycotted in every possible way.
The boycott shall also include non-NS bands where fascists play. Many NS bands from the 90s has in fact become more intelligent through time and for marketing and political reasons they cleaned their image leaving behind the most obvious nazi paraphernalia. Nokturnal Mortum is a great example of this process: while they are now publicly “apolitical”, their members are still obvious militants or supporters of Ukrainian neo-fascism.
We must not tolerate also bands that share the stage with openly NS bands who, despite the severity of racism, claim that they only care for the music or other similar bullshit completely unattached to the material reality. If they care about the music so much, why don’t they make gigs the most welcoming places they can to all kind of people? Contrary to adhering to an ideology of hate – which is a choice someone makes – the conditions you are born into, your traits, your ethnicity or your sexual orientation are not something you choose. Musician, who do you want to play for?

1.1) RESEARCH

Many symbols related to Nazism can be found in artworks: their presence should ring a bell.

The “Hate on Display” project provides a solid database of racist symbols and can be found here

It is very likely that someone already discussed online about the ideas of a band and of its members. It is easy to find these info.

1.2) INDIVIDUAL BOYCOTT

Stop fuelling Nazis with our money. Stop buying NSBM albums, merch, stop going to NS-friendly gigs. Who still wants to listen to these bands can download their music illegally, but without publicizing it. Do not ever go to their gigs (apart if planning to picket it as presented in point 1.4 below).

1.3) SOCIAL BOYCOTT

If we organize, we are (of course) more effective.

Make scorched earth around the Nazis.

Make effective use of all available connections and even social networks to make pressure on non-NS bands so that they have to take a side and avoid sharing stage with fascists.
Pressure must be put also on the organizers of NS concerts and on the people that provide them with a place where to hold them: they must acknowledge who is going to play there, what are the band's stances on anti-semitism, racisms and homophobia and what their members said and did during the years.

1.4) STREET BOYCOTT

The objective is to block and disrupt a concert from taking place.

A few examples of effective antifascist actions:

hang up banners, flyers and posters all around the concert venue days before the concert in order to push and distress the owner of the place even more;
hand-to-hand flyering is as always a good option too;
a picket in front of the place should be organised the day of the gig - if it is possible to deploy enough forces to make the action safe.

These tactics present the biggest risks and should be organised with care and taking any precautions that will make their accomplishment safe from both a physical and a legal perspective..

2) THE SCENES

THE EXTREME METAL SCENE

The places where the scene lives must be kept free from fascists. Ambiguous people must be disambiguated, confrontation is necessary to defend yourself and to keep our spaces safe for everybody to enter and enjoy. Does someone with a Burzum t-shirt walk around our places? Confront him/her and make your move. A panacea solution does not exist, some people should just be warned about the shit they are endorsing, and other ones must be simply kicked out.

It’s now obvious that fascists will not disappear by themselves. We can’t waste time in organizing generic black metal concerts or festivals that just allow people to enjoy themselves one night. The gigs we organize or we attend to, must be more and more explicitly political, clearly antifascist and, in case of black metal, understandably anti-nsbm.

OTHER SCENES

We should not enclose ourselves in our scene: prolific connections can be made "outside" of it. The punk and hardcore scenes are possibly the most antifascist and revolutionary existing ones, many of us are already active members of these scenes or have comrades or friends in them.

As antifascists, we must develop non-sectarian mutual-supportive relationships with those comrades, and, since these scenes have a long and established antifa history, we should learn what they have already developed through time to keep their scenes safe.

If their participants are not aware of what is going on inside the extreme metal scene, or if they have prejudices against it, we should share knowledge with them about the growing anti-racist feeling that is developing in our scene. With the migrant and social crisis deepening, political positions are also taking a more defined shape: taking an antiracist stance has become necessary for everybody that oppose Nazis. The help from these people is necessary.

IF YOU DON’T STAND AGAINST YOU ARE COLLABORATING

Our objective is to be able, over time, to blur the distinctions between scenes that share the same values: defending our music, places and concerts from the fascist scum and, ultimately, defeating fascism by kicking out racists from concerts, from scenes, from the world, from the universe.

Download the PDF [A5] ready-to-print:

The Dark Skies Above Us