Political Commitment of a New Type? Red Wedge and the Labour Party in the 1980s

• Main Author: Jeremy Tranmer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2017-07-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Subjects: Red Wedge; Labour Party; Thatcherism; 1980s; activism; music
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/1466

During the 1980s, many British musicians expressed criticism of Margaret Thatcher’s policies in their music and in interviews with the press. Following the defeat of the miners’ strike in 1985, some came to the conclusion that only way they could contribute to defeating the Prime Minister was by supporting the Labour Party. In order to do so, they created Red Wedge, a movement of musicians which tried to persuade young people to vote Labour. Red Wedge attempted to promote new forms of activism for musicians but came up against a number of obstacles, such as structural constraints linked to the nature of the music industry.