Billy Bragg: long statement re: Morrissey on Facebook (7 July, 2019)




"Last Sunday, while much of the British media were lauding Stormzy’s Glastonbury headline show as epoch defining, Morrissey posted a white supremacist video on his website, accompanied by the comment ‘Nothing But Blue Skies for Stormzy...The Gallows for Morrissey’. The nine minute clip lifted footage from the grime star’s Pyramid Stage performance while arguing that the British establishment are using him to promote multiculturalism at the expense of white culture.

The YouTube channel of the video’s author contains other clips expressing , among other things, homophobia, racism and misogyny - left wing women of colour are a favourite target for his ire. There are also clips expounding the Great Replacement Theory, a far right conspiracy trope which holds that there is a plot of obliterate the white populations of Europe and North America through mass immigration and cultural warfare.

My first thought was to wonder what kind of websites Morrissey must be trawling in order to be able to find and repost this clip on the same day that it appeared online? I came home from Glastonbury expecting to see some angry responses to his endorsement of white supremacism. Instead, the NME published an interview with Brandon Flowers in which the Killers lead singer proclaimed that Morrissey was still “a king”, despite being in what Flowers recognised was “hot water” over his bigoted comments.

As the week progressed, I kept waiting for some reaction to the white supremacist video, yet none was forthcoming. Every time I googled Morrissey, up would pop another article from a music website echoing the NME’s original headline: ‘The Killers Brandon Flowers on Morrissey: ‘He’s Still A King’. I’m well aware from personal experience how easy it is for an artist to find something you’ve said in the context of a longer discourse turned into an inflammatory headline that doesn’t reflect your genuine views on the subject at hand, but I have to wonder if Flowers really understands the ramifications of Morrissey’s expressions of support for the far right For Britain Party?

As the writer of the powerful Killers song ‘Land of the Free’, does he know that For Britain wants to build the kind of barriers to immigration that Flowers condemns in that lyric?
Party leader Anne Marie Walters maintains ties with Generation Identity, the group who both inspired and received funds from the gunman who murdered 50 worshippers at a Christchurch mosque. How does that sit with the condemnation of mass murder by lone gunman in ‘Land of the Free’?

As an explicitly anti-Muslim party, For Britain opposes the religious slaughter of animals without the use of a stun gun, a policy that has given Morrissey a fig leaf of respectability, allowing him to claim he supports them on animal welfare grounds. Yet if that is his primary concern, why does he not support the UK’s Animal Welfare Party, which stood candidates in the recent European elections?

Among their policies, the AWF also aim to prohibit non-stun slaughter. If his only interest was to end this practice, he could have achieved this without the taint of Islamophobia by endorsing them. They are a tiny party, but Morrissey’s vocal support would have given the animal rights movement a huge boost of publicity ahead of the polls.

Instead, he expresses support for anti-Muslim provocateurs, posts white supremacist videos and, when challenged, clutches his pearls and cries “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me”. His recent claim that “as a so-called entertainer, I have no rights” is a ridiculous position made all the more troubling by the fact that it is a common trope among right-wing reactionaries.

The notion that certain individuals are not allowed to say certain things is spurious, not least because it is most often invoked after they’ve made their offensive comments. Look closely at their claims and you’ll find that what they are actually complaining about is the fact that they have been challenged.

The concept of freedom pushed by the new generation of free speech warriors maintains that the individual has the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want, with no comeback. If that is the definition of freedom, then one need look no further than Donald Trump’s Twitter feed as our generation’s beacon of liberty. Perhaps Lady Liberty should be replaced in New York Harbour with a colossal sculpture of the Donald, wearing a toga, holding a gaslight.

Worryingly, Morrissey’s reaction to being challenged over his support of For Britain, his willingness to double down rather than apologise for any offence caused, suggests a commitment to a bigotry that tarnishes his persona as the champion of the outsider. Where once he offered solace to the victims of a cruel and unjust world, he now seems to have joined the bullies waiting outside the school gates.

As an activist, I’m appalled by this transformation, but as a Smiths fan, I’m heartbroken.

It was Johnny Marr’s amazing guitar that drew me to the band, but I grasped that Morrissey was an exceptional lyricist when I heard ‘Reel Around the Fountain’. Ironically, it was a line that he had stolen that won my affections. “I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice” is spoken by Jimmy, the black sailor, to his white teenage lover, Jo, in Sheila Delaney’s play ‘A Taste of Honey’.

The 1961 movie, starring Rita Tushingham was an early example of a post-war British society that would embrace multi-racial relationships (and homosexuality too). By pilfering that particular line for the song, Morrissey was placing the Smiths in the great tradition of northern working class culture that may have been in the gutter, but was looking at the stars. Yet, by posting a white supremacist video in which he is quoted as saying “Everyone prefers their own race”, Morrissey undermines that line, erasing Jo and Jimmy and all those misfit lovers to whom the Smiths once gave so much encouragement.

A week has passed since the video appeared on Morrissey’s website and nothing has been written in the media to challenge his position. Today it was reported that research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a UK based anti-extremist organisation, reveals that the Great Replacement Theory is being promoted so effectively by the far right that it is entering mainstream political discourse.

That Morrissey is helping to spread this idea - which inspired the Christchurch mosque murderer - is beyond doubt. Those who claim that this has no relevance to his stature as an artist should ask themselves if, by demanding that we separate the singer from the song, they too are helping to propagate this racist creed."


Regards,
FWD.

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Morrissey is standing up for what is right and denying Islam. Bragg has bought into the established brain washing. Again!! Why would a gay man want to welcome Islam into his country when they say he should die?? Bragg is splitting hairs over if Morrissey is racist, meanwhile he’s backing a religion that says to kill gays! I’m a liberal but I just don’t get this part of the left that wants to defend Islam and it’s anti gay and anti woman ways. You’re no liberal if you do!
Are you in favor of kicking out evangelicals as well? Are you aware that more American muslims support LGBTQ causes than American evangelicals?

The left obviously do not agree with Islam. But we have a concept of this strange little thing called 'nuance'. It is not right to kick out people for beliefs they were indoctrinated into, especially if they're harming nobody and especially if they're assimilating into Western culture which they are.
 
@billybragg , aren’t you supposed to be playing a pub right now instead of using Morrissey as a punchline for you peanut gallery political meanderings? Get your own career going before you try to take down others in self promotion.
 
@billybragg , aren’t you supposed to be playing a pub right now instead of using Morrissey as a punchline for you peanut gallery political meanderings? Get your own career going before you try to take down others in self promotion.

o_O
what career?:lbf:

the knob hasnt ever been able to make out a tune.:lbf:
 
Billy Bragg is not an artist. So shut the f*** up about art

Hey I don't really understand why it's popular for people, such as Billy Bragg, to try to destroy alternative, talented, artists reputations, because they dare to speak out of place. I thought that's what weird, alternative artisty people do. God you wish you had his talent. You ve abandoned the working class, the only shit you ever sang about, for trendy identity politics. So easy. Jumping on whatever makes you seem relevant and still left wing. The left wing is fractured come to grips with it. I don't really agree with morriseys stance on some things and I don't care. Why doesnt billy Bragg take on David Bowie or Iggy pop for their established views/leanings on fascism. Maybe wouldn't get as many likes. Big mouth not thinking. Peace. f*** social media.
 
Not much to Bragg about
 
Like Enoch Powell, Clapton has never taken back his comments or compromised his position. As recently as December 2007 he appeared on the South Bank Show and told Melvyn Bragg that he wasn't a racist but still believed Powell's comments were relevant. Unlike Powell, however, Eric Clapton's career has enjoyed a resurgence - he was given a CBE in 2004, reunited with Cream in 2005 and will be headlining this year's Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. Like David Bowie, who once told an interviewer that Britain would benefit from a Fascist dictator, "Slowhand" Clapton has managed to emerge from the allegations of racism seemingly unharmed.
 
Are you in favor of kicking out evangelicals as well? Are you aware that more American muslims support LGBTQ causes than American evangelicals?

The left obviously do not agree with Islam. But we have a concept of this strange little thing called 'nuance'. It is not right to kick out people for beliefs they were indoctrinated into, especially if they're harming nobody and especially if they're assimilating into Western culture which they are.

Whatever happened to the Popper paradox that leftists live by? Why are you tolerant of some forms of intolerance, but not others?

The same could be said of racists. Ultimately, we have no free will and we don't get to decide what we believe. Our ideas and opinions are rooted in factors that are far out of our control, and it's impossible for you to choose to agree with something you disagree with. That being said, if someone has racist views, but aren't harming anyone, should they be campaigned for? Should they be protected from discrimination? Not a catch. A genuine question.

I respect your position, but I don't think you can speak for all leftists. Perhaps the let does disagree with Islam, but they certainly don't make it obvious. You should make it clear that you denounce this ideology, instead of holding up a sign that says "Islam=love" like so many leftists did at the last womens' march.

This isn't about the family of Muslims who live next door. Purging all Muslims from the country is throwing out the baby with the bath water, yes. But it's difficult to judge on a large scale which Muslims have assimilated into Western society and ultimately just want a good life versus which Muslims have pledged their loyalties to their religion and want to start a Holy War. How do you suggest we weed out the extremists?. By all means, support the people who've fallen under this oppressive ideology.
 

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