Originally published at: The Clash gives a thumbs up to a Ukrainian resistance version of "London Calling" | Boing Boing
…
10 Likes
Look I am all in support of the Ukrainians repurposing of this song, but for goodness sake, “London Calling” is not a ballad.
Call it an anthem, call it a rock masterpiece, but ballad? C’mon now.
19 Likes
Awesome. Now do “The Guns of Kyiv”
13 Likes
Punk vs evil: the battle still rages on.
16 Likes
14 Likes
Rock the Kremlin
4 Likes
Pretty good choice. All “London” is doing is phoning it in anyway.
2 Likes
Billy Bragg on FBOOK an hour ago:
Yesterday evening I posted a clip of the Ukranian band Beton performing their rewrite of ‘London Calling’. According to reports, the song ‘Kyiv Calling’ was approved by the Clash, with funds raised going to the Free Ukraine Resistance Movement.
After a few hours of discussing the lyrics of the song and whether Joe Strummer would approve of the rewrite, a number of people drew my attention to a series of photographs on the band’s Facebook page showing members of the band wearing t-shirts based on the Ramones circular logo.
The word ‘Ramones’ at the top of the logo had been replaced with the word ‘Banderas’ and although all of the names within the circle were not visible, the one that was clearly read ‘Stepan’. The photos dated from a year ago.
This is deeply troubling. Stepan Bandera was a far-right Ukranian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine and whose followers were complicit in the Holocaust. That he did these things in the name of Ukranian independence from the Soviet Union has led some present day far right nationalists to adopt his image in their decade long struggle with Russia.
The knock on effect of this has been to allow Putin to smear all those who want a democratic Ukraine free from Russian influence as neo-nazis. The lionisation of Bandera explains his attempt to legitimize the invasion as a campaign of ‘denazification’, despite the fact that when, during the 2019 Ukrainian elections, all of the major far right Ukrainian parties formed a unified party for the national election, they gained just 2.15% of the vote and failed to secure a single seat in the national parliament. Compare that with the 2009 EU parliament election, where the BNP won 6% of the vote.
I left a message on the band’s Facebook page asking them to explain why they were wearing t-shirts that appeared to support Bandera, but after 24 hours, I’ve had no response, so I’ve deleted my post.
We can argue about the meaning of ‘London Calling’ and what Joe Strummer would or wouldn’t have said about the lyrical changes, but we can be damn sure that he would not have allowed his song to be utilised by a band that expressed their support for fascists.
22 Likes
Thats great.
Keep it up, lads!
The logo inside the eagle is also that of the OUN-B, the more extremist OUN splinter org, formed by Stepan Banderas, making it indisputably an OUN shirt.
And even if they weren’t, the organization they’re giving the funds to is far right ultranationalist.
I get wanting to support the good guys over the bad guys here, and Putin is definitely a bad guy in this conflict. No dispute there.
But war is complex and sometimes there’s more than one set of bad guys.
10 Likes
7 Likes
Sucks but milkshake ducks are a part of life I guess.
7 Likes
6 Likes
What do you do when your two political choices were: a Stalin/Communist regime that has confiscated all your property and systemically starved you to death; a Fascist and equally bloodthirsty “liberator.”
One of Putin’s goals has been to fully rehabilitate Stalin, the guy everyone was so terrified of, he died in a puddle of his own urine because his own orderlies didn’t want to risk disturbing him. And he’s getting away with it, domestically.
In 1942, I’m not clear what the other choices would be.
The point is Putin knocks Ukraine for its fascist turn in the '40s, and that just shows how desperate they were, how terrible the USSR was.
1 Like
Not pretend like those were the only choices?
4 Likes
In 1942, I’m not clear what the other choices would be.
Lets not pretend there were any other choices.
Are you under the impression that we can change history rather than learn from it?
Which describes half of Europe at that time?
Compared to the western world, which had spent several decades subjugating the non-European world? I mean, how do we describe US actions in Vietnam or French actions in Algeria? Okay, because it was against people who weren’t white?
maybe we should look clearly at what the modern era wrought and the supposed binary of either this or that…
1 Like
I dont remember when the USSR starved 20% of the population of Europe.
You’re whataboutisming to defend the USSR’s Holodomor and Stalin’s purges of the '30s?
You seemed to be defending current-day Ukraine’s democracy, but then you pivot to defend USSR’s worst Communist exploits?
