A
Fascist controversy unfolding in Scotland has surprising links to
Denver, Colorado's punk rock scene
Social
media has been ablaze for weeks with calls to shut down what is being
billed as Scotland's "biggest white power concert ever." An upcoming October 2016 concert with Minnesota based Bound for
Glory, a white supremacist skinhead band and one of the most popular
Fascist bands in the world, has become the target for anti-racists
and others in Scotland. The Edinburgh event is expected to draw “an
army of fascist thugs from across Europe to Scotland's capital.”
Understandably, local leaders of Scotland's marginalized communities,
including leaders of black student organizations and community
groups, are starting the process of mobilizing against the concert.
The
event appears to have its roots with the European born white
nationalist skinhead street gang, Blood and Honour. London-based
Blood and Honour member Vicky Pearson has been credited with
organizing the show, while Blood and Honour members from across
Europe have been promoting the event. Tickets are already on sale,
though the name of the venue hosting the event has yet to be
released.
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| Bound for Glory: Minneapolis based Nazi punk band |
Blood
and Honour was founded in 1987 in the United Kingdom by Ian Stuart
Donaldson, the singer of revered skinhead oi band, Skrewdriver. Blood
and Honour derived its name from the infamous motto of the 1930's era
Hitler Youth, Blut
and Ehre. Since
its founding, Blood and Honour has grown into an international
network of Fascists active mostly across Europe and North America.
Focusing on street level organizing, Blood and Honour resembles a
gang or social club more than a traditional Fascist political party.
They function as a street level army of neo-nazi skinheads who focus
on propaganda, music and social events, and street level attacks on
migrants and marginalized communities.
Blood
and Honour in the United States has found itself in the midst of a
steady decline since the late 1990's. However, Blood and Honour
chapters still exist across the country and a major change within the
organization may have ramifications that very few anti-Fascists can
imagine at the present moment. What might be more surprising to many
is that Denver, Colorado may be on the cutting edge of Blood and
Honour's evolution.
The
Glorious Five Year Plan
In 1999, the Denver
street punk and oi scene revolved around anti-fascist bands like
Hardsole, a skinhead band with leftist politics. In the midst of this
scene, a young group of street punk kids started a band named Total
Annihilation.
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| Total Annihilation, 2004. |
Total Annihilation
started off as a pretty generic street punk band, trying to find
itself in a larger punk scene heavily influenced by crust punk and
anarchopunk. By 2004, the band openly identified as a “Red” band,
focusing on communist and leftist politics. In an interview with Mad
Butcher Records in 2004, Total Annihilation described itself as
having “found [their] calling in Revolutionary Marxist-Leninism”.
They also extended thanks to local SHARPS (Skinheads Against Racial
Prejudice) and international RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads)
“comrades”.
The first
acknowledged album by the band, released in 2003, entitled “The
Glorious Five Year Plan” screams out as an attempt to be an
anti-capitalist manifesto. Released by Seein Red Records, the album
features songs like “Hasta La Victoria Siempre”, a nod to Che
Guevera and Latin American communist inspired revolutionary
movements, as well as “Workers of the World, Unite!”, a foot
stomping song about international working class revolution. (We make
reference to this being the first acknowledged album by the band
because an earlier EP, “Revenge” apparently was so embarrassing
that they don't take credit for it some 15 years later.)
Sometime between the
release of “The Glorious Five Year Plan” in 2003 and the release
of their next album in 2008, there was a major shift in the political
ideology of the band. “The Great Patriotic War” illustrated that
the band had taken a dramatic change in direction toward a
nationalist and even anti-communist worldview. Songs like “American
Pride Skins” and “Stomp the Crust” have now become anthems
within many Ultra-Nationalist skinhead scenes. The band had decidedly
shifted it's pro-working class messages of communist revolution to a
new message of nationalism, anti-communism, and overt reactionary
politics.
 |
| Total Annihilation, 2015. |
It's unfortunately
not a far leap for communists and anarchists with a strictly class
based analysis to shift toward Fascistic idealogies. In situations
where anarchists and communists lack a strong analysis of white
supremacy and racism, our political ideologies typically rely on a
working class political ideology that is easily exploited by Fascists
to support a working class revolution not for liberation of all
workers, but for the imposition of a working class Nationalist
identity. Fascism and Socialism are divergent responses to the rise
of industrial Capitalism. The German Nazi Party, (The
National-Socialist German Workers' Party, or NSDAP) relied heavily on
critiques of capitalism, and used imagery and propaganda based
heavily off of Communist pro-working class propaganda to advance its
own agenda. Thousands of communists and anarchists withdrew from
organizations like the German Communist Party (KDP) to join the NSDAP
and the Nazis.
Total Annihilation
is a contemporary case study in the same evolution. However, what
Total Annihilation may represent is even far more insidious and could
represent a marked shift in the politics and orientation of Fascist
organizing in North America and beyond.
Yellowside
28
By 2014 it became
clear that Total Annihilation had continued its trajectory toward far
right wing politics. Their track listing in a split release with Para
Elite, a California based skinhead oi band, released that year makes
it clear what side of the barricades they find themselves on.
 |
| Yellowside Records. 28 stands for B&H, or Blood and Honour. |
|
“In
Bed with the Reds” is a song specifically calling out anti-fascists
affiliated with International Antifa movements, and calling for
violent attacks on anti-racists and others opposed to far right
politics. The song also openly condemns homosexuality and queerness.
In “Death of a Nation”, the band labels Mexican and Central
American migrants as an “alien disease” and Muslims as
“degenerate parasites”. In “Criminal Invasion” the band
further illustrates their anti-migrant Ultra-Nationalist message
while also attacking “the capitalist class” in the United States
for helping fuel the “conquest of the nation” by the “criminal
invasion” of “illegals”.
Total Annihilation
is decidedly racist, xenophobic, anti-leftist, anti-capitalist, and
Ultra-Nationalist, falling into line with classic themes of Fascism.
So what makes Total Annihilation different from any other Fascist
skinhead band? It may shock many who are unfamiliar with Total
Annihilation to know that the lead singer of the band, Jimi Yamamoto,
is Japanese, not white.
In fact, Total
Annihilation represents what may be a developing “Yellow and White
Unity” that seems to be taking place not just in the larger
Ultra-Nationalist skinhead scene, but in Blood and Honour USA
specifically.
Japan
is no stranger to Fascist and Ultra-nationalist skinheads. Bound for
Glory toured Japan as far back as 2013 on the heals of a release of a
split record with Japanese Fascist band Aggro Knuckle. Aggro Knuckle
is also the main band behind a record label that distributes
Ultra-Nationalist, white power, and Fascist music, called Yellowside
Records.
Yellowside
Records has been working for years to build bridges between White and
Asian Fascists. The logo for Yellowside Records is the traditional SS
Totenkopf (Deathhead, the very iconic skull and crossbones of the
Nazi elite soldiers in the German SS units of World War II), and also
includes the number 28. 28 represents the letters “B” and “H”
and has been a call sign for Blood and Honour in street level Fascist
shorthand for decades. The combination of the Totenkopf and the
number 28 is typically reserved for skinheads that are members or
supporters of Blood and Honour.
Indeed, a cursory
look at the Yellowside Records website features bands that are big in
the white power music scene, including Legitime Violence from Quebec,
an overtly Nazi Francophone skinhead band.
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| "YEAR" An Asian Fascist crew, including Jimi Yamamoto (Total Annihilation, pictured far left) and Jay San (Para Elite, pictured far right) |
The links between
Jimi Yamamoto and Jay San from Para Elite and Yellowside records are
undisputed. In fact, Yellowside Records promotes both bands, and
photos of Jimi and Jay are found on several parts of the Yellowside
Records website. Jimi and Jay also are close pals with the members of
Aggro Knuckle and both promote other bands associated with the label,
including Legitime Violence.
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| Jimi Yamamoto (Total Annihilation) and "Big" Ed Wolbank (Bound for Glory) |
Yellowside Records
also has a very friendly relationship with Bound for Glory, the
Minnesota Nazi band that is causing the stir in Scotland right now.
In fact, Yamamoto and “Big Ed” Wolbank from Bound for Glory
appear to be pretty close friends and associates, further supporting
the case that this purported “Yellow-White Unity” is having very
deep seeded effects in the White Power scene in North America.
So is Yellowside
Records just using the traditional Blood and Honour imagery without
Blood and Honour's tacit approval? It seems highly unlikely,
especially given Blood and Honour USA's Jon Pressley's relationship
with Yamamoto and other Japanese-American Fascists on Facebook and
other social media. Pressley is in the top ranks of Blood and Honour
USA leadership. Even his social relationship with Yamamoto and other
skinheads of Asian descent seems to suggest Blood and Honour's
retreat from strictly traditional White Supremacist methods to those
more in line with Third Positionism. Far from just supporting a cross
collaboration between Japanese Fascists active in Japan, they are now
creating unity with Japanese-American skinheads living in the U.S.,
and toning down overtly White Supremacist language and imagery with a
more specific and unique brand of good old fashioned White American
Nativism and Fascist ideologies, uniting various racial groups
against perceived “outside enemies” like migrants, Muslims,
leftists, Queers, and even formations like Black Lives Matter.
What
makes this situation all the more insidious is that many of these
skinheads and those affiliated with them do not use swastikas or
other overt Nazi imagery (other than the Totenkompf), nor are they
typically going to be found quoting Hitler or giving Nazi salutes.
These aren't your “American History X” style boneheads. This is a
regrouping and a rebranding of U.S. Street level Fascist organizing.
And it's much more tenacious and much harder to fight than the
obvious homogeneously white Nazi skinhead scene.
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| Chemical X |
Fascism
seeps into the Denver Punk scene
Total
Annihilation has long been a controversial local band in Denver. TA
has been reluctant to play local shows, and it has been hard to find
venues willing to host them. That said, members of Total Annihilation
play in other local bands in the punk scene without any of the same
scrutiny.
Local
bands with members of Total Annihilation include Chemical X and 4
Minute Warning, local street punk bands that enjoy varying degrees of
popularity in the local music scene.
Chemical X
 |
| Andrew Scott, member of Chemical X and Total Annihilation. |
|
Andrew Scott joined both Total Annihilation and Chemical X in 2015,
but has been a long time friend of both bands, doing guest vocals,
and promoting both bands extensively. Andrew's Facebook wall is
filled with links left by Jimi Yamamoto to songs by White Power and
Fascist skinhead bands. Andrew also states in no uncertain terms that
one of his favorite Total Annihilation songs is “Criminal Invasion”
their anti-migrant screed.
 |
| Kyle Atwell, Bassist for Total Annihilation and 4 Minute Warning |
4
Minute Warning
Kyle Atwell is the most
recent addition to Total Annihilation, playing bass for the band. He
also is a member of local punk band, 4 Minute Warning, a band that
includes former members of other area Oi and street punk bands,
including Bad Engrish.
At this point, it has become
painfully obvious that both bands know that they incorporate members
who are active with an openly Fascist band. Show promoters and other
fans have pointed this out, and neither band has taken any action to
deal with their connections to Fascists. In fact, a December 2015
show featuring both bands saw a group of members of both bands and
their fans tearing down anti-fascist posters at local DIY venue
Seventh Circle, and threatening to find and “kick the ass” of any
anti-fascists in the crowd.
So how did we end up here?
The Denver punk scene has been overwhelmingly forgiving and
accommodating in its attitude toward the Fascists within its circles.
It seems that it would be far easier to galvanize support for
confronting these bands and their members if they wore swastikas and
openly used racial slurs than it is when they use relatively obscured
Nazi imagery and instead call for attacks on migrants, Muslims, and
Queers. Either way, members of Total Annihilation, and now related
bands, have enjoyed comfort within the local punk scene.
It's time to end that. It's
time for folks in Denver to take a cue from those organizing in
Scotland against Bound For Glory. These bands and their members
should find no safe space within our venues, within our social
circles, and on our streets.
As street level Fascism and
right wing reactionary tendencies grow in the United States,
bolstered by the rise of Republican Presidential hopeful Donald
Trump, we can only expect Fascists and their supporters to grow more
bold. 2015 saw a host of right wing attacks and terrorism directed at
migrants, Black Lives Matter activists, white anti-racists, and
others. It is far past time to start to confront these tendencies
growing within our own social circles. We can only hope it's not too
late to do so. The consequences could be severe if we fail at this
task.
Postscript:
There seems to be some controversy over the article we posted. People
seem to be rolling their eyes and claiming that the article was made
up. Interesting, as all the photos represented were straight from band
members own Facebook pages... But why don't we let the lyrics from Total
Annihilation's songs speak for themselves?
From "Criminal Invasion":
There's a battle raging in America's land
As the patriots fight to make their stand
To defend our country in the culture clash
As third world nations send us their trash
They come to our streets where they murder and rob
While the capitalists reward them with American jobs
Sell us their drugs and poison our youth
While the traitors in power cover up the truth
It's the Criminal Invasion
Undermining our security
It's the Criminal Invasion
Leaching off our economy
It's the Criminal Invasion
Can you hear when your nation calls?
It's the Criminal Invasion
Curb Immigration or the nation falls
Illegals are criminals by definition
The conquest of America is their mission
They don't learn the language or salute our flag
They got our kids running scared from their gangs
They don't pay taxes that they deprive the nation
They make no effort toward assimilation
We have to do something to stop the invasion
Mass immigration is the death of our nation
And now, what about these amazing lyrics from "In Bed with the Reds":
Don't give me no bullshit about homophobia
Because I just don't want to hear it
Just because I find something completely disgusting
Doesn't mean that I fucking fear it
What lies behind your propaganda really is white guilt
You shit all over your ancestors and the once great culture they built
Or, maybe this classic set of lyrics from "Death of a Nation":
They open our borders to the alien disease
They've beaten the U.S. worker down to his knees
Gave away our jobs and now they want our liberties
What the fuck has happened to the land of the free?
It's the death of a nation
The writings on the wall
It's the death of a nation
America will fall
So, Total Annihilation, by their own lyrics, is an anti-migrant,
anti-gay band. They also use images of people the viewer is to assume
are Muslims in their music video for "Death of a Nation", at the same
time as the lyrics "degenerate parasites" leave Jimi's mouth. Okay, so
they're anti-migrant. Anti-gay. Anti-muslim. They're also opposed to
Anti-fascists, as illustrated by these telling words from "In Bed with
the Reds":
So fuck you and fuck your Anti-fascist Action
Just another false label for another red faction
And also try to galvanize the "reverse racism" logic of the right wing with this line from the same song:
You say you're against racism and I can tell you that ain't true
Because racism and violence directed at whites never seems to bother you
What other kinds of bands are anti-migrant, anti-gay, anti-Muslim,
opposed to anti-fascists, and try to stir the pot against the infamous
"communist" boogey man, while also portraying whites as victims of
racist attacks?
These lyrics should speak for themselves. But
for fans of Total Annihilation who are in denial about their support for
fascists, there are several questions that should be asked:
1)
Why do members of the band have a very friendly and cozy relationship
with well-known and self proclaimed Fascists and Nazis like Ed Wolbank
from Bound for Glory or Jon Pressley, a known leader of Blood and Honour
USA (a neo-nazi street gang)?
2) Why does Total Annihilation rep
record labels and bands that use Nazi imagery and have racist,
homophobic, and Fascist lyrics or who outright identify as Nazi bands,
like Bound for Glory, Legitime Violence, and Aggro Knuckle?
3)
What does the number 28 mean on the clothing in various pictures of
members of Total Annihilation, and what does that same number stand for
in the logo of a record label they are closely affiliated with,
Yellowside Records? And why does the band rep the Totenkopf, or SS
deathhead?
We challenge Total Annihilation to publicly answer these questions, and put the minds of their confused fans to rest.
We also challenge the other bands in question, Chemical X and 4 Minute
Warning to ask the same questions of their members who also play in
Total Annihilation, and to hold them accountable. We would further
challenge these bands to publicly disavow these members if they continue
to play in Total Annihilation, or risk becoming supporters for Fascism.
This isn't a game. In a reality where political candidates like Donald
Trump are galvanizing adherents of these same exact ideologies, we stand
at a very dangerous moment historically. Which side of history will the
participants of the Denver punk scene stand on?
