The Thatchergate Tapes

THE THATCHERGATE TAPES

There are, of course, a multitude of ways to “hit back” as Conflict had put it and Crass more than most were pretty adept at it. Behind their public persona they had always been busy beavering away at various illicit activities that by some might have been called seditionary, and in January of 1984 they were exposed by The Observer newspaper for one such activity.

A tape had turned up in America of what was purportedly a crossed-line telephone conversation between Thatcher and Reagan discussing the sinking of The Belgrano and The Sheffield in the Falklands war, along with the plan to sacrifice Europe in the event of a nuclear war. The tape had fallen into the hands of the US State Department who whilst declaring it to be fake were attributing its production to the KGB. According to the Sunday Times newspaper who had also picked up on the story, it was 'evidence of an increasingly sophisticated Russian disinformation campaign'.

For some unexplained reason the Observer newspaper came knocking at Crass's door asking if they knew anything about it and after an initial denial Crass held up their hands and admitted that yes, the tape had been made by them.

The world's media picked up on the story and suddenly everyone wanted to interview these Punk Rockers from England who had fooled the CIA. Expecting in all likelihood a bunch of stereotypical, spotty Sid Vicious types, what they got instead was articulate, self-styled anarchists able to discuss at length the issues that had been raised in the tape.

Crass had hit back by producing what was essentially an amateur, home-made cassette tape of Thatcher and Reagan talking; cut up and rearranged to produce a made-up telephone conversation. They were then given the opportunity to hit back even harder by engaging with news organisations in America, Europe and Japan, and getting subjects into the public domain that hitherto had hardly been given a mention. For years Crass had shunned the mainstream music press and declined interviews with the various music papers but when it came to being able to talk to other mainstream media organisations about things other than music they readily took up the offers.

These were pre-Internet days and at that time music was an incredibly powerful medium for communication and one of the very few forms that could be in the control of those actually producing it. Retaining control of music and the various cultures from which it sprang meant autonomy and freedom of expression, something the Anarcho groups seemed to understand more than most, hence their jealous protection of it. As Flux Of Pink Indians had put it: “Punk belongs to the Punks not the business men. They need us, we don't need them. Punk will never be dead as long as some of us refuse to be led.”

Conflict also understood how precious it was as expressed in a short essay on the back cover of The Serenade Is Dead: 'Punk is not a business, it meant and still means an alternative to all the shit tradition that gets thrown at us. A way of saying 'No' to all the false morals that oppress us. It was and still is the only serious threat to the status quo of the music business. Punk is about making your own rules and doing your own thing. Not about making some pimp shop owner rich.

Punk is still our movement, we can put right was is wrong by learning to say 'No, we're right, you're wrong'. Fuck their fucking future it means oppression, war and hate. It's time to change the tables around and recreate the State.'

For anyone wanting to change the world, communication was key but it wasn't just a matter of what was said that was important but how it was said. Revolutionary and radical ideas in lyrics were all well and good but no matter how well-intentioned the protagonist might be, if those ideas were being delivered via a major record company then the bottom line was that those ideas were products and the sole point of them being sold by that company was to turn a profit.

“CBS promote The Clash but it ain't for revolution it's just for cash,” as Crass had put it. The Clash's reason for signing to CBS, according to Joe Strummer, was due to wanting as many people as possible to be able to hear them which was understandable but did this mean integrity counted for nothing? Did integrity have to be the first thing jettisoned in that bid to be heard?

“Punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS,” said Mark Perry and he was right. The Clash had been in such a good position in their early days that potentially they could have broken the back of the corporate music business had they chosen to remain independent of it. They could have if they had so wished sold their records from backs of lorries, according to Mark Perry again, and their fans would have lapped them up.

More realistically, rather than from backs of lorries there were enough small record shops opening up at that time to make the need for help from a major label to sell records redundant. Four years later in their song Hitsville UK from their Sandanista album, The Clash would sing the praises of the various independent labels (Small Wonder – the first home of Crass and Poison Girls, of course – being one of them) but by then it was too late.

If only The Clash had remained independent, what an escalation in the Punk wars it would have caused! Their début album would still have been made but it would have been far more profound, like a Feeding Of The 5000 for the '77 generation. Give 'Em Enough Rope would have been far different and far better, and as for London Calling who could possibly imagine how it might have been? 

If only, if only...

If it's true that like calls to like and threats are replicated by examples then the influence of The Clash was entirely predictable. They would encourage bands to form but then those bands would simply follow The Clash's lead and try to get signed-up by a major record label, subsequently jettisoning their independence and ensuring the cycle remained unbroken.

The influence of a band like Crass on the other hand was entirely unpredictable simply by them encouraging independence, which obviously opened up the potential for all kinds of independent thought and action.

Or that was the theory, at least...