Another reason for the dubbed ‘golden age’ of skinheads was a historic political moment. 1968 Enoch Powell, a member of parliament made a speech called the rivers of blood. During this speech Powell used the scapegoating of immigrants and blamed them for the economical and political failures at the time.
This speech supercharged the national front.
The national front,apolitical party in the UK and extreme-right party with especially racist and fascist views. The national front started recruiting many skinhead members. This is a big turning point in the skinhead scene. A divide erupted between on one hand the early skinhead; who aligned itself with working class pride, anti establishment views, reggae music and a classic rudeboy/hard mod style. And on the other hand anti establishment but extremely right wing thinking, pro worker but, anti migrant workers and rebelled with much more and uncontrollable violence.
The backdrop against which the skinheads arose was that of Great-Britain in the late 1960’s, therefore this is a description of a western socio-political narrative.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were determined by political unrest in many Western countries. Great-Britain coped with a lot of economic unrest as well. This arose from the aftermath of world war II, during the following years, a variety of factors are to blame. Such as the following; high unemployment, decline in local industry, outsourcing of manufacturing goods, poor treatment of labour unions and unfortunate city planning. Workers felt overlooked, discarded and were in many ways alienated because their economical prospects were very limited.
Furthermore , the decolonization process of previously occupied nations contributed to a sense of national identity. This meant a decline in power and capital for many western nations. The ruling labor government's during this period failed to address these issues which contributed to social unrest.
Furthermore after World war II there was an influx of migrant workers from the former british colonies to help rebuild the country.
Immigration from former British colonies, for example coming from the Caribbean and South Asia, increased rapidly. Often migrating to working class neighborhoods in big cities a subgroup emerged from their culture, the Jamaican rudeboys.
This initially proved successful for early skinheads as they were drawn towards Jamaican music and fashion. At its core the early look of skinhead consisted of a button down or collarless shirt, often checkered, blue jeans,Doc. Martens work boots crowded with a buzz cut. Elsewhere incorporated were traditional donkey jackets, camo greens, cotton and denim jackets. During this first wave of skinheads, a considerable overlap existed between early skinhead subculture and the rude boys. As these groups interacted and fraternized with each other within the same poor neighborhoods in England. These two groups started sharing style components while also having a shared distaste against the imperial ruling system and the police system which upheld its laws. The early skinheads with the rude boys created a bridge between cultures.
While the skinheads increased their resistance to the establishment violence spread, they started shaving their heads which was practical in a brawl. This attitude and accompanied look was also a counter reaction to the ‘peace and love’ ethos of the 1960’s
The peak of the skinhead movement which we are more familiar with today was at its height in 1969. Seen as the golden age of the movement, in large thanks to hooliganism. Hooliganism, something that unites young males, aggression and a sense of patriotism, a perfect storm for skinheads. Skinheads were everywhere by this point and one of the major subcultures. The term ‘skinhead’ was a title bestowed upon by the media who early on broadcasted the movements taste for aggression and trouble specifically marking the violence at football grounds.
For many Brits outside of the cities their first glimpse of a skinhead was also surrounding a football match as large gangs traveled from and wide to away games up and down the country. For the working class Saturdays are usually meant for football.
This portion of our research is dedicated to convey the social and political climate in which the Skinheads emerged. The origins of this subculture can be traced back to the 1960s as the Skinheads were a deviation of another subculture at the time, “the Mods”.
The skinheads are a deviation that grew from the so-called “hard mods”, a group within the mod subculture that wanted to push back more vigorously and sometimes with increasing violence. Marked by shaved haircuts paired with their working class outerwear, the newly dubbed skinheads were also marked by their deviance against the upper middle class and bourgeois hippie movement and ethos. The group’s subsequent rise in the 1970s and revival in the late 1980s is inherently linked with the changing political climate of the time.
The skinheads influenced by the punk scene, still wearing their combat boots, traded their Fred Perry shirts for big tattoos, and their Ska for Punk music.
Besides the aesthetical changes even more members adopted a pro national sentiment in which the British working class should be put first. This right wing ideology was accelerated by the political landscape. There was this everlasting sentiment of feeling overlooked and annihilated. Punk bands included lyrics about political populism and had football-like chants in their songs which drew the hooligans in. The National Front, during this time capitalized on this sentiment and started spreading anti-immigrant rhetoric and xenophobia.This led to cultural clashes and racial tensions in the country.
Skinheads obtained high up positions in the party and so the National front and the extreme right wing of the skinhead movement grew further away from their origin. The divide grew further even in the music scene. There was the two toned music inspired by the Jamaican music introduced by rude boys and the harder riot punk called Oi!
Oi! bands attracted the more rowdy prejudiced skinhead including also neo-nazi’s as their audience. Often already looking for a fight and they would pick an already marginalized group to direct their anger towards. For the media this section of the skinheads was much more interesting, often tying rock music with aggressions and racism.
To escape this narrative popular punk bands at the time even performed therock against racism, which was a concert tour made to bring both sides of the punk music audience together to increase harmony in the movement. After an attack by the national front during one of the concerts these efforts stopped. The tour ending with even more racial unrest.
By the late 1980’s, the media, and subsequently the general public, had largely decided that skinheads is a movement that promotes racism and neo-Nazism. Moral panic created an even bigger divide which unintentionally led to more deviation from the original message.
People on both sides of the group started rioting against each other this cemented the aggressive image this has lasted up until now.
Dorset Estate just off Hackney Road in London. Photo taken from Flickr Creative Commons, user Duncan C.
Later reaching the 1980’s the second wave of the skinheads arose, all the while punk had made its claim into the nation's identity, at least among the youth. Punks instigated its revival with a similar message to the original resistance from the working class towards the British conservative government. Skinheads felt that their message was seen and validated again by this new scene.
During this time Great-Britain was coping with widespread strikes by private and public sector trade unions demanding pay raises. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter in the UK of that decade, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country.
This is also known as the winter of disconnect
WATCH VIDEO HERE OF A SKINHEAD CONCERT https://youtu.be/7rA3glAA-nw
Dorset Estate just off Hackney Road in London. Photo taken from Flickr Creative Commons, user Duncan C. .
Nowadays the style has seen some changes since the punk twist from the last century. Today the fashion has moved more towards the military look. Seen with a spike after 9/11 and the war on terror. Far right members feel the need to show their ultimate patriotic pride. The highest form of patriotism is to serve your country in military duty. Funny enough this military inspired look is coined by the system they first started to rebel from, the government. Until this day there is a small group that has stuck by the original classic working class values and looks but unfortunately always get outshined by their louder far right brothers.
Understanding these socio-political dynamics is essential for comprehending the complex motivations behind the actions of skinhead groups during this period. This is a brief explanation on how disillusioned and discontent workers grew from rebellious young adults, crowned by their striking haircuts to be some of the world's most hateful members in society.
SOURCES;
Club, L. Y. (2020, April 27). Skinheads - Museum of Youth Culture. Museum of Youth Culture. https://www.museumofyouthculture.com/skinheads/
A timeline of the racist skinhead movement. (n.d.). Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/timeline-racist-skinhead-movement
Brown, Timothy S. (1 January 2004). "Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and "Nazi Rock" in England and Germany". Journal of Social History.
JimmyTheGiant. (2024, February 29). The death of Britain’s most FEARED subculture.. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SmRWeDU6DA
Edwards, R. (2019, June 17). The Industrial Reorganisation Corporation and the 1968 reorganisation of British manufacturing. https://history.blog.gov.uk/2019/06/17/the-industrial-reorganisation-corporation-and-the-1968-reorganisation-of-british-manufacturing/
