Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #177
I live in what is arguably the "worst" part of Minneapolis. The Phillips neighborhood of the South Side has the highest poverty rate (average income $8,000 per annum) highest crime rate, and highest percentage of minority residents. Housing is primarily rental. Local businesses tend to be poverty oriented, pawn shops, blood banks, charity offices, clinics, unemployment office etc. The housing stock mostly dates from the turn of the century when this was a wealthy suburb. Now it is run down and many houses are demolished or stand boarded and empty waiting for the wrecking ball. I am not decieved by the promises of middle class America and the boosterism of politicians and technocrats, here is a midwestern ghetto. All of the despair, bigotry, anti-social crime, and degradation of poverty and blight in the white prosperous upper midwest.

Here in America we have a strong "law and order" lobby. Those who cry loudest for sterner social control tend to come from the white upper classes and the conservative suburban middle and lower middle classes. In the last few decades America has become by majority a suburban, middle class nation. This is the dominant group in politics and it selects a faction of the elite to rule it. Increasingly the media portrays neighborhoods like mine as out of control war zones ruled by heavily armed gangs of (usually black) criminals whom the police are "powerless" to stop due to the fact that their "hands are tied" by "liberals". The law and order lobby pushes for fewer rights, more prisons, stiffer sentances and greater powers for the police.

There has always been poverty in America and any big city will always have a ghetto. Poverty and an impoverished lower class, usually an ethnic minority, is an intrinsic part of the capitalist system. In the 1960's radical urban groups like the Black Panthers argued that this was a form of domestic colonialism, creating a pool of unskilled labor to keep wages down. Necessary to this paradigm is the use of armed force to keep lower class groups in line and prevent them from revolting or otherwise demanding a greater share of the fruits of their labor. Media portrayal of the Black Panthers in the 1960's was not unlike portrayal of drug gangs today. The idea of armed black men terrified suburban, middle class, white America. This gave much impetus then as now to those forces in society seeking greater social control.

Despite what we think of as "liberalism" the current so-called liberal government is taking away our rights and imposing the machinery of the police state just as rapidly as any conservative government. Indeed, I would argue that the Liberal and Conservative branches of the ruling class represent only mild differences of opinion in a very similar statist program. Under either of these political groups state power is extended further into our lives maintaining the status quo and ensuring that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

There are pro-active and re-active approaches to social control. Proactive approaches such as spending public funds on welfare, education, housing, job training etc. may prevent people from acts of desperation such as criminal activity or revolt. Reactive strategies such as heavy police presence in poor areas, stiff prison sentances, and enforcement of social order by the "authorities" is the show of naked force keeping the poor in line. The average American wants to keep the poor and minorities bottled up in the ghetto. Its alright to have them come out to the suburbs to mow your lawn but no-one wants to rub elbows with the lower classes at the mall. To keep the classes segregated and keep the poor from getting out of line poverty is subsidized and propagated by the welfare state while poor neighborhoods are kept under virtual martial law by police and the justice system.



When punk rock began there was no internet. There were no home computers. No compact discs. Only Rastafarians had dreadlocks. I'm not saying we have to go back to 8-track and IBM cards but I question how anything so square as the internet or soulless as the CD can be really punk. Perhaps vinyl is a roadblock in the path of the march of technology. Perhaps my argument is as valid as that of those who protested against mechanical pianos and grammaphone recordings because they would put musicians out of work. But damn it vinyl rules. The 7" record is at the heart of rock and roll. Chuck berry looks stupid staring at you from inside a five inch plastic box. I realize that I am the champion of a lost cause but I will not lay down my sword, vive le vinyl!

This months forgotten hardcore band is the State from Ann Arbor Michigan. The State released the No Illusions 7" in 1983 and the False Power LP in 1986. I personally don't care much for the LP but the No Illusions 7" is pure hardcore power. The State had a raw and urgent power with gritty recording. Production was by Ron Asheton of the Stooges so you know it has that motor city crunch. Musically the State was in step with contomporaries such as Negative Approach and the Necros. Lyrically they paint a bleak and hopeless picture of a world of chaos, brutality and injustice. I dug they lyrics as an alienated teenager, and even more so now as a maladjusted adult. Truly a killer 7" this one has been totally overlooked by the Germans so it can still be found at a reasonable price. It has however, been reissued by Italians on one of the Punk Territory CD's if CD re-issues are your bag. Here's some lyrics to Police State "If you don't have any money/ you don't have any rights/ theres no democracy/ Just power/ Freedom is a fucking myth/ we're all living in a jail/ there's no justice/ just law.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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