Mixing politics and music

POLITICS and music are both fine examples of the human spirit. Put them together and they become even finer.

Philosophy Football is putting on an excellent event which combines the above with an evening for the anti-fascist journal Searchlight in London this Friday.

For those who haven't come across Philosophy Football before, it terms itself as "sporting outfitters of intellectual distinction," but, happily, it does so with a left-wing slant. It remains great "fans of the people's game, not as an extension of corporate power" and it produces a top range of T-shirts to boot.

As Philosophy Football's Mark Perryman says, "Most campaigns see T-shirts as an added extra to a pin badge or a sticker. We're the other way round. We use the shirts to promote anti-fascism, solidarity with Venezuela, the history of the International Brigades.

"Looking good and making a point shouldn't have to mean turning chest or breasts into an outpost of planet placard. We unearthed the likes of Gramsci, Shostakovitch and Sartre as closet football fans, which sort of suggests that bourgeois notions of high and low culture are more than a bit topsy-turvy."

This Friday's event is a celebration of the defeat in the late 1970s of the nazi threat, which was highlighted by the Rock Against Racism Carnival in 1978. But it is also a warning of the renewed threat posed by the far-right in the run-up to the London Assembly elections and elsewhere in May.

The evening is supported by the Fire Brigades Union and features Billy Bragg, a DJ set from Don Letts, comedy from Shappi Khorsandi, the astonishing grime theatre of the Decypher Collective, Searchlight editor Nick Lowles, Rock against Racism founder Red Saunders, writer Paul Gilroy, National Union of Students black students officer Ruqayyah Collector and a London elections briefing from Democratic Audit's Stuart Weir.

Proceedings kick off with a special advance screening of the final cut of the Rock against Racism film Who Shot the Sheriff introduced by playwright David Edgar. Plus it will feature Gregg Macdonald's film of the 2007 Hope not Hate campaign, DJ sets by Aretha and Melstars.

The party is at Offside Bar, 271 City Road, London EC1 from 6.30pm. If trade unions, community groups or groups of friends would like to book a table for five or more at a bulk discount or for further information call (020) 8802-3499. Book online at www.philosophyfootball.com

Stop the War fundraiser

FOLLOWING on from the great success of the recent Stop the War Coalition marches in London and Glasgow on March 15, StWC is holding a fundraising concert in London on April 24 at St James Church in Piccadilly starting at 7pm.

Called Illuminations: A Concert For Peace, already confirmed to appear are composer Michael Nyman, writer AL Kennedy, musicians Eugene Skeef, Nigel Kennedy, Keith Burstein and Janet Shell, poet Adrian Mitchell, journalists Martin Bell and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, novelist and Iraqi exile Haifa Zangana, editor of The Lancet Dr Richard Horton and Stop the War convener Lindsey German.

A great night is promised, then. For more details or to book online visit www.stopwar.org.uk

Sad news from the States

WE have been saddened to hear of the ill health of two of the finest and most committed US folk singers.

Many readers of this column will know of the great Utah Phillips. He has had heart problems for a while now, but he has just decided not to have a heart transplant.

Julius Margolin, who hails from New York City, has also been seriously ill, but he is apparently doing well at present.

Both men have been staunch fighters for their class throughout their lives and have battled their illness with the same strength and integrity that has marked out their work. We wish them both well.

As always, please get in touch at redfolk@btconnect.co.uk