Suchergebnisse

The article examines radical cultural politics by focusing on the West German initiative of Rock gegen Rechts ('Rock Against the Right'). This campaign involved concerts, publications and demonstrations, most notably the staging of two large-scale festivals in Frankfurt/Main in 1979 and 1980. Rock Against Racism – launched in Britain in 1976 – served as a model for the activists. Yet Rock gegen Rechts differed from its British counterpart in significant ways, both in terms of the political and musical currents that sustained the campaign and with regard to the object of protest. Through the prism of Rock gegen Rechts, the article shows how campaigners debated the nature of 'the right' – an important subject in a country whose fascist past figured prominently in public debate. The campaign occurred at a critical juncture of the German left, as the latter underwent seemingly contradictory processes of fragmentation and coalition-building during the late 1970s. The article explores a left-wing milieu that was associated with music and alternative lifestyles, but also with a nascent green movement. Moreover, the example of Rock gegen Rechts sheds fresh light on the interaction between music and politics on the one side, and between music, commerce and consumption on the other.

The aftermath of the First World War saw manifold efforts to (re-)construct an international community. One striking development of this development was the foundation of various international student organisations. This article analyses the largest of these bodies – namely the International Confederation of Students (Confédération internationale des Étudiants, CIE). The CIE forms the prism through which the article investigates four major aspects of interwar internationalism: nationalism, intellectual cooperation, mobility and radicalism. The CIE brought together the representatives of different national unions of students and thus involved activists that could cast themselves as future leaders. It portrayed its activities as 'apolitical', embracing an internationalism that sought to consolidate, rather than overthrow, the international order. To this end, the organisation cooperated with the League of Nations, particularly in the realm of student travel. Yet, despite its discourse of peace and non-partisanship, the CIE suffered from manifold national divisions and maintained an uneasy relationship with the political developments of the period. In this context, the article shows how, rather than being the domain of impractical idealists, internationalism provided an arena for the pursuit of competing national and political agendas.