>>1261I really like the sound and energy of Crass and the related (Centro Iberico) bands in general however much I might disagree with their positions and choices sometimes. (and most of them admit today their politics were often incoherent - see
https://web.archive.org/web/20190207012810/http://crassunofficial.com/ )
>>1254I think Crass were pacifists but ate homegrown meat and Conflict were the vegans and down for smashie-smashie but don't quote me on it.
There's a good, though a bit flawed article about the of the early british anarchopunk scene, deals a lot with crass as a springboard to delve into the existential crises of counterculture - walking the tightrope between culture jamming and recuperation:
www.uncarved.org/music/apunk/wpob.html
<Consider this, Crass were primarily a punk band when it came to the business of releasing records. Even though they used records to get the message across, they used records because they were established as a band, a punk band, and so could influence a pre-existing sub-culture called punk that was maybe open to the persuasions of anarchism. This sub-culture also bought records from other punk bands that were tied to other (major) labels (such as the dreaded EMI) and so the independents and the majors needed each other to help a sub-culture grow. The majors certainly needed the independents, not least of all to sign their bands or get new ideas for their own ‘manufactured’ bands and so prevent punk from going too stale as a commodity. The independents also needed the majors because major labels could produce and package and promote fine punk (form) records which would then induce (via NME, John Peel, or whatever) more record buyers to punk, of which a few of these will be interested in the form of punk to such an extent that they will buy the less polished independent records. By opening up such an audience to punk, it is assumed that a smaller fraction of these newly created disciples would become interested in punk (content) and so, via bands like Crass, become devoted to the anarchist cause. So, in theory, independent producers, musicians and propagandisers such as Crass depended on major labels (to some extent) for a musical credibility and also (to a lesser extent since it is a fraction of the above) for anarchist propaganda credibility.