Good Day to you on this Monday which happily is a holiday today in the States and Canada and I believe just another Monday elsewhere. It is Labour Day here and in Canada which is designated to recognise the social and economic achievements of workers. Seeing as most on the right recoil at the concept of worker’s rights and benefits and positively shudder when you mention unions I am almost surprised that the national day of workers hasn’t been renamed by now in the US, less the upstart working class get any ideas above their station. Rumours that the class system isn’t alive and well in the new world are thoroughly unfounded, all the while there has been a severe degradation of the middle class in the States it is still the backbone of the country. Sadly many who consider themselves middle class are now living from paycheque to paycheque and paying minimal balances due on credit card accounts that should never have been taken out in the first place. Simultaneously living in houses that have lost 25-65% of value in the last 4 years leaving people in homes that might take a decade to regain the value lost. On this Labour Day with unemployment sitting at 9.6% and underemployment probably triple that, I worry for the health of the American worker and of the seeming lost balance as more and more people step into the class of the working poor as employers provide benefits with higher premiums if at all. The global economy turned out to  be a bigger threat than unions, minimum wages or workers rights after all and yet the reinvention of the economy seems slow on the uptake.

Don Letts wrote just the other day about how all the ingredients that existed for punk in the first place are very much back on the agenda in 2010. High unemployment, anti-immigration sentiments, inner city decay, lack of confidence in the job markets and our politicians plus an undercurrent of violence of boredom in many cities. He seemed bemused that something as exciting wasn’t happening to sweep away X-factor and American Idol, Playstations and TV addiction. Maybe that’s part of the difference, in 1976 was it perhaps an easier task to convince a 16 year old he or she was bored and pissed off.  No future (courtesy Sex Pistols) was a phrase that people related to and responded to. Now do youth know they are pissed off but the boredom seems less of an issue? Where am I going with this….I’m not quite sure….work, yes that was it….work….finding a career you love…doing a job that fills you with pride and satisfaction, having the chance and the choice to find a career that you will be excited to do. Finding a job that truly brings your greatest skills and creativity to the fore in a job that makes a difference to others and makes you feel a valuable part of a community.

Perhaps that’s the biggest failing of society – not matching people to jobs that fill them with pride. I fear that may now be even more likely, I hear younger people who wanted to be teachers or work with animals, who wanted to help in a hospice, paint or write, or promote concerts but they are faced with not being able to pay off their student loans or get a mortgage if they pursue what they love. Then the choice of taking a job that doesn’t match your spirit, or taking any job they offer you…because you still need to make rent. Today should recognise the millions of people who do jobs we couldn’t imagine having to do, jobs that still have to be done. We should honour generations of people who worked for decent and safer working conditions and shortened the working week and got benefits to an acceptable level, sadly now many of these benefits are being taken back, corporations are saying how it will be and employees are left too scared to speak out. The gap between rich and poor is growing again and executive salaries have no relation to company performance.

This Labour Day should be about seeing the pendulum swing back in the right direction, workers rights and benefits shouldn’t be ground that is being lost. I am amazed to see things moving backwards in so many ways, are you going backwards…or forwards? Is your workplace asking for more and giving less? Is this any sort of way forward? I don’t know….I just know it looks bad from where I’m sitting. So then…to The Clash.

The Clash were a workers band, the lineage runs from their earliest lyrics to the worker’s cause that put Joe and Mick on stage that one final time in 2002 as they played for striking firemen who were looking for an equitable salary increase. Where did The Clash get much of their feelings from then….I have to trust all I’ve read and remembered, Bernard Rhodes was a critical figure in forming the opinions of a young and impressionable Clash in 1976 and beyond. Rhodes was constantly quoted as saying ‘write about what you see…write about what you know’ rather than giving Strummer a political agenda or bullet list of topics to build songs around. They did as he suggested, writing about lack of career opportunities and boredom making London the grayest backdrop for young people without enough A levels or the right accent.

Joe Strummer was criticised for coming from a ‘privileged background’ which really rings bloody hollow. It hardly worked for him when he started busking in London, or digging graves in Newport or squatting in London. He drifted around for a time and saw people with those jobs that held little glamour, perhaps more importantly The Clash (certainly for the first four years) remained very in touch with their fans, understood what they were like and the jobs they held. All of this certainly helped shaped Joe’s lyrics as he sought to add an edge…but an edge that could be related to within his lyrics.

Talking about the mundane jobs so many endured in factories, the bosses keeping you down and in your place and the sheer boredom of doing a job that you didn’t love were all explored in Clash songs and interviews. I think Bernie Rhodes helped Strummer realise that you couldn’t write about the social condition without commenting on workers and they jobs they do. The list of Clash songs which talk about work are numerous and consistent but take an insiders view of dead end jobs and the need for something more. All the lyrics are from observation and experience as far as Strummer goes as the rest of the band had previously primarily been students up to that point followed by time on the dole.

Clash Songs that focus on work and workers were integral in the success and appeal of the band and the glamour (ironic perhaps?) of joining a band and being part of something. I think the fact of the matter was  that fans related to lyrics, for many if they weren’t in a dead end job the fear of that being the most likely outcome after school or the dole always loomed large. As a teenager then still in school the lyrics of The Clash did influence me…they told me to find a job you loved at all costs.

Career Opportunities and its tale of what the job centre offered for you versus staying on unemployment benefits. Clampdown and its call to action about getting out before your best years are stolen from you, Magnificent Seven and the urgency of getting out of the office at all costs. The band aligned themselves to causes because they thought they should or because their own experience of the DIY ethos of punk showed them it could be done? Janie Jones and need for excitement outside work, then of course they wrote about the options of being in the military or turning to crime for kicks.

When the band were active they had critics scoffing at the politics of Joe Strummer and accusations of sell out surrounding the band and the eventual success they achieved. I argue that they tried to achieve something, sought to inspire change and succeeded for so many of us. Strummer wrote his lyrics from his heart and was inspired by social observation. The fact that one of his last gigs in Acton was a benefit for firemen on strike says it all to me, Mick Jones being in the audience that night and joining Joe a final time on stage also seems to ring with added significance. Labour Day is a day to play The Clash loud and proudly – we are all workers after all, that’s the way the system is. If you or someone you love is currently seeking work I wish you good fortune and timely resolution. To work is to feel worthwhile…

The offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I’d better take anything they’d got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Thanks for listening to my rant….I’ll be back.