One law for them - A question about the 4 Skins

[cherrybibi]

Hello skinheads mates,

Recently, a friend said to me that the lyrics of the 4 Skins song "One law for them" talk about the different attitude of the police against skins or against immigrant in UK. Personaly, during all that years I've been thinking this song was about "one law for the poor and one law for the rich"...

But now I recognize a reference to the Enoch Powell words when they sing "We've been warned of rivers of blood
See the trickle before the flood"

And on the Skinhead Nation site, we can read:
"In fact, just ten days after Southall, a black teenager was stabbed to death at a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London. If it had happened at an Oi! gig, you can bet your life that the moral majority would have been jumping up and down, calling for Oi! to be banned, but seeing as it was at a concert by roots reggae band Black Uhuru it was quickly forgotten. Hardly surprisingly, the Oi! bands felt they had been treated unjustly over Southall, a sentiment echoed on The 4 Skins’ debut single on their own Clockwork Fun label, One Law For Them."

What's your opinion about it?

[Nick UF]

Good point.

Id say your probably right. Id never looked at the lyrics but had assumed the 'them' was the rich - the single sleeve had pics of 'the rich' in top hats if I remember right...

Its a controversial song saying there is a different law for working class white kids and working class black kids - the bnp still thrive on examples of this inequality - for instance if a black kid gets beat up by white kids the trendy left go ape, but if a white kid gets beat up by black kids it loses its importance as a 'racist attack' and is generally unreported. Same with police violence and stuff like that. Its easier for the middle class press to say 'the police is institutionally racist' than to admit the police beat up mostly working class people regardless of colour.

At the end of the day its the newspapers and middle class liberals which have made this state of affairs, to the point where any criticism of ethnic minoritys is seen as bad as being a card carrying BNp member... for example, I believe all religions are fucking stupid, but isn't it true that its more acceptable to take the piss out of Christianity than Islam? Also i think this approach is quite patronising to asian communities - quite often newspapers or politicians will turn to self appointed 'community leaders' who are just big figures in the local mosque - what about the asian kids who aren't into religion and want a more westernised life? Thats certainly how a lot of young asians round here seem to be, but these community leaders are often just preaching a religious/fascist message which is just as bad and divisive as the BNP.

I'm not having a go at muslims here, just saying you shouldn't be allowed to climb housing lists (Like Southside Housing in Glasgow which operates a points system based on 'ethnic community'), or get special government funding etc for ANY particular ethnic community because then it becomes obvious that no-one would be allowed to say 'we want a grant for the white ethnic community.' That creates hostility and the fascists get to win easy arguments, and come across as the only ones brave enough to speak the truth.

I think AFA/Red Action had a good analysis of liberal 'multiculturalism' and said it did more harm than good, only the BNP benefited from it, because it isolated working class white communities, and at the end of the day discrimination is wrong be it in favour of black or white... I guess you could say this song is an expression of that, and the reason it was so controversial proves what i was saying.

Then again maybe the 4 Skins were just putting forward borderline racist views and seeing what they could get away with. Who knows? But I cant help thinking if they had wanted to be a white power band they could easily have done so. But they didn't.

Right i'll shut up now.

[Steve DIY]

I always took the song as one law for working class people and one law for the rich which still exists to this day.

The 4-Skins manager and original vocalist were Nazis though I couldn't understand why when another one of the band was/is Jewish?!! Panther the second vocalist was a big supporter of Anti Fascism at the time. He takes the piss out of nazis on the Good The Bad And The 4 Skins album. Makes a comment about 'seagull Spotters'. Paul Swain in the last line up ended up in Skrewdriver.

[Ian]

Everyone now wants to take a cheap shot at the old bands. Re-hashing or re-reading thoughts or ideas that may or may not have been present at the time of writing.
Personally, I don't give a flying fuck about the politics of individual members of the 4 SKins.(Although it went the full spectrum) All I know is that as a 15 year old they spoke of the shit that was happening to me. And, as a group, they never cowered to left or right. They are the Oi band.

[Klaas]

Ian said:

Everyone now wants to take a cheap shot at the old bands. Re-hashing or re-reading thoughts or ideas that may or may not have been present at the time of writing.
Personally, I don't give a flying fuck about the politics of individual members of the 4 SKins.(Although it went the full spectrum) All I know is that as a 15 year old they spoke of the shit that was happening to me. And, as a group, they never cowered to left or right. They are the Oi band.

Right and One law for Us and One law for them is a great song.

[Reverend Brogues]

Yeah i'm agree with that , but accept the fact that you can take the lyrics directly or try to dig a little more to understand the historical situation of all that...
(and i thing the little stories of the big story are very insteresting) .

[Rod]

Steve said:

I always took the song as one law for working class people and one law for the rich which still exists to this day.

[Ex-Oligarch]

The first two lines of the song contrast police treatment of football hooligans with that of ghetto dwellers. In context of 1981, that means white working class men and black immigrants, respectively.

"Go to football, throw a brick,
Get no mercy, months in nick
Riot in the ghetto, red alert,
Guilty free, innocent hurt"

The second verse points to the standard leftist attitude that views the then-rampant violence by poor non-whites sympathetically, attributing their crimes to social disadvantage.

"No fun, no homes, no job, no use
What else is used as an excuse
Families fighting, families looting
Next there's death, then there's shooting"

This is most definitely not a song about the rich getting away with violating the law. It's about failing to enforce the law against poor black people because of left wing ideology, while using the law to punish poor whites for minor offenses.

For better or worse, it's a song about racial politics.
And, of course, it's an absolute classic punk scorcher.