Association of Musical Marxists
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The Association of Musical Marxists (AMM) was a London-based political organisation which, from 2010 to 2015, organised meetings, events, and book launches for its affiliate Unkant Publishing.
History[edit]
The Association of Musical Marxists (AMM) was founded by Ben Watson and Andy Wilson, both of whom had been active members of the Socialist Workers Party (UK). Wilson was expelled in 1992 for planning to launch a cultural magazine independent of central committee control; Watson left some years later.
The Association of Musical Marxists held twenty-two public meetings and published thirteen books under the Unkant imprint.[1] The idea was to abolish the distinction between music, politics, poetry, talk and drinking. The advent of social media was traumatic for the print-based left, and A.M.M. was concerned to defend "the Facebook Four", four young members expelled from the Socialist Workers Party (UK) for exposing what they saw as a cover up of a rape by leading member of the Party.[2]
The Association sponsored a colourful libertarian politics establishing links with like minds (Psychedelic Bolsheviks in Sheffield, Assoziation Daemmerung in Berlin, the Occupy Movement, London students protesting tuition fees and the Rab-Rab Collective in Helsinki). Unkant published poetry by Sean Bonney, Ken Fox, history such as Helen Macfarlane's journalism, about the Chartists in 1839, Raymond Challinor's book on World War Two, and Sheila Lahr's wartime memoirs, musicology, psychiatry and politics.
By bringing together improvised music and revolutionary politics, the Association sought to challenge careerism and asserted the rights of audiences to an informal good time. Politics was ultimately the downfall of the Association by failing to agree about contributions to a book by various writers about the war in Syria.
Watson carries on its musical wing to this day, calling his group AMM All-Stars and broadcasting live improvisations from Resonance 104.4FM every Wednesday at 2pm called 'Late Lunch with Out To Lunch' (a show which Watson has broadcast weekly since November 2002)[3] and 'The OTL Show' every Friday at 8am on Soho Radio.
Some Contributors[edit]
Many people spoke, read or performed at AMM meetings including, Ben Watson ("Out To Lunch"), Andy Wilson, Keith Fisher, Sean Bonney, Helene le Bohec, Nina Power, Ben "Chewing Gum Man" Wilson, Dave Black, Esther Leslie, Robert Dellar, Alastair Kemp, Iain Sinclair, Paul Shearsmith, Alternative TV, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells, Guy Evans.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Rab-Rab Journal #6". Rab-Rab Press. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
- ↑ "Workers' movement: Bureaucratic 'justice' and dealing with sex assault cases". weeklyworker.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
- ↑ "Resonance FM". www.resonancefm.com. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
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