RAGE AT NO.1: the greatest victory for the working class ever

You might’ve heard. Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name Of is the Christmas number one. Yes! It’s finally happened: we got a bunch of politckul rap-rockin’ revolutionary Maoists from LA to the top o’ the pop charts. ‘We’ being the disgruntled social-networking masses, fed up of the contrived, tedious pish that is the X Factor and it’s commidified, profit-driven attitude to music. And Simon Cowell. Cunt.
So what did it prove? That a lot of people don’t like reality television karaoke contests, enjoyed the idea of participating in a mass social media led prank, and were prepared to spend 79p to prove it.
Much else? The two days since Rage were declared number one have seen various proclamations of this being ‘the birth of people power’, the beginning of a new mass movement, the beginning of the end for shit music. Probably, mostly, bollocks?

#ratm4xmas may not herald the revolution. But it undoubtedly has been an eye-opener for tens of thousands of people: that huge numbers of people, acting together on an issue, can bring about ‘change’, however superficial in this case it may be. As socialists, we should surely encourage this mindset!

A quick look at the facebook group confirms this, and indeed, bluntly displays  that there’s vast numbers of, largely young, people desperate to rebel against something, anything, amid the chaos of capitalist crisis, mass unemployment and a corrupt ruling class. And in this state of utter confusion, the fightback against ‘the system’ has formulated itself in a battle against the monotony culture of commercialised, pre-packaged, throwaway pop music – in many ways, emblematic of the consumer capitalist society we inhabit.

This rage now needs to be channelled through more effective channels. Not by getting the Sex Pistols to number one for the Queen’s birthday, or NWA’s ‘Fuck The Police’ to Xmas No. 1 next year (awesome as that might be), but by translating anger against um, the ‘machine’ itself: capitalism. As Tom Morello of Rage himself stated:  “whether it’s a small matter like who’s the top of the charts, or bigger matters like war and peace and economic inequality, when people band together and make their voices heard they can completely overturn the system as it is.”

Yeah we all know that, as every wanky broadsheet columnist has been gleely pointing out at any opportunity, that Sony Records were the ‘main beneficiaries’ and made lots of money out of it. But that’s really besides the point… it was fun! And it’s probs the first number one single for insurrectionary-workers-peasant-movement supporting lefties since the Manics in 2000! And it may, just may, have raised that first inkling of class consciousness among scores of young people – of the ability to fight, and win. Venceremos!

“What you need is what they’re selling, makes you feel like buying is rebelling”
‘No Shelter’, Rage Against The Machine