Skip to main content

Four Tribes Unite For Anti-Fascist Fun

Agresión, Oi! Se Arma, Veneno Crew, Alea Jacta
VII Jornadas Antiracistas, Sala La Perla, La Laguna, Saturday September 11 2010
by James Tweedie
Tonight is about as eclectic as can be. About 200 assorted Punks, Metalheads, Hip-Hoppers and Skinheads (not of the neo-Nazi variety) are rubbing shoulders within the Aztec temple décor of the 'Pearl Room', a club inside a pirate-themed restaurant inside a shopping centre next to one of Tenerife's two motorways.
The occasion is the 7th Anti-Racist Day, organised by the Frente Blanquiazul (Blue-and-White Front), an anti-fascist organisation centred around the island's Club Deportivo Tenerife football team which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Tonight's concert follows a football tournament and lunch earlier in the day. As the banner along one wall reads: “The terraces unite, racism divides.”
Although varied in musical taste, the crowd is 99 per cent white. Still, you want the ethnic majority on your side against the Nazis.
The entertainment starts with a DJ spinning old-school rap. The beer is free until the barrels run dry, prompting mayhem at the bar. But then the compère comes on stage to remind us why we're here, shouting: “Where are my antifascist people?” until everybody raises a fist in salute.
General Francisco Franco, fascist dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975, was military commander of the Canary Islands before the 1936 military coup and civil war that brought him to power.
The conspiracy of the generals to overthrow the Spanish republic was hatched in La Esperanza forest, just a few miles west of here. The fascist era casts its long shadow of Spanish society and politics even today.
Local act Alea Jacta open up, and get the hairier heads banging with their brutal, high-octane thrash. By the end of their set the punks and skins are getting into it too, and their encore stirs up a combined-arms moshpit on the already beer-soaked floor.
The interlude is marked by football stand-style singing and some impromptu dancing on the stage, before Rap-and-Reggae collective Veneno Crew come on.
Also from this small town of La Laguna, Veneno look like Tenerife's answer to Wales' Goldie Lookin Chain, with eight MCs on the small stage and their DJ perched on a raised platform behind. They drop some original Latin-tinged beats, but lyrically they fall for too many clichés. But they entertain the crowd and end up with more fans on stage than on the floor for their final number.
Both Veneno Crew and third band Oi! Se Arma promote Canarian nationalism in their lyrics. This might seem like a contradiction at an anti-racist gig, but such sentiments are common in this country where expressions of regional identity were forbidden until after the Franco era.
The Hip-Hop contingent sadly evaporates before skinheads Oi! Se Arma take the stage, but their metallic punk gets the moshpit going again straight away.
Halfway through the set two member of local Power Metal band Hybris are invited on stage for a cover of one of their songs, and then Ska number 'Soy Tenerife' provokes mass skanking.
Madrid's Agresión offer straightforward hardcore to the thinning but enthusiastic crowd, and then at 4am it's time to get off home.

Most popular

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period.  The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the di...
Read more

Venezuela condemns MUD silence over terror attack

Venezuela’s foreign minister condemned the opposition and their foreign backers for their silence over Tuesday’s helicopter attack on the capital. At a press conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition leader Henry Ramos’ only comment on social media was that the attack was “useless.” “Firstly that does not condemn it,” Mr Moncada said. “Secondly it appears he was condemning it because it didn’t have the desired effect, that is to say, that it would blow up the building.” And he asked why fellow Mud leader Henrique Capriles lacked the “moral courage to... repudiate a terrorist act.” The newly-appointed minster and former ambassador to Britain accused fellow members of the Washington-based Organisation of American States of “feigning ignorance” and so protecting the culprits. And he accused sections of the media of portraying the culprit — Police investigator and one-time action film star Oscar Perez — as a “Rambo ...
Read more

Los Gigantes Beach Landslide Tragedy - Three Days of Mourning for Victims

SHATTERED IDYLL: Los Guios beach in Los Gigantes in happier times. SANTIAGO del Teide council declared three days of official mourning after two women were killed in a landslide on Los Gigantes beach on November 1. by James Tweedie The local authority announced the period of mourning following an emergency council meeting on Monday November 2, called in response to the tragic deaths of 57-year old British holidaymaker Marion O’Hara and 34-year old Canarian hotel worker Maria Vanesa Arias Romera. Flags at Santiago del Teide town hall were flown at half mast for the period of mourning, and all official functions observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims. The two women were killed when 130-foot wide stretch of the cliffs above the tiny Los Guios beach collapsed from a height of about 200 feet, burying them beneath rubble up to 15 feet deep, according to a spokesman for the Guardia Civil which was conducting the investigation into the accident. The landslide occurred about 3pm ...
Read more

Ex-pats hail extinction of ‘mammoth’ development

Socialists and conservatives unite to defeat CC plan for Las Teresitas beach Protesters outside the town hall SAN ANDREAS residents are celebrating victory after Santa Cruz council voted to deny permission for a controversial development on Las Teresitas beach. by James Tweedie The Association of Friends of Anaga, Las Teresitas and its Coast (Asociacion de Amigos de la Playa de las Teresitas, Anaga y su Litoral), which includes a number of ex-patriots, mounted a demonstration outside Santa Cruz town hall on Friday September 18 to urge opposition councillors to “keep their word” and support a Socialist Party of the Canaries (PSC) motion against the mammoth development. Some wore long paper ‘noses’ and chanted “concejal Pinocho” – councillor Pinocchio – to express their distrust of local politicians. A coalition of small businesses in Anaga, the Friends of the Port group and environmentalists Ben Magec – Ecologistas en Accion also supported the campaign against the scheme...
Read more

Venezuelan opposition declares "Zero Hour" for regime change

Venezuela’s opposition declared “Zero Hour” in its putsch against the socialist government on Monday — emboldened by US support. Leaders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition gathered for the announcement of their takeover plan a day after their unauthorised referendum seeking a mandate for regime change. National Assembly vice-president and Popular Will (VP) acting leader Freddy Guevara said the Mud-controlled parliament would announce the results of the plebiscite on Tuesday. It asked voters to reject President Nicolas Maduro’s calling of a constitutional reform assembly demand the army support the opposition and back a “national unity government.” But before the announcement of the result Mr Guevara said the national Assembly would form a new government on Tuesday — a move beyond its constitutional powers — along with 1,020 local “Zero Hour committees.” He called a “national general strike” for Thursday while on Friday the assembly would again exceed its powe...
Read more