R.A.S.H.

REDSKINS

 

In the context of the skinhead subculture, a redskin is a left wing (socialist or communist) skinhead. The term combines the word red, (a slang term for socialist or communist) with the word skin, which is short for skinhead. Redskins take a militant anti-fascist and pro-working class stance.

The most well-known organization associated with redskins is Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH). Other groups that have had redskin members include Anti-Fascist Action, Red Action and Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (although SHARP does not have an official leftist ideology). Bands associated with redskins include: The Redskins, Angelic Upstarts, Blaggers I.T.A., Kortatu, Skalariak, Banda Bassotti, The Burial, Negu Gorriak, Opció k-95, Los Fastidios and The Press. One record label associated with the subculture is Insurgence Records.

 

• Red and Anarchist Skinheads is a left-wing anti-racist, anti-fascist skinhead group. RASH includes redskins and anarchist skinheads. It was officially launched on January 1, 1993 by members of the Mayday Crew, a left-wing skinhead and punk group based in the New York City area. The Mayday Crew was formed due to in-fighting between members of New York City's Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice chapter, over the murder of a homosexual man by anti-racist, yet right-wing, skinheads. Shortly after the initial call went out for the formation of a network, chapters formed in other countries around the world, mostly from existing left-wing skinhead crews. According to one RASH website, some of the goals of the network were to: To dispel the myth, in both the media and in mind of the general public, that all skinheads are racist. To keep alive and expand the true skinhead subculture through means such as music, fashion, fanzines, fliers, concerts, dancehalls, and gatherings. To create a space for left-wing ideas to exist in the skinhead scene. To combat, physically and politically, the existence of far-Right ideas in the skinhead scene.