Track By Tracks: UTILITARIAN – FIGHT WAR, NOT WARS. DESTROY POWER, NOT PEOPLE (2020)

1. Unaccountable:

Unaccountable is the first track Utilitarian ever released and one of the first we ever wrote. It’s a burst of frustration and anger at the stranglehold the media have over information in the UK and the rest of the world. At the moment I write this, there is an investigation into Russian interference in UK elections, and whilst it might ultimately transpire that Russia acted to influence the outcome of UK elections, the far greater contributor to false information, rumour, outright disinformation and favourable client journalism for right wing tyrants is the UK media. Six billionaires own or have a majority of voting shares in most of our national newspapers. Repeated documented interference of reporting was revealed in the first Leveson enquiry. A second enquiry was promised to investigate the clear corruption in the UK media, but has been blocked by the Conservative party who benefit enormously from biased UK media coverage. It’s a fucking con. Anti-vaxxers existence can be directly tied to how the media spun Andrew Wakefield’s article in The Lancet into a full blown MMR scare.

They tear everything down, spread a load of lies, stir up a load of division and hate, and then turn on the head of a pin when the shit hits the fan and have the audacity to comment on events as if they were not influential in them. People die as a result of the lies they publish, murderers repeat right wing headlines at their trial when explaining their actions and the media never has to come to terms with their actions. They’re unaccountable.

2. Greed Is A Hunger That Can Never Be Fed:

The general public is constantly whipped about the need to support an economy that increasingly fails to work for them. Austerity was imposed on the UK population after the global financial crisis of 2008 as a way of funding a huge bailout plan for the financial sector. A system built around growth through massive accumulating debt and neoliberal market deregulation led to a group if incredibly wealthy people crashing the economy, and the non-wealthy classes paying for it.

We’re constantly bullied by neoliberal and conservative politicians, worshippers of the ‘free market’ who tell us we can’t have the world we want. Because the market wouldn’t want it. Any market that doesn’t work for the population and cannot feed, clothe or heal you, yet costs you more year after year, is not worth our time.

And remember, greed is always hungry. It never ends. They just want more, and more and more.

3. Marching To Your Grave:

An anti-nationalist song. Nationalism and militarism are systems that underpin the oppression of people both inside the country and beyond its borders. The social worship of highly-regimented military life and unquestioning obedience to authority figures is a concept that underpins fascism. The soft way that is implemented on the nation is through storytelling in all forms of media (how many films are there about the brave US troops in Iraq despite the war itself being illegal and without basis? Isn’t every contemporary Marvel and DC movie essentially a war film about the bravery of American war heroes who always do the right thing?). We frequently come into arguments from people who have soft-fascist leanings about how you simply must ‘respect the troops’, and those same people will vote for politicians who bring those troops home with crippling PTSD and then let them die homeless. It’s a con, useful only for people who want to endear working class people to the military industrial complex.

4. Hateful Generation:

Hateful Generation is about a bizarre experience of finding yourself in opposition to other working class people, who are passionately defending the interests of the wealthy ruling classes, with concepts that don’t make sense when you consider their social position and values. How many working class people did you see banging the drum for Boris who are about to lose their job because of Brexit or COVID-19? People who want healthcare to be properly funded, and who couldn’t afford health insurance, yet consistently argue against it?

They’re brainwashed by powerful propaganda. They are racist and proud. They are homophobic and proud. They are fascist and proud. They want capital punishment. They want authoritarianism. They want a boot stamping on their human face forever. They are the Hateful Generation.

5. Profit or People:

The left of politics is frequently criticised for being highly conceptual and struggling to communicate its positions to ‘ordinary people’. I personally think that underestimates the capability of most of the population, and that given fair and equal access to that knowledge as they are to right-wing and elitist viewpoints, the country would overwhelmingly favour left wing views. That probably explains why there is so tight a stranglehold on media in order to prevent that from happening.

Nevertheless we try to condense the struggle to a single concept and that’s what Profit or People is about. Do we measure success in the bank balances of a handful of super wealthy individuals? Or do we measure it by what can allow the most people to live the most effective and fulfilling lives?

We must remember, we’re the ones doing the labour here. We are the ones creating that wealth and creating that value. We’re not profiting from it. We get crumbs and other people get the cake. Same as it ever was. But we ask you…

What’s important to you? Their wealth, or our lives?

6. Wall of Debt:

The Wall of Debt is both a pun on ‘wall of death’ and a commentary on a system built around people being indentured. Money made out of simply not having money. Education, something that is entirely good for the nation and the economy whenever it happens, is now a chargeable product. On sale to whomever can rustle up the cash. If you can’t find the cash, somebody will lend it to you. Each loan or interest payment a brick in the wall of debt designed to keep you selling your labour for much less wealth than it produces, or to die.

What a choice!

7. Power:

Power is what it’s all about. Ultimately, when it all comes down to it. Capital accumulation is ultimately power accumulation. A democratic system is built on everyone having an equal input into the way a nation is built and run, but all your votes will never mean as much as the five wealthy hedge fund backers have collectively given more than £18 million to the Conservative party since 2010. Ultimately, it’s a far more effective strategy to get the Murdoch family’s vote, and they will deliver you the election. If you’re wealthy enough, no state institution will stand in your way. You will be so powerful, that governments will come to you, cap in hand, asking for money and you will be able to name your price.

The mantra for this album is Fight War, Not Wars. Destroy Power, Not People and it’s never been more clear than here. Power holds us down, but power rules by consent and power can be destroyed.

8. Ignorance Exacerbated by Malevolence:

Ignorance Exacerbated by Malevolence is a song about the UK Conservative government. It probably also translates fairly well to other national governments, where issues of great harm are done by the interplay of two factors.

Ignorance, that is to say, being enormously out of touch with the lives of most of the country, due to their elite pedigree upbringing, background of private wealth, private schooling, private parties and private arms deals.

And malevolence. The actual desire to do harm to segments of society based on personal prejudices and beliefs about how those people live. They simply see petty criminals and savages among the working class, instead of the complex and detailed stories of their lives, and the circumstances they are placed under.

When these two destructive forces meet, the outcome is harm.

9. The Good Old Days:

How often is nostalgia and the past viewed with rose-tinted glasses as an excuse to back up regressive views? From bizarre Facebook memes about how inner cities were better before people of colour moved in, to people wishing they could still beat the shit out of their kids without a visit from a social worker it seems that the past is exclusively a place where prejudiced people wish they lived.

This nostalgia frequently acts as a foil to enact malicious and harmful policies upon the population. People miss being openly prejudiced. They miss seeing racism on the TV. They miss being in the dark about domestic violence.

It's a worship of a past that never really was, and that doesn't stand up to any kind of research into history, and yet it exists entirely in the minds of the prejudiced. This song is a message to those and the hate they want to return to.

10.Zero Tolerance

This song is a nod to Napalm Death and to Dead Kennedys. It’s only a short song and it has the bands core message behind it. Zero tolerance for the intolerant. Nazi cunts, fuck off.

11. The Riot Act:

The Riot Act is a protest song. It takes its names from laws that were introduced to try and suppress public protest and is a play on that. Public protest and civil disobediance can be incredibly powerful for changing policy. We’re seeing that in America where states are being forced to consider the impact police brutality and a militarised police has on black and latinx communities.

It ends with an impassioned speech that lays clear some brutal injustices that currently affect the whole world and which must still be fought. As the music fades that speech rings out and, we hope, inspires our listener to action.

12. Another World:

Another world is the bonus track. We wanted a track that was furious and heavy but had a positive message, and ultimately that’s what a left wing political message is. It’s a message of hope. Another world is possible. It doesn’t have to be like this. We can have dignity and respect. We can have an end to war. We can have an end to homophobia and transphobia. An end to sexist mistreatment. A world where we live together in peace and harmony, and where we overcome trauma and trials together, with love and compassion.

Another world IS possible. If we want it.