The MU Anti–Far Right Hub

In the 1970s, as the National Front tried to gain ground, musicians helped launch Rock Against Racism, uniting punk and reggae artists against fascism. The MU were vocal supporters.

In the 1980s, the MU took a strong stance on apartheid in South Africa, calling on members to observe the cultural boycott.

In the 1990s, the Executive Committee voted for the MU to join 25 other unions as affiliates of the Anti-Racist Alliance. Around the same time, the Union called on members not to accept engagements with organisations promoting racist ideas or performing at venues where racist views were likely to be expressed.

It has long been in the MU’s rule book that members agree not to discriminate against another member on the grounds of protected characteristics.

The MU continues this tradition of resistance today. Representing over 36,000 members, from orchestral players and session musicians to DJs and grassroots bands, the MU has consistently taken a stand against racism and fascism.

• Working with government to deliver for musicians, improving jobs, wages and public services.
• Supporting members to respond where the far right is organising in workplaces and communities.
• The MU is a supporter of Love Music Hate Racism, a campaign that uses concerts and festivals to unite audiences against division.
• Partnering with anti-racist organizations such as Black Lives in Music and Stand Up To Racism, amplifying anti-racist voices in the music industry.
• Free of charge membership benefits for refugee musicians.
• Campaigning for better representation, equitable recruitment procedures, better protection for freelancers, and safe workplaces for LGBTQ+ and all marginalised workers.

For the MU, opposing the far right isn’t an add-on; it’s part of defending members’ rights. If far-right groups succeed in spreading hate, it threatens not only musicians’ freedom of expression but also their safety at gigs, their opportunities in the industry, and their right to work without discrimination.

From white power punk in the 1980s to coded playlists online today, music has been a recruitment tool. This makes the music industry both vulnerable and powerful. Far-right groups know that cultural influence shapes politics and public opinion.

Beyond the music industry, far-right ideology threatens the basic rights that the MU fights for:

Censorship: Authoritarian politics means less freedom of expression, the lifeblood of the music industry.

Exclusion: The music industry thrives on international collaboration. Far-right hostility to migration and diversity would cut off that exchange.

Weakening Unions: Far-right movements often attack collective organising, preferring workers without protection or a collective identity.

What the far right wants would make musicians lives poorer, less safe, and less creative.

At the heart of the music industry is diversity.

British culture has always been shaped by many voices: Caribbean sounds transforming music in the 1960s, South Asian influences enriching theatre and film, and LGBTQ+ communities reshaping performance and nightlife.

The far right, by contrast, promotes exclusion.
It imagines a narrowly defined and racist national culture and sees diversity as a threat.
For the MU, this is unacceptable. MU members come from every background, and the richness of the music industry depends on that mix. To accept the far right’s vision would be to erase what makes the British music industry dynamic.

The far right’s strategy is divide and rule.
It blames migrants for low wages, minorities for social change, or progressive voices for “ruining tradition.”
For the MU, that kind of division weakens everyone. If musicians are excluded because of their background, because of their identity, or are silenced for challenging prejudice, then all musicians lose power.