Primal Scream And Dexys Share Song To Support Striking Rail Workers
It’s always cool to see musicians willing to stand with workers on strike. Last month, Billy Bragg joined Starbucks workers in a picket line demonstration in Buffalo. Today, the forever-changing Scottish band Primal Scream and the Birmingham legends Dexys Midnight Runners — a one-hit wonder in the US but an institution in the UK — have come together on “Enough Is Enough!,” a new song released to raise money for striking rail workers in the UK.
Members of the UK’s National Union Of Rail, Maritime And Transport Workers, pushing for better pay and working conditions, have been staging a series of strikes in recent months, with another strike coming 11/10. (It was supposed to happen tomorrow, but the RMT agreed to push it back so as not to disrupt London’s Poppy Day celebration.) Primal Scream and Dexys — who apparently have dropped the Midnight Runners from their name — have written and recorded “Enough Is Enough!,” a song that’s explicitly about the labor struggle, and its proceeds go to the RMT dispute fund.
Primal Scream leader Bobby Gillespie worked on “Enough Is Enough!” with longtime Dexys frontman Kevin Rowland and keyboardist Sean Read. As the Railway Hub reports, the song also features a cameo from RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, while former Jesus And Mary Chain bassist Douglas Hart produced the video. The song is a folky reel with lyrics that don’t leave a lot of room for interpretation: “It’s all a big con to keep us confused/ The bottom line is we’re all being used/ While we fight each other, we’re going nowhere/ We need to take on the fuckers who show us no care.” The video is heavy on historical union imagery. Check it out below.
You can buy “Enough Is Enough!” at Bandcamp.