focus on that and get involved. And it won’ t be everyone – it wasn’ t everyone back in the day. But it will be a significant marker of youth culture that you have a view on the world. That old attitude of‘ Whatever’ seems to have been somewhat dented and deflated by the arrival of Trump and Brexit.

IE: The subject of“ Why We Build the Wall” is obvious. But what are your other new songs about?

Billy Bragg

night, and allow them to believe that by singing. And when we all sing together“ There Is Power in a Union,” everyone punches the air, and you go away thinking,“ Okay – I’ m not the only person in the bar who gives a shit about this stuff.” Because that’ s what music did to me when Iwas first going to political gigs. But we can’ t change the world – only the audience can do that. But we do have a role to lay in bringing people together and giving them that sense that they’ re not alone. And I think that’ s a really important thing to hold onto, because you’ ve got to kick your cynicism to the curb. We all feel it, but we just can’ t give in to it. But something’ s happening. It’ s not how it used to be – the white boy with an acoustic guitar kind of thing. Something’ s happening, and I find it very, very encouraging. Groups are coming together to recognize that politics matter, and that they should

BB: Well,“ Saffiyah Smiles” takes its cues from both what happened in Charlottesville and another incident that occurred at a fascist march in Birmingham, England earlier this year. A young British Asian woman went face to face, toe to toe, with a leader of the English Defense League, this fascist. And while he was ranting in her face, she just smiled at him. And there’ s a photograph of her smiling, while a cop is trying to keep them apart while all these other guys are yelling at her, too. Her name was Saffiyah Khan, and with this smile she showed the way that we need to deal with all these provocations, and how we need to come together around that sentiment. Because what she did was, there was a woman in a hijab that they were abusing, and she just stepped in, in between, and she kept smiling at this guy until he finally shut the fuck up. And it’ s such a powerful

implication of a female spirit and antifascist activism, and done in such a wonderful zen way. And“ Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted” is about how facts have now become subject to the same free-market values as everything

else since Reagan and Thatcher, until whatever is the most popular opinion now becomes fact. We’ ve let the market decide everything in the end, and now it’ s

Continued Continued on on page 4744