Our World - Billy Bragg (CBC TVrip June 22 2008)

This week, a conversation with Billy Bragg: musician. political activist of the Left and bard of a new England. He chronicled an era of tumultous political change, and now speaks to a new generation, drawn to his songs of idealism, love and social justice. A conversation with about Britain, then and now, and why he thinks his country still lives under the shadow of Margaret Thatcher.

He has been one of the most politically engaged performers of recent times.Bragg's remarkable career has been sometimes controversial--he was always right in the thick of political wars---and yet he's now viewed as almost a national treasure in England for his poetic songs about love and life and as a chronicler of some of the most turbulent times in recent British history, the era of Margaret Thatcher.

He came of age musically in the late 1970's and was influenced by folk musicians like Bob Dylan, but also by the famous punk band the Clash, which was rebellious musically and politically, speaking out against racism in England at the time, for example. Bragg and many of his generation were politicized by the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear war; but also, closer to home, by the politics of Prime Minister Thatcher and her relentless war on unionized workers, which led to the great miners' strike of 1984.

Bragg got involved in this conflict, on the side of the miners, and wrote some of his most famous songs like There is Power in a Union and A New England. He went on to become the bard of the Left Wing of the British Labour Party. But he has always been primarily a writer of songs about love and life, which explains his enduring appeal.

Bragg is now 50 but he is still very engaged in grassroots activism. He has spoken out against the war in Iraq, and against racism in England today. But he's a strong believer in "Positive Patriotism" and the virtues of England, all themes he's written a book about. He still tours with the energy of a twenty year old, and is being discovered by a new generation of British singer song writers.

He was recently in Toronto performing songs from his latest cd "Mr Love and Justice". In this conversation he talks about about his eventful career and his views on British politics, past and present.

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Content Type: [Documentary] [Talk]