How punk and post-punk politics mirror the contemporary left: A Melbourne scene case study

This article addresses the political tensions within left-wing underground or do-it-yourself punk and post-punk music scenes in Melbourne, Australia. We use interviews to show how participants tend to attribute their left-wing political perspectives to their involvement in this music scene while qualifying such perspectives with their personal biographies. Participants address both the strengths and limitations of punk and post-punk cultural identity as a form of political expression and directly interrogate some of the contradictions that they perceive between the discourse on social justice or class and the actual behaviour of other participants within their scenes. These interviews show how some of the most active debates about politics within such scenes mirror, are shaped by, and shape, broader debates within the global contemporary left.