Force de Frappe: Rock against Communism in Socialist France

This paper investigates the skinhead subculture in eighties France to elucidate the meaning of right-wing punk in France.  Punk’s initial manifestation in France was predominantly leftist in orientation, but a hypernationalist form of punk developed in the early 1980s, influenced by similar movements in Great Britain and West Germany.  Rock Against Communism developed as a loose coalition of like-minded groups that However, unlike those countries, France was ruled by the socialist-communist coalition of the Mitterrand regime.  Hardcore punks in France were rebelling not only against an abstraction but also the existing government.  Despite the nationalist rhetoric of the skins, their music and style illuminate the cross-cultural interaction still promoted by punk.  This paper examines the work of groups such as Force de Frappe, Tolbiac’s Toads, and Kontingent 88 to illustrate the paradoxes of nationalist punk and the manner in which punk practices were appropriate for different ideological ends.