Our ‘Nice Bit of Kit That’ feature is a celebration of the gear, clothing, and footwear that we like. It’s as simple as that. No rocket science. No complex lingo. Just stuff that we think is cool.
This week, Volcom gives a middle finger to the fascist far-right.
What Is It?
It’s a long sleeve t-shirt that makes up one part of a very cool collaborative collection from Volcom and Aussie surfer / artist Ozzie Wright. It’s also, perhaps more importantly than any of that, an anti-fascist fuck you to the far right; an anti bad vibe message wrapped up in rainbow-coloured positivity.
OK. Why’s It Good?
Fascism is a stain on the world’s carpet; a stain we all, rather complacently let’s be honest, thought we’d got rid of for good. It’s back though, isn’t it? You can see it in the death threats being made against British MPs, you can see it in the Islamophobia being spouted by Tommy Robinson and his supporters, you can see it in far right parties, once considered fringe, doing well in elections across Europe (Marine Le Pen’s ‘National Front’ in France, Jussi Halla-aho’s ‘Finns Party’ in Finland, Geert Wilders ‘Party For Freedom’ in the Netherlands etc), and you can see it in Jair Bolsonaro winning the Presidency of Brazil.
“Fascism is the absolute pits and anything that acknowledges that, whether it be clothes, books, or posters is alright in my book”
Lest we forget, you can of course also see it in the rhetoric of American President Donald Trump. A man who, as well as looking like the backend of a horse, just last year said this about clashes between white supremacists and anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville: “You had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” With Trump, depressingly, this is just one example of his complete and utter failure to condemn the most hate-filled aspects of his support.
I guess what we’re saying then, in summary, is ‘this t-shirt is good, because fascism is the absolute pits and anything that acknowledges that, whether it be clothes, books, or posters is alright in my book.’
