Punk Tiermondisme, Punk Tribalism, and the Late Cold War Roots of Antiglobalization

This chapter explores the divergent reactions of punk scenes around the world to the changing forces of neoconservative/neoliberal politics and globalization. Some scenes embraced a new punk variant of the previous generation’s tiermondisme (“third worldism”), creating new alliances across the three worlds of the late Cold War era, along with new collaborations with reggae and hip-hop artists. Others, however, turned inward to an insular punk tribalism. Both were skeptical of the emerging global neoliberal order and often also participated in the politically ambiguous antiglobalization rallies that emerged in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. By the mid-1980s, punk scenes around the world found themselves dividing along the lines of an emergent political spectrum, into warring factions of xenophobic reactionary skinheads and globally minded progressive punks. This divide was intensified by the overlying tension between bands that found market success and those that vehemently rejected any sign of it.