Crass

Crass was an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex, in 1977 who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a lifestyle, and a resistance movement. Crass popularized the anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, advocating direct action, animal rights, feminism, and environmentalism. The band employed and advocated a DIY ethic in its albums, sound collages, leaflets, and films. Crass spray-painted stencilled graffiti messages on the London Underground and on advertising-billboards, coordinated squats and organized political action. The band expressed its ideals by dressing in black, military-surplus-style clothing and using a stage backdrop amalgamating icons of perceived authority such as the Christian cross, the swastika, the Union Jack, and the ouroboros. The band was critical of the punk subculture and youth culture in general; nevertheless, the anarchist ideas that they promoted have maintained a presence in punk. Because of their free experimentation and use of tape collages, graphics, spoken word releases, poetry, and improvisation, Crass has been associated with avant-punk and art punk.