Tony Wilson "Fascist" Letter - and responses, NME 1984

FASCIST! Yeah you heard me and I’m talking about Tony Wilson. The evidence is painfully obvious.

My case for the prosecution:

1) Joy Division is the name of a concentration camp.

2) New Order - Another name for the Third Reich.

3) A Certain Ratio - A term used for a Certain Ratio of Jewish blood.

4) Sector 25 - Another concentration camp perhaps?

The rest of my evidence is the Certain Ratio LP sleeve with the two neo-Nazis on the inside and the propaganda style painting on the outside. The first Joy Division single sleeve and the undeniably Nazi overtones of the little drummer boy picture.

Your honour, I rest my case here.

So why has he the right to criticise our media when he outlandishly flirts with the imagery of the most evil force in the world’s history?

Chris Clisset, Knebworth.

PS We’re not all village idiots even if we do come from the sticks.

Chris Bohn replies: “The answer to your argument is in the article; check Factory's everyday behaviour in the marketplace if you really want to know their political stance.”

RE: CHRIS Clisset’s accusations about Tony Wilson being a Fascist - at least he could get his facts right.

1) Joy Division - camp prostitutes for the use of the S.S. though in some camps Kapos were allowed use of the brothels. (Kapos were criminal prisoners delegated to control other inmates, usually they were psychopathic)

2) A Certain Ratio - any person having a certain ratio of NON-ARYAN blood was termed a Jew.

3) Section 25 - really goes wrong here. It is in fact part of this country’s Mental Health Act (1959) which deals with the grounds for admission.

I'm not writing this to defend Tony Wilson but every so often people use Fascism to attack Factory Records. What about all the groups with a pro-Communist stance? Do they get associated with Stalin, a man also responsible for the slaughter of 20 million of his own country in the Gulag peninsula? It all depends on your perception of things around you. 

Zero D., Devon.

SO ONE of your less intelligent readers, Chris Clisset, reckons Factory are Fascist does he? Any more loose talk like that sonny; and we’ll be round to measure your nose?

Dave and Dick Dobermann, London.