In the 1980s, the British Labour Party was in crisis. Electoral defeats at the hands of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives had made Labour a spectator, watching as the welfare state the party had fought hard to create was dismantled. The Tories seemed unstoppable.

Red Wedge, a collective of musicians opposed to Tory rule, believed that music could help galvanize opposition to the government. They toured Britain in the lead-up to the 1987 general election, aiming to drum up youth support for Neil Kinnock’s Labour.

Red Wedge couldn’t defeat Thatcher, but it deserves to be remembered today. It was one of the first times that British musicians expressly lent their support to a political party. The achievements and limitations of Red Wedge have wider lessons for attempts by left activists to bring politics into culture and culture into politics.