Alistair Hulet was an acclaimed Scottish acoustic folk singer, revolutionary socialist and committed political activist, who was committed to fighting for a better world, a world based on the principles of justice, equality, love and respect for all of humanity.
Born in Glasgow, in 1968 he and his family moved to New Zealand, where he established a reputation on the folk circuit, with a large repertoire of ballads and other songs. In 1971 he moved to Australia, and sang in many festivals and folk clubs. In the early 1980s he founded the folk punk group, Roaring Jack, which combined Celtic reels with radical and revolutionary lyrics, they opened for international acts such as Billy Bragg and The Pogues and The Men They Couldn't Hang.
In 1991, the Gulf War led Hulett to join the International Socialist Organisation, and, in 1995, he co-founded the Australian Trotskyist organisation, Socialist Alternative, often playing political benefits and rallies with Roaring Jack.
Hulett wrote songs in support of Indigenous Australians, the BLF (Builders Labourers Federation), the Maritime Union of Australia and former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke.
Hulett's first solo CD, Dance of the Underclass (1991), was completely acoustic, with contributions from other members of Roaring Jack, the album was instantly hailed as a folk classic and proved to be the turning point in Alistair's return to the folk fold, establishing Hulett as a key contemporary songwriter and underlined his significance as a documenter of social issues. His position as one of the most influential musicians on the Australian scene was now beyond dispute.
In the UK his song, "He Fades Away", was picked up by Roy Bailey and by June Tabor and later by Andy Irvine. All three performers recorded uniquely different but thoroughly compelling interpretations of the song. established Hulett as a key contemporary songwriter and underlined his significance as a documenter of social issues.
In 1995 he met the late great fiddle player Dave Swarbrick, who was living in Australia, and they became a duo. Hulett and Swarbrick made two fine albums together, Saturday Johnny and Jimmy the Rat (1996) and The Cold Grey Light of Dawn (1998) after making another fine solo album, In Sleepy Scotland, he worked with Swarbrick on perhaps his crowning achievement, Red Clydeside. Hulett's song suite told the story of the Glasgow workers' revolt and their attempts to form a republic in response to conscription in 1914.
After returning to his native Glasgow in the late 1990s, Alistair was an active member of the Socialist Workers Party. Hulett became acutely ill on New Year’s Day 2010 and was hospitalised on 5 January with suspected food poisoning.Liver failure was later diagnosed and it was hoped that he could receive a liver transplant, but further investigation revealed a very aggressive metastatic cancer which had already spread to his lungs and stomach. Hulett died on 28 January 2010 at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.
Following his untimely death, two memorial funds were established in his name; one in the UK and one in Australia. Both funds were established with the aim of honouring and upholding Alistair’s legacy of actively campaigning through his music and his songwriting on behalf of the poor, the oppressed and the disadvantaged.
The following song of his from Dance of the Underclass still holds much resonance today. as out of control dark forces undermine us with their'smash and grabs for power, it reminds us that for a long time now we been under the dictatorship of capital
Alistair Hulet - Dictatorship of Capital
You're trying to tell me capital has won at last
And anyone who's not convinced is just being shown the door
You're trying to tell me competition turns the wheels
Smart money never deals in welfare any more
Survival of the fittest keeps the species strong
Change is always painful but it doesn't last too long
Excuse me friend,
I think you could be wrong.
When some of us are free to rise and some are free to fall,
All of us are under the dictatorship of capital.
You're trying to tell me profit is the bottom line
Cancer is sometimes benign, it eats the cells that leave themselves defenceless
You're trying to tell me market forces must prevail
Some succeed while others fail
Failure has to face the consequences
Weeding out the weak is mother nature's song
Existence is a game like chess, Monopoly or Mahjong.
Excuse me friend, I think you could be wrong.
And it did not take me by surprise when the revolution from above began to cave in.
Like a New Town built by an architect, a concrete wasteland no-one wants to live in.
When some of us are free to rise and some are free to fall,
All of us are under the dictatorship of capital.
You're trying to tell me I'm living in democracy, everyone is always free
To either live with ugliness or beauty
You're trying to tell me that undermining revolutions
When they threaten institutions is a major power's democratic duty
With Batista, Marcos, Pinochet you got along
But not with the Sandinistas and not with the Viet Kong
Excuse me friend,
I think you've got it wrong.
Because when some of us are free to rise and some are free to fall,
All of us are under the dictatorship of capital.
All of us are under the dictatorship of capital.
All of us are under the dictatorship of capital.
http://www.alistairhulett.com
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