What role does music play within nonviolent social change movements?
Music can act as a powerful tool by unifying people and building solidarity. It provides a shared emotional outlet, helping to raise morale and give a voice to marginalised communities. Through lyrics, songs can effectively communicate complex messages of protest, hope, and resistance, making them accessible and memorable to a broad audience. Historic examples like the American Civil Rights Movement’s use of spirituals and anthems such as “We Shall Overcome” demonstrate how music can inspire courage and sustain activists through difficult times.
Talking points
1. How can music and song be a form of activism?
2. What is music’s role in nonviolent social change movements?
3. What makes a good protest song?
4. Is there a song/music that has inspired you on your activist journey?
5. What campaigns do you think have been influenced by the use of music/song?
Listen
Our Spotify playlist includes songs of protest, hope, and resistance and how music can act as a powerful tool by unifying people and building solidarity, and provide a shared emotional outlet, helping to raise morale and give a voice to marginalised communities.
Read
Our reading list includes song books, books about protest singers, and books about how music has been used as a tool for protest.
In the Collection – pamphlets and periodicals
These are just a few of the many pamphlets and periodicals in the Commonweal Collection. Most pamphlets are available to borrow, the periodicals are reference only.
Greenham Women are Everywhere
A collection of songs sung at Greenham Common. The Women’s Liberation Music Archive exists to ensure that feminist music-making embodying a world-changing commitment to putting politics into practice is documented, valued and placed in the cultural and political context of the time, perhaps serving to inspire other women as we are inspired by pioneering women before us.
Classification: Oz GRE Songs & Poetry PAMPHLET check it’s available here.
Mines not Missiles: Song Book by Women for Mines Not Missiles (1984)
A collection of songs brought together by the Women for Mines not Missiles collective who in 1984 marched from Capenhurst Uranium Enrichment plant to a rally in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield. The women marched and sang the songs collected in this pamphlet.
Classification: Oz WOM Songs & Poetry PAMPHLET check it’s available here.
Musicians Against Nuclear Arms Newsletter – Autumn 2001
Musicians Against Nuclear Arms (MANA) was founded in 1983 by a group of musicians and music lovers who had the idea of organising concerts by professional musicians to raise funds for the peace movement. Now known as Musicians for Peace and Disarmament, it has donated over £75,000 to organisations within the peace movement.
Classification: Xd Nuclear Disarmament PERIODICAL – REFERENCE ONLY.
Oz
Oz was an independently published, alternative/underground magazine associated with the international counterculture of the 1960s/70s, often featuring music that challenged the status quo. There are around 30 copies of Oz in the Collection from 1967 to 1973.
Classification: On Counter-culture PERIODICAL – REFERENCE ONLY.
Red and Green Songs (1986)
Songs which deal, humorously and seriously, with a range of topics from abortion to marital angst and power relationships in both the public and the private worlds. Includes an interview with Chilean singer/songwriter Cristina Gonzalez about using song to show resistance to the rule of the junta.
Classification: Oz RED Songs & Poetry PAMPHLET check it’s available here.
Songs for Peace – Paul Robeson (1963)
Paul Robeson sang a variety of songs with themes of peace, justice, and freedom, including “The House I Live In”. His powerful performances of songs promoting hope, freedom, and unity, such as spirituals and protest songs, contributed to his legacy as a voice for peace and a better world.
Classification: Oz ROB Songs & Poetry PAMPHLET check it’s available here.
How to search the Collection
The online catalogue includes all the books, pamphlets and periodicals in the Collection.
Column 1: Select title, or classmark eg Oz for Music and Song.
Column 2: Enter search term
Column 3: Select “Commonweal Collection”
Contribute
To share something musical that inspires you email commonwealoutreach@peacemuseum.org.uk. Your suggestions will feature on our website and social media, and also help us to identify gaps in the Collection.