Socialist choirs are pretty much what it says on the label; choirs who sing left wing political songs at demonstrations, rallies, picket lines etc.

As far as I know, their ancestry can be traced back to the mid/late 1930s, when the Workers Music Association did much to promote them. This was partly as the result of a directive from Stalin no less, that national Communist parties should encourage the singing of national folksongs. Believe me I didn't make that up. But it's beyond me to understand why that directive should have helped give birth to the 1930s New York folk revival in the USA, while it also gave birth to the socialist choir movement in Britain.

In any event SCs seem to have flourished from that date through to the early 1960s, and were doubtless encouraged in their later stages by the Aldermaston CND marches.

SCs choirs have been enjoying something of a resurgence lately. EG, the one I belong to, The Liverpool Socialist Singers, was formed early last year and keeps going from strength to strength.

NB., for anyone in the Merseyside area, we're singing on Saturday 16th July as part of the Peace and Ecology Festival at St Lukes Church at the top of Bold St.