The 1970s are often characterised as sober and gloomy, a prolonged anti-climax to the swinging 1960s. The oil crisis of 1973 led to widespread unemployment in most industrialised countries, which was only exacerbated in the early 1980s by the worldwide economic crisis. Young people, especially, struggled to find employment, and class antagonisms – largely absent in the 1960s – resurfaced within this segment of the population in Britain and the Netherlands. Consequently, notes Matthew Worley with regards the British context, youth culture began to fragment, and the class struggle intensified. Similar trends are visible in the Netherlands. Simultaneously, or as response to, widespread unemployment and intensifying class antagonisms, the extreme right gained support in both countries.

The Young Communist League (YCL) and the Algemeen Nederlands Jeugdverbond (ANJV; ‘General Dutch Youth League’) took advantage of these developments and produced statements aimed at this disaffected generation, while their magazines, Challenge and Jeugd (‘Youth’) respectively, ran articles that reported on the emergent punk and squatting movements, and associated music. In addition, both organisations rallied behind the feminist and gay rights movements, and accelerated their fight against fascism and racism.