Strength Thru Oi! is a 1981 Oi!

Oi!

Oi! is a working class subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths ....

 compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

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Track listing

1. "National Service" - Garry Johnson
2. "1984" - 4 Skins
3. "Gang Warfare" - The Strike
4. "Riot Riot" - Infa-Riot
5. "Dead End Yobs" - Garry Johnson
6. "Working Class Kids" - The Last Resort
7. "Blood On The Streets" - Criminal Class
8. "She Goes To Fino's" - The Toy Dolls
9. "Best Years Of Our Lives" - Barney Rubble
10. "Taken For A Ride" - Cock Sparrer
    Cock Sparrer
    Cock Sparrer are a punk rock band formed in 1972 in the East End of London, England. Although they never enjoyed much commercial success, they are considered one of the most influential streetpunk bands, helping pave the way for the late-1970s punk scene and the Oi! subgenre...
    
    
11. "We Outnumber You" - Infa-Riot
12. "The New Face Of Rock'n'Roll" - Garry Johnson
13. "Beans" - Barney Rubble
14. "We're Pathetique" - Splodge
    Splodgenessabounds
    Splodgenessabounds are an English punk rock band formed in Keston, Bromley, South London. The band is associated with the Oi! and Punk Pathetique genres. Their frontman is Max Splodge.-Career:...
    
    
15. "Sorry" - 4 Skins
16. "Running Riot" - Cock Sparrer
17. "Johnny Barden" - The Last Resort
18. "Isubaleene (Part 2)" - Splodge
19. "Running Away" - Criminal Class
20. "Skinhead" - The Strike
21. "Deidre's A Slag" - The Toy Dolls
22. "Harbour Mafia Mantra" - The Shaven Heads

Controversy

When Strength Thru Oi! was released, it was controversial because its title was a play on a Nazi slogan ("Strength Through Joy"), and the cover featured Nicky Crane

Nicky Crane

Nicola Vincenzio "Nicky" Crane was a British neo-Nazi skinhead activist. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993....

, a British Movement

British Movement

The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...

 activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Rock critic Garry Bushell

Garry Bushell

Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Oi! band The Gonads and manages the New York City Oi! band Maninblack. Bushell's recurring themes are comedy, country and class...

, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids

The Skids

Skids were an art-punk/punk rock and new wave band from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, founded in 1977 by Stuart Adamson , William Simpson , Thomas Kellichan and Richard Jobson...

' album Strength Through Joy and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

two months later. It was not so easy to deny the album cover's glorification of violence and the sinister tone of its sleeve notes:

A mass of boots, straights, and combat jackets, skins and boot boys, grins and hoots and oy-oy's, young blood on the prowl.... Getting nicked for wearing steel caps, a flick blade flashing in the moonlight.