What does "Up Against The Wall, Mother!" mean?

Question:Watching a movie and one of the 1960's posters and protestors were screaming this. What does it mean in terms of protesting and what ideas do you have on the origins of the phrase?

I know that Nazi soldiers would patronize older women by referrng to them as "Mutti" (mother) while loading them into trucks, trains, etc.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Watching a movie and one of the 1960's posters and protestors were screaming this. What does it mean in terms of protesting and what ideas do you have on the origins of the phrase?

I know that Nazi soldiers would patronize older women by referrng to them as "Mutti" (mother) while loading them into trucks, trains, etc.

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The Motherf***ers grew out of a Dada-influenced art group called Black Mask with elements of another group called Angry Arts. Formed in 1966 by painter Ben Morea and the poet Dan Georgakas, Black Mask produced a broadside of the same name and declared that revolutionary art should be "an integral part of life, as in primitive society, and not an appendage to wealth." In May 1968, Black Mask changed its name and went underground. Their new name, Up Against the Wall Motherf***ers, came from a poem by Amiri Baraka. Abbie Hoffman characterized them as "the middle-class nightmare... an anti-media media phenomenon simply because their name could not be printed."

One of the first appearances of the phrase "Up against the wall Motherf***ers!" as a revolutionary slogan was in April, 1968, on a famous piece of graffiti found scrawled in the mathematics department (the building they helped occupy), following the Columbia University protests of 1968.

At various times, the line became popular among several groups that came out of the sixties, from Black Panthers to feminists and even "rednecks." In the 1970s, Texas country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard adapted the famous phrase for a song he wrote entitled "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother".

Police would supposedly say this to blacks they were arresting or searching. It was considered racist, and it showed the separation between the police and the black communities.
I have no idea how widespread the usage was, but those words did become well-known to the general public at a certain time in history--the 60's, say.
By repeateing this expression the protestors were actually protesting its use. And in the 60's many protesters were against the War, and the police were heavy-handed in dealing with war protestors, so there was a separation between the police and many others--not just blacks.

It means he wants to shag his mother, do you?

In the 60s, it came from this:

"Up against the wall" is what police would tell you to do when searching you. Spread legs and raise arms above head and lean against the wall on your hands, to prevent sudden movements. I'm sure you've seen it in cop shows or movies.

The phrase wasn't "mother" -- it was "mother f-----."

The whole phrase is what police were said to have said when arresting or hassling those they didn't like -- long-hairs, blacks, militants, etc.

Then the phrase was adopted by militants themselves, as a general metaphorical command to relinquish power.

There was a nice play on it in a song of the time "Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother." In that case, the point was about a mother.