Songfacts®:

• This song was written in the aftermath of the sacking of founding member Mick Jones from The Clash, who threatened to form a new band with fellow fired Clash member Topper Headon and use The Clash name. Singer Joe Strummer was infuriated, and wrote "We Are The Clash" as an angry response to make it clear to fans who the "real" Clash were. In the end, Mick's threat was empty, and he instead formed the entirely new band: Big Audio Dynamite.
• "We Are The Clash" is the sign of a general anti-Mick Jones attitude in the Clash camp after his firing. As well as playing the song live in the post-Jones lineup, singer Joe Strummer would change the lyrics to previous songs to attack Jones. For example, "Complete Control" saw the "You're my guitar hero!" lyric changed to "F--k off guitar hero!").
• The Clash played this song regularly throughout 1984, presumably to make the point known to their fans that this was still the true Clash despite the firing of half of their core members in 1982-3. Part of the reason the band toured so extensively in 1984 before recording the Cut the Crap record was to gel the new lineup (new drummer plus TWO new guitarists to replace Mick Jones), and to demonstrate their commitment to their fans.