I’m sure Kate Tempest needs no further promotion but she has a special place for me in that a I saw here soon after she started up in an underground oasis in Peckham and she rapped about the working class artists of south London which was movingly on point. And she had a power in her voice which I knew was needed to change the world.
Also worth pointing out this platform… and the work of Jon Ewing @musicfightevil
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1460-a-history-of-anti-fascist-punk-around-the-world-in-9-songs/
Consider these songs inspiration for radical survival throughout the grim four years ahead.
By Jes Skolnik March 6, 2017
Sometimes I need to mark the mainstream moving forward in a progressive direction. I’d be happy to have a comment that argues how this is simply recuperation of BLM. Its complicated… But, but, but… Onwards!
“In 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi called on the Russian government to release members of the all-girl punk group Pussy Riot whose members had been imprisoned for two years for staging an anti-government protest in Moscow’s pre-eminent Orthodox cathedral. Having herself only been released from long-term house arrest in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi stated at an Amnesty International conference, “I don’t see why people shouldn’t sing whatever it is they want to sing.” “
Grammy-winning punk rock singer Henry Rollins told Al Jazeera, “I think Rebel Riot is using the vehicle of music to put a message across is punk rock in its purest form and optimum application.” Having visited Myanmar in 2008 in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, Rollins said that “it doesn’t surprise me at all that punk music would have an appeal anywhere in the world” including Myanmar, which has existed largely under a military dictatorship since 1962.
He said punks have always faced harassment from authorities, including himself while singer of the punk band, Black Flag. But he said that the harassment experienced by punks in the United Kingdom and United States was “was nothing like what truth-tellers and those questioning established authority systems like in Myanmar and Russia face. Not even close.
“The situation wasn’t so extreme that you risked arrest and worse for merely having an opinion. Rebel Riot or Pussy Riot put far more on the line, at far greater risk than I ever had to,” he said.
But hey! don’t watch Al Jazzera, watch George’s own podcast here: ‘What does it take to govern effectively?’ is this model for politicians of the future? YOU decide! 😉
This man has a beguiling calm in his tone of voice…
Anne Feeney, folk singer and political activist, dies at 69
Shamed to say I’d not heard of her and she was a powerful voice who’s work pervades the culture and will live on long into the future.
Buruh Tani (field workers), a popular peasant song from the Indonesian people.
