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Yesterday you will have noticed Damon Albarn and Massive Attack on the 6 o'clock news throwing soundbites in the air against what looks very likely to be about to begin (seeing as big boats full of soldiers and billion pounds worth of arms are sailing off to Iraq). We wondered what sensible things have been said…
Quite possibly the most indepth quote comes from Fugazi man Ian Macaye in this week's Kerrang:
"What are my feelings? Well I am of course completely opposed to all wars so this war would be one of those. I think it’s interesting for me as an American or someone born in America to experience what I imagine most totalitarian governments have done in the past. The salesmanship of this particular act is so intense and so almost unmitigated it feels almost. It feels like it’s being shoved down our throats. I sort of think about it in terms of, you know, when there’s a new movie coming out from Hollywood the stars suddenly start appearing in various news pieces. Weird little pieces in the personality sections of the papers and then suddenly it happens they’re in town to talk about this movie. Basically the major media tends to revolve around issues that somehow feed into this movie. If it’s a movie about orphans suddenly there’s pieces on orphans. I don’t know how deliberate it is but it seems incredibly orchestrated. So this particular situation with Iraq it’s in the fine tradition of salesmanship of brutality….
…There’s been a continuous war against Iraq for the last few years. British and American planes have been throwing bombs on people over there for the last twelve years. It’s never stopped. I don’t know what people think a war is but it’s never stopped." - Read a lot more of this here.
Chuck D, Ani DiFranco, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Ozomatli and amazing-poet-actor Saul Williams will perform at the Not in Our Name anti-war concert in Berkeley, California on January 31st. There's more info on the event @ artistsnetwork.org. Saul Williams recently released a song entitled 'September 12th' with the chorus "No, not in my name, not in my life, not by my hands, that ain't my fight, not in my name". To hear the track and find out Mre about this goto notinournamemusic.com
And dis' favourite new band, The Koreans, put it best in song, apparently penned on the morning of 9/11: "This ain't freedom, you don't have a voice to say we're wrong". Download a MP3 demo of 'Land of the Free'.
The Next National Demo: Saturday 15th February 2003, 12 Noon, Embankment, London. More info @ stopwar.org.uk
DiScuss: Why? Should we be going to war? Is it right that the dumbest, most impatient man in the world - whose country just wants to colonise the world by putting its brands and businesses in every town - have the most weapons? Why? Is it all about petrol? Should we be spending so much on a war, which will fuel and ignite further hatred, rather than sorting out world debt, poverty, famine, evil corporate empires, our disenchanted'n'disruptive generation..? Why is everyone so politically apathetic?
