From: Koen Mariën (ko_ma_at_pandora.be)
Date: 2003-03-28 22:42:54
apparently the chorus of the new spearhead single goes: "we can bomb the
world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace". wise and beautiful
words...
greets,
koen
----- Original Message -----
From: "MundoVibes .com" <mundovibes_at_hotmail.com>
To: <acid-jazz_at_ucsd.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:31 PM
Subject: [acid-jazz] Fascist media
> If you don't think it can happen here -- it is. Anyone opposed to Bush's
> reich is now a target. And the media are complicit in this, including MTV.
> Read on and then act:
>
> Soldiers at the Door
> By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
> March 27, 2003
>
> On March 27, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed hip-hop artist
> Michael Franti on the national listener-sponsored radio show Democracy
Now.
> What follows is a rush transcript of that interview:
>
>
> For nearly a decade, hip-hop artist and activist Michael Franti has been a
> leading progressive voice in music. He grew out of the Bay Area music and
> political scene of the 90s. In 1986 he founded the drum and bass duo the
> Beatniks, paving the way for his next musical endeavor, the Disposable
> Heroes of Hiphoprisy. His most recent musical project is the musical
> collective Spearhead, begun in 1994. Franti has used his music to push
> social boundaries, speaks out against sexual violence, encourages his
> community to prevent the spread of HIV and has been very vocal in his
> opposition to war. And now it maybe the reason why the government is
looking
> at him and his group Spearhead.
>
>
> Amy Goodman: It's good to have you with us. Can you talk about what's been
> happening as you've been touring the country with songs like "Bomb da
> World"?
>
>
> Michael Franti: Well, we've been touring for the last year and a half
> performing that song and everywhere we go it gets standing ovations,
people
> begin to cry. People are just very grateful to hear any voice out there
> right now who are speaking in support of peace and human rights.
>
>
> What's happened as you've been on this tour?
>
>
> Well, what's happened most recently is that we performed at a rally on
March
> 15 in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th - that rally was out
here -
> and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who prefers to go
> unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plainclothes men from the
> military - and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf.
>
>
> And they came in and talked to her and said, You have a child who's in the
> Gulf and you have a child who's in this band Spearhead who's part of the
> "resistance"(in their words).
>
>
> They had pictures of us performing the day before at the rally, they had
> pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that we put on
that
> are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight records for
> the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works in my
> office, our management office Guerilla Management. They had his checking
> account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where he
> was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They
> confiscated his sibling's CD collection that they had brought over to
listen
> to while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating - told her
> which members of the press she could talk to and which members of the
press
> she should not speak to.
>
>
> And basically what this signals to me is that - I don't feel like we're
> being particularly singled out or under any investigation for any activity
> because all the activity that we do is very much above board and all the
> events where photos were taken out were all public things we were at. But
> what it does signal to me is that there's a lot of us who are now making a
> blip on the radar, you know, whether we're organizers at rallies, whether
> we're musicians, whether we're people who are speaking out, authors,
> writers, actors. And we're beginning to make little blips on the radar.
> They're starting to pay attention and collect information about what's
going
> on. You know, more important to me or more important than me you know,
being
> a part of that is the fact that our civil rights are being eroded across
the
> board for every person.
>
>
> And for musicians in particular it's a really hard time. Last week our
label
> received a letter, a mass email from MTV instructing the fact that no
videos
> could be shown that mentioned the words "bombing" or "war."
>
>
> No videos could be shown that had protesters in it. Any footage from
> military - they gave a list of prior videos that could not be shown, yet
MTV
> has aired videos that show troops saying goodbye to their loved ones and
> going off to war in a very heroic fashion and troops which are gonna be
> coming home traumatized, wounded and dead and then be treated and thrown
> onto the scrap heap of veterans, as we've seen veterans treated in this
> country.
>
>
> And at the Academy Awards, there were also letters and talk that went
around
> saying not to speak out. Radio - mainstream radio, Clear Channel in
> particular, of course - has put the word out not to air songs that are in
> opposition to the war and in support of peace. Meanwhile, our song "Bomb
Da
> World" which we just put out is now in heavy rotation on a top youth radio
> station in Australia and in Denmark and it's expected to get added to a
lot
> of stations in other countries.
>
>
> A few days ago, Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill and I were at
the
> Ani DiFranco concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to talk
about
> Democracy Now and the importance of independent media in a time of war,
just
> before she went on. And Clear Channel, which owns New Jersey Performing
Arts
> Center, runs that venue, told her no political information could be given
> out and threatened - it seemed the venue threatened to close down the
> concert if there was any political speech.
>
>
> It's incredible, it's outrageous and I think it's something that we all
need
> to be aware of and need to support the art, you know, whether it's music,
> whether it's films, whether it's dance performances or whatever, this is
the
> last place, apart from Pacifica and a few other stations around the
country,
> where these voices are being heard.
>
>
> And Clear Channel that runs 1,200 radio stations now, runs many of the big
> venues in this country for musicians.
>
>
> So it's important that we call these stations and demand that these voices
> be heard.
>
>
> Well Michael Franti, I want to thank you for being with us, as we go out
> with your voice, with "Bomb Da World."
>
>
>
>
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