Sounds Of Revolution 2020’s Week 3

Been sick so I haven’t gotten this posted. Still am so… we’ll see how next week goes. C-Fish

Sounds of Revolution 3

As we continue to add to our playlist of songs for a revolution, we continue to expand the breadth of genres to show that our message is not radical. It is not fringe. It exists in all corners of society. Acceptance of a broken and corrupt system is radical. Allowing power to be monopolized by the wealthy is radical. Allowing the police, militaries, and governments with bombs to kill us without fighting back is radical. Allowing the world to divide us based on immutable characteristics is radical. Letting our labor be exploited for corporate profits is radical. It is our job to raise awareness, to stand up, together, to end the systems of oppression that divide us.

We don’t need to rely on the words of our ancestors and those who died before us to learn these messages. Great poets are alive today, rallying us with their words, if we only take the time to listen.

Kill Lincoln recently covered Skankin Pickles “David Duke is running for President”- and while David Duke is not currently running for President, the name is sadly interchangeable with many politicians. “A Nazi, a klansmans, is running for President… I think I’m in shock, I think I’m gonna cry, millions of people love this guy”. As fascists and extremist politicians continue to run for president, normalizing genocide, xenophobia, and ethnic cleansing- the names change, the organizations may change, the ideas are still present, and must be stopped.

The Best of the Worst, in “Illusion of Choice”, doubles down on the idea that the names change, but the politics don’t. This song attacks a two party system where we are constantly told to vote for the lesser evil as aging politicians get rich from donors and try to divide us into hating one another and calls for everyone to stand up, take action, and create change.

The Chinkees “Run For Help” is a short track that stands as both a call for action and a call for solidarity- run for help rather than standing alone.

These first three tracks all appear on Bad Time Records 2020 “Ska Against Racism” compilation, which was recently updated and all current proceeds from this compilation are being donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

Dissidente’s “Labor Day” is an attack on corporate greed and a call for a Universal Basic Income. It’s biting observations of employers demanding loyalty and fealty as they extract every ounce of profit and work you to the bone.

Rissi Palmer wrote “Seeds” after the 2014 murder of Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri. Sadly, in the years since, it could have been inspired by countless other murders of unarmed people at the hands of police. The video for the song is a short film featuring a child being shot by an officer and also a child in a cage while what appears to be a politician and his family eats at a picnic nearby. The lyrics reference Greek poet Dino Christianopoulos, “they tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds”, and demand we come together, rising against all challenges, and fight injustice.

The final song on this week’s list is Tyler Childers “Long Violent History”. In a video announcing his Long Violent History album, Childers dedicated this song to “Breonna Taylor- a Kentucky and like me”. Like Michael Brown, who inspired the precious track, Breonna Taylor was murdered at the hands of police. Childers contemplates the privilege of being a white boy and compares the struggles of BLM to the struggles of coal miners in the past, and the long violent history of the police, helping to unite the struggles of the working class rural whites with the struggles of Black people today.

Do not let them divide us. Education is strength.

Bad Time Records digital album can be purchased here to support the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund

Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund can be found here if you would like to donate directly

Source: punxinsolidarity.wordpress.com