oakland para el pueblo!

oakland is getting ready to host its first marathon in 25 years. tomorrow!

in preparation, here is oakland's own mystic, from her first album, cuts for luck & scars for freedom, video featuring our beloved bay area city.

the life : mystic




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the life : mystic (remix)



but you know and i know it's all about survival
this struggle of our people is like that unrivaled
the politicans they was never in control
it's deeper then that, a true battle for the soul
what they want is to bring us to our knees
so my people guard your life by any means

...

recently my friend lost her family home in east oakland. some vicious real estate speculators stole it from her grandmother, the result of a sketchy foreclosure & auction at the alameda county courthouse, where they bought it for one-half its current market price and paid in cash. her family had been in that neighborhood, in that very home, for more than fifty years, ever since they immigrated from the philippines to one of the only areas in the city that at the time wasn't whites-only.

ugh, gentrifiers are sucking the life out of so many of our neighborhoods. que se vayan al infierno! and i hope it's really hot in there.

oakland fans & marathon spectators should support the team that's running for causa justa / just cause, because every day they work to defend this city for all of us, organizing resistance to vulture banks & developers, fighting to keep families in their rightful homes & communities.

...

¡oakland es del pueblo! el pueblo ¿dónde está?
¡¡el pueblo está en las calles exigiendo libertad!!

music of resistance

al-jazeera english has recently been airing this series of documentaries, music of resistance, hosted by steve chandra savale of asian dub foundation. i've seen a couple of the episodes, and while i would kind of wish for different interview questions here, or more relevant framing there, how cool is it that this series even exists?! hurray!

this is the one on tinariwen, a band of ex-combatants & roqueros from the sahara (touareg people). tinariwen have been darlings of the rock press for some time, as their backstory combines electric guitars & kalashnikovs, and they play gigs in the desert to audiences who arrive mostly via camel. the western press loves that. unlike most of the writing on them i've seen so far, this documentary lets them tell their own story, full of the struggle & love of their people and land, and it also includes some really beautiful video of their performances.

music of resistance : survival in the southern sahara





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al-jazeera english, by the way, has done some excellent documentaries recently and though its regular coverage of regional and international events varies a bit in terms of editorial line, it's infinitely better than almost anything else out there in the english-language tv news world, and some of it is really brilliant. most cable providers in the u.s. don't won't transmit it, but you can find it online & in a mobile-accessible version.

bhangra + brass, this is why sikhs are hot

i was thinking, you know, there's just not enough bhangra on this roqueras blog. nor new orleans-style brass band for that matter.

meet red baraat! bhangra + brass = sooo sin fronteras, que no?



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on a related note (related because sonny singh, who plays trumpet in red baraat, is an organizer at the sikh coalition)... you have to see this video, this is why sikhs are hot. i love it :)



anda, red baraat! adelante, coalición sikh!

Liberation Lullaby

In trying to dig up some songs I could learn to sing to my daughter, I came across this in my collection. The video features images of cute chiapaneco babies, but the recording has better sound and pleasing harmonies.


Oscar Chavez: Duérmete niño bonito




Here are a few verses:

Duérmete niño bonito / Sleep pretty little boy
Duérmete chiapaniquito/ Sleep little Chiapan
Duérmete mi niño enfermo / Sleep my sick child
Duérmete mi niño eterno / Sleep my eternal child
Que hasta aquí no entra el gobierno / For here the government does not enter

…

Duérmete niña bontia / Sleep pretty little girl
Duérmete chiquiquitita / Sleep tiny little one
Duérmete la lluvia empapa / Sleep for the rain is wetting
Duérmete bajo mi capa / Sleep beneath my cloak
Que hasta aquí no llega el papa / For here the pope does not arrive

…

Duérmete niñita bella / Sleep beautiful little girl
Duérmete mi linda estrella / Sleep my pretty star
Duérmete sierra a la vista / Sleep, there are mountains within view
Duérmete mi niña lista / Sleep my smart girl
Que te arrula un zapatista / For a Zapatista sings you to sleep

¡¡¡todos con palestina!!!

it's (anti) israeli apartheid week(s)! ok, well mostly it was last week but it's also a little bit this week. and really shouldn't every week be anti israeli apartheid week? claaaro que sí.

What: Israeli Apartheid Week 2010
When: Between March 1st – March 14th 2010

The 6th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will take place between March 1 – March 14th in various cities across the globe. IAW will feature lectures, film screenings, cultural activities, and demonstrations aimed at raising awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies toward Palestinians and to gather support for the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The demands of the BDS campaign are:

1. Ending Israel's occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

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incidentally, i realized when googling for the iaw website that "israeli apartheid week" is censored in google's auto-suggest (when you type something into the search field and it gives you a bunch of suggestions for search queries which match up with what you've typed so far). upon closer examination it seems that it's actually the word "apartheid" which is blacklisted, but i have no doubt that it's the specific use within the phrase "israeli apartheid" which has triggered this block. despicable behavior, google.

update : this has since been fixed, conveniently after israeli apartheid week ended. the word "climategate", another suspected casualty of google auto-suggest, is also back.

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itzuliko naiz : fermin muguruza, dam, minsa (desechos), guive, & al rumjen



¡que viva la resitencia del pueblo! ¡que viva que viva que viva palestina!

la pasionaria

happy international women's day!! here is a famous speech by dolores ibárruri, aka la pasionaria, communist agitator and founder of the mujeres antifascistas (anti-fascist women), whose slogan ¡no pasarán! became the rallying cry of all republican defenders of madrid during the spanish civil war.





¡pueblo de españa en pie!
¡mujeres! ¡defended la vida de vuestros hijos!
¡defended la libertad de vuestros hombres!
todos los sacrificios imaginables,
antes de consentir que triunfen las fuerzas
que representan un pasado de opresión, un pasado de tiranía.
todos contra la reacción.
todos contra el fascismo.
un solo frente
una sola unión,
hombro con hombro, unidos todos,
hasta acabar con el enemigo.

...

people of spain, stand up!
women! defend the life of your children!
defend the freedom of your men!
make all imaginable sacrifices,
before consenting to the victory of forces
of the past, of oppression, of tyranny.
all united against reaction.
all united against fascism.
one front, one union,
shoulder to shoulder everyone,
until the enemy is finished.


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veremos a dolores : ana belén



¡que vivan las mujeres!

roqueras ♥ public education

today, march 4th, thousands of students (k-university), parents, teachers, & workers are striking and convening in defense of public education in california and throughout the u.s. students at 9 universities in south africa are striking today as well. we will join them all, in our hearts & in the streets, to fight for what should belong to all of us.



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a change is gonna come : sam cooke



The story is that Sam Cooke wrote this after he was arrested after challenging a hotel that denied him a room in Louisiana because he was black. From the first cords, this song fills me with a deep longing......longing for justice, for change, for victoria. It reminds me to be patient and calm, since material changes will not happen overnight.

There've been times that I've thought
I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

: la pachuquita

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me gustan los estudiantes : daniel viglietti (original, violeta parra)



this song, written by violeta parra, came out of the unidad popular movement in chile in which a wave of workers, students, left intellectuals, and professionals swept socialist salvador allende to the presidency in 1970. the protests at uc & elsewhere in california in the past few months have given, i think, a glimpse of some beautiful potential in our movement here. during the fall and winter 09 protests i saw students + janitors+ professors + lab techicians + clerical staff all standing together, united in their demands. and now they are joined by so many other sectors in cities and towns all over. just a beginning, yes, but a good one. long live popular unity!

: diabólica

no such thing as "the voiceless"

i hate this term "the voiceless". such liberal garbage. so devoid of context, political economy, class struggle. i think the concept exists for liberals to give themselves something to do-- worry about the voiceless, advocate for the voiceless, defend the voiceless, bleh.

arundhati roy, who has rejected the often-bestowed title voice of the voiceless put it plainly:

we know, of course, there's really no such thing as "the voiceless". there are only the deliberately silenced, the preferably unheard.

claro. people speak for themselves...

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from occupation 101:



from stop the wall campaign:



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and sing for themselves!

slingshot hip hop trailer :



slingshot hip hop, by the way, is now available on dvd.