facundo cabral

i was so sorry to wake up to this news today, and can still hardly believe this happened to one of our most beloved viejito folk singers...

facundo cabral was assassinated in guatemala city early this morning.

everything is too quiet now.

no soy de aquí, ni soy de allá : facundo cabral

**

yo bailo con mi canción

y no con la que me tocan,

yo no soy la libertad,

pero si el que la provoca.

si ya conozco el camino

para que voy a andar acostado,

si la libertad me gusta

para que voy a vivir de esclavo

...

i dance to my own song

not the one they play for me

i am not freedom

but i am he who incites her

if i know the way

already

why would i go lying down?

if i love freedom

why would i live as a slave?

**

:( que descanses en paz, facundo cabral...

the revolution will be live

the revolution will be no re-run, brothers.

the revolution will be live.

**

thank you.

and que descanses en paz, gil scott-heron.

we almost lost detroit : gil scott heron

**

april 1, 1949 – may 27, 2011

bajo control obrero

brother,
dime que camino estamos tomando

vete preparando

ya está comenzando

: karamelo santo, haciendo bulla

**

welcome to the reclaimed hotel bauen, buenos aires, argentina. bajo control obrero/under worker control :)



right now they are getting ready for

¡¡festi-bauen!!
@ 5pm : 28 march 2011
plaza de los dos congresos
buenos aires, argentina

featuring dub-cumbia-ska-roqueros karamelo santo and also expropriados, the hotel workers' band (nice band name!). i want to go! but i am here ;( if you are there, this is for you...



¡¡expropriación YA!!

**

the argentine military coup happened almost exactly 35 years ago, at dawn on march 24th 1976.



this clip is set to haciendo bulla (making noise) by karamelo santo. on the anniversary of the coup, let's have some tribute to many years of heroic argentine popular struggle... brought to you by the madres, abuelas, hijos, piqueteros, & obreros, aka the people of argentina!



¡¡¡todo el poder al pueblo!!!

what makes a movement?

and how does a movement move?...

the left forum (artist formerly known as the socialist scholars' conference) takes place in nyc starting tomorrow...

left forum 2011
the new solidarity

march 18th - 20th

pace university

new york

**

without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.

: lenin

we sayin' something like this—we saying that theory's cool, but theory with no practice ain't shit.

: fred hampton jr.

maraming salamat to sergio :)

we dont need no occupation

roger waters, of pink floyd, in the guardian:

In 1980, a song I wrote, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, was banned by the government of South Africa because it was being used by black South African children to advocate their right to equal education. That apartheid government imposed a cultural blockade, so to speak, on certain songs, including mine.

Twenty-five years later, in 2005, Palestinian children participating in a West Bank festival used the song to protest against Israel's wall around the West Bank. They sang: "We don't need no occupation! We don't need no racist wall!"

...

Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa's Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes – and it surely will come – when the wall of occupation falls ...

**

palestine will be free : maher zain

admittedly, islamic r&b is not my most favorite style. but what a beautifully animated video, no? and what beautiful sentiments. ¡¡palestina sera libré!!

wow, nice work defaming the memory of sandino,

ortega.

on the anniversary of augusto sandino's death, daniel ortega, sinverguenza former revolutionary leader and current president of nicaragua, mentioned he has been talking a lot these days to his murderous lunatic friend, muammar gaddafi:

Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation.

: washington post

**

i actually didn't think it was possible for ortega to be any more of an asshole than he was already. i suppose i was wrong. i mean, he sold out the people of nicaragua a long time ago and hasn't looked back since, but still. how are you going to express solidarity with a dictator's massacre of democracy demonstrators? vete al infierno, señor ortega and take your friend with you.

since ortega decided to utter this mierda in a sandino commemoration, let me also take this moment to reclaim a bit of sandino's honorable legacy, which certainly belongs to the incredibly heroic popular forces in libya trying to bring down a tyrant, and not to that tyrant and his friends...

**

nosotros iremos hacia el sol de la libertad o hacia la muerte

y si morimos, nuestra causa seguirá viviendo, otros nos seguirán

we will go towards the sun of freedom or until death

and if we die, our cause continues living, because others after us will follow

: augusto césar sandino

all power to the people! abajo gadafi!! ¡¡¡que viva que viva que viva libia!!!

adelante, compañer@s

go, egypt, go!!!!!!!!!!!!

hasta

la victoria

siempre

**

protest tomorrow !!
saturday, january 29th : 12-3pm
market & montgomery : san francisco
solidarity now with the people of egypt & tunisia !!!!!

dude you have no quran

just in case you missed it, this small anti-islamophobia act of solidarity speaks for itself. but why not let it speak again & again in a re-mixed club version?

thanks, gg :)

from monument to masses

my camarada & recent compañero de trabajo/co-conspirator sergio is sort of a jack of all trades.

for one thing he's kind of a rock star. for reals. as in he's played shows all over the us, uk, continental europe, and japan. as in he's one-third of this band, from monument to masses which plays its last show ever tonight at the great american music hall in sf. what kind of music? ummmm... post-rock? i admit to not really knowing exactly what that means except that it's the kind of music like electrelane or stereolab... maybe?? like heavy on the instrumental, light on the vocals, structurally unorthodox. i think. and in the case of fmtm anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist. ok, good.

it's the last weekend of august. weddings, birthday parties, panteon rococo... all kinds of good places to be. but maybe you also need to be at gamh to see fmtm? i hear they put on a great show :)

from monument to masses
the final show
tonight! saturday, 28 august
@ great american music hall, san francisco
doors: 8pm, show: 9
$15

**

the quiet before (thunderbirds are now! mix)




deafening




comrades & friends (loquat mix)




**

wow. on defening that's a translation of victor jara's last poem, written just before his assassination in the estadio chile (audio here by his widow?). beautiful.

but suddenly my conscience awakes
and i see that this tide has no heartbeat,
only the pulse of machines
and the military showing their midwives’ faces
full of sweetness.
...

how hard it is to sing
when i must sing of horror.
...

to see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence & screams
are the end of my song.

what i see, i have never seen
what i have felt and what i feel
will give birth to the moment…...

lolita lebrón ¡presente!

lolita lebrón
19 noviembre 1919 - 1 agosto 2010

in 1954, 34-year-old lolita lebrón & her comrades walked into the visitors' gallery at the u.s. capitol building, shouted que viva puerto rico libre, and opened fire on the house of representatives, wounding five congressmen. upon her release from prison 25 years later, she returned home to her island and proudly declared herself unrepentant, that it is the right of all people to fight for their freedom. in 2001 she was arrested for "trespassing" at the age of 81, in an action to oppose the bombing of vieques, and was sentenced to two months.

lolita lebrón is adored throughout the americas for her many beautiful acts of rebellion & defense of her homeland. she will be missed!

**

here is a bit of audio from freedom archives where she speaks about the decision to take up arms in the fight against u.s. imperialism...



**

and here's some archival newsreel from the time of the attack on the congress, including an interview with her & rafael cancel miranda shortly afterwards where they are asked if they are sorry for what they've done ;)






**

and finally carlos puebla's lovely dedication written for her during her detention...

guajira por lolita lebrón




¡que viva puerto rico libre! ¡que viva lolita lebrón!

we will not comply

tomorrow is the day that sb1070, otherwise known as legalized racism & xenophobia in arizona, is scheduled to take effect. a judge has issued a partial injunction but it's not enough. and people know it's not enough. families have already started to flee. but immigrants are also fighting back, preparing to defend themselves, educating each other about their rights, and organizing neighborhood defense committees. after so many years of debate on watered-down reformist bullshit concessions, this wicked law and impending fascism has forced a different conversation. not we are not terrorists or we are not criminals. bleh! not please can we have access to the tiny crumbs of american dream you are making us beg for. more like fuck anti-immigrant racism and fuck the sheriffs & politicians & pigs and WE WILL NOT COMPLY. finally.

our beloved camarada marisa is there now, organizing on the ground in her hometown of phoenix.



she wrote this...

The fact is that in the last 5 years, over 6,000 immigration related bills have been proposed in the State Legislature - that's more than one a day per session. Rather than finding solutions to problems of unemployment, foreclosures, and in the educational system, it seems as though the state capital has become a legislative laboratory to make the lives of migrants miserable. It has become the status quo to blame immigrants for virtually every problem the state faces. In southern Arizona, the Border Patrol's presence has become the norm, as has the death toll of people found in the desert.

...

Somehow, this law and what it represents has become a marker for the future of this place. A line has been drawn in the sand. Its for what kind of Arizona this will be now and in the future. And I don't know about you, but I don't think I want to place it all in the hands of a judge. We don't want half injunctions of an immoral law, we need full justice for our community.

we hear you, compañera. we'll be in the streets here tomorrow, in sf & oakland & san jose, like they will be in phoenix & tucson, and in cities all over!

**

as i'm contemplating the inherent repressive nature of the imperialist state, the violence that always underlies private property and capitalist accumulation, i'm also appreciating a lot the myriad expressions of popular resistance & solidarity that fight their way to the surface at moments like this...





**


sheriff arizona : amandititita




arizona apartheid : marcel cartier (of rebel diaz)



**

que viva el boycott!! que vivan los inmigrantes y que vivan los trabajadores!!!

and que se vayan a la chingada all those racist pieces of shit in az! you want a race war? bring it. we will win. brown is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Sound Strike / Artists boycott AZ

So you could have expected Rage Against the Machine to join the artists' boycott of Arizona. And you could have even predicted Sweet Honey in the Rock, Calle 13, Cafe Tacvba, Los Tigres del Norte, and maybe even Juanes. But Joe Satriani! Yes!!! Way to keep the resistance movement rocking!

If you're in L.A. this weekend, don't miss this show (fundraiser for AZ groups working to defeat SB1070)...

no sleeping with the enemy!

the weather's heating up now and so are the fights between the bosses and the workers! it's boycott season again for a string of sf hotels currently involved in labor disputes. you wouldn't want to sleep with the wrong people so make sure to keep up with hotel workers rising for the updated boycott list!

and for some excellent popaganda & agitation please see...

don't get caught in a bad hotel : brass liberation orchestra & sf pride at work (acknowledgments to lady gaga)



i like it so much.

thanks, lmhm & mv, for pointing me in the right (left!) direction.

public service announcement : ¡silvio!

well this might be the first truly helpful thing the obama administration has done since taking office.



after various decades of countless denied visas, silvio rodríguez has finally been approved for a visit to the u.s. :)

and... announced a couple days ago, he is playing the oakland paramount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

silvio rodríguez
8pm : friday : june 11
@ the paramount theater
oakland

**

canción del elegido : silvio rodríguez



tickets on sale, tomorrow (thursday) @ 11am. he's also supposed to play four other u.s. shows: carnegie hall, pr, & la. ¡éso!

Alex Lora y Arizona

Just got through watching Univisión’s debate about immigration laws. It was mostly a lot of people talking mierda about politicians and politicians talking mierda about each other. Use-less. Bor-ing.

I find much more engaging this little rola by El Tri. On certain topics, no one can say it like Alex Lora.



El Tri -- El Muro

"'hora sí ya me voy ahí nos vemos / now I am going, see you later
ahí les dejo mi reputación / I’m leaving you my reputation
para que hagan pedazos con ella / for you all to break into pieces
mientras yo les canto esta cancion / as I sing you this song
el muro de la vergüenza / the wall of shame
por el arco del triunfo / over the arc of triumph
me lo voy a pasar / I’ll pass
y ya cuando esté en el otro lado / and when I’m on the other side
en su muro me voy a orinar / I am going to take a piss on their wall
en su muro me voy a surrar / I am going to take a shit on their wall
y con su muro me voy a limpiar / and I’m gonna wipe myself on their wall"

I can only imagine what Lora would have to say about Arizona’s latest move towards becoming a police state. The beautiful thing is witnessing all the acts of resistance that have been springing up around the country against SB 1070. The Phoenix Suns got new jerseys to play in. Even city governments have responded to the call to divest from the state. And on May 29, people from all over the nation will be converging on Arizona – just as the Freedom Riders did in the South – to stand in solidarity with the resistance movement there.

lena horne

que descanses en paz, ms. lena horne, hermosa...

lena horne
30 june 1917 - 9 may 2010

**

stormy weather :




soundtrack to the cuban agit-prop film now! :




alphabet song w/ muppets :

Deporten a la migra

Seriously, don’t you think it’s about time? Nayáhuari thinks so...

marcha 1o de mayo, San Francisco, 2010

xip xop oaxaca

nuestra libertad no se rebaja

no se rebaja

**

xip xop oaxaca : simón sedillo (featuring en pie de lucha)

screening & discussion with the film-maker.

friday, april 30th : 7pm

@ the ak press warehouse

674a 23rd street

oakland

**

oaxaca vivirá

oaxaca grita ¡ya!

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




**

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





**

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.