RATM Organizes AZ Boycott Sound Strike

Among the artists agreeing to participate: Rage Against The Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club, Café Tacvba, Kanye West, Conor Oberst, Ozomatli, Massive Attack, Sonic Youth, Rise Against, Tenacious D.

By Fred Mills

To some of us, we've seen it happen before: back in the late ‘80s, the state of Arizona canceled a paid Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday for state employees, and in the ensuing uproar, many boycotts of Arizona kicked in, with artists ranging from U2 to Steve Wonder criticizing the situation and pledging not to perform in the state. Point of fact, it was a boneheaded decision on the part of then-governor (and soon to be impeached governor) Evan Mecham, a Republican, to cancel the holiday, and not necessarily a sentiment shared by the majority of AZ residents; but the result was the same as if it had been a statewide referendum approved by voters, with protests, cancelled conventions, a drop in tourism, and the aforementioned boycotts. (Yours truly moved to AZ not long after the flap, and I can say in all truthfulness that the state was NOT populated by hordes of unreconstructed racists and wannabe Klansment. Well, there were quite a few of militia types, but that's another story. At any rate, the MLK affair was embarrassing to most folks who lived there as they didn't like being portrayed by the rest of the country as being racist.)

So here we are in 2010, and another Republican governor, Jan Brewer, has stirred up some serious shit by signing into law the now-notorious immigration bill, AZ SB1070. You don't need me to brief you on the law and the still-unfolding fallout as it's already made more headlines than the MLK flap. The music community has gradually been coming together in voicing its opinion - negative, as you might imagine - about the matter; just a couple of days ago we brought you word (and an MP3) of Tom Morello and Outernational's collaboration on a protest cover of Woody Guthrie's "Deportees".

Morello's bandmate in  Rage Against The Machine, Zack De La Rocha, is going even further, organizing what he calls Sound Strike, which is calling for a boycott of Arizona by both bands and music fans as well as organizing a online petition (in both English and Spanish) asking President Obama to take action (unspecified) to protect the civil rights of Arizona citizens.

You can view and sign the petition here at the Sound Strike site, while elsewhere on the site you can read De La Rocha's press release about the boycott. It reads, in part:

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, they arrested her. As a result, people got together and said we are not going to ride the bus until they change the law. It was this courageous action that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. What if we got together, signed a collective letter saying, "we're not going to ride the bus", saying we are not going to comply. We are not going to play in Arizona. We are going to boycott Arizona?!

We are asking artists the world over to stand with us, and not allow our collective economic power to be used to aid and abet civil and human rights violations that will be caused by Arizona's odious law.

Listed thus far as having agreed to participate in the boycott:

Cypress Hill
Juanes
Conor Oberst
Los Tigres del Norte
Rage Against the Machine
Cafe Tacvba
Michael Moore
Kanye West
Calle 13
Joe Satriani
Serj Tankian
Rise Against
Ozomatli
Sabertooth Tiger
Massive Attack
One Day as a Lion
Street Sweeper Social Club
Spank Rock
Sonic Youth
Tenacious D

You can readily imagine what clubland in Arizona would look like this summer if the boycott effort snowballs...

As an aside, syndicated columnist Gustavo Arellano, who authors the popular "Ask A Mexican" column that runs in Village Voice and other alternative newsweeklies, recently expressed his sympathy with folks who would call for a boycott, but he suggested an alternate strategy too: a boycott, in which you additionally support (with time, manpower, money, etc.) organizations who actually get threatened by policies and actions prompted by the Arizona law. You can read his column about this and about "some of the good people of Arizona" here - and indeed, just like I discovered when I moved to the state years ago, many, if not a majority, citizens living there don't necessarily support the law, or at least they don't support the way it's likely to be implemented.