Tool is a fast-paced hard rock band that shows promise, but hasn't quite delivered yet by Maoist standards. The cover of the Undertow album gets our attention with the picture of a pig with dozens of forks sticking up underneath it.
In an interview with Toronto radio, a Tool singer told listeners that its outlook on life, as reflected in its music, is indeed bleak. Tool recognizes that the rich and powerful don't want to change because "they don't have to change." According to Tool, this arrogance leads to many social problems such as homelessness and hunger.
MIM agrees with Tool that there aren't any quick or easy solutions to this problem. It isn't clear to listeners what Tool thinks of the best way forward, but MIM is very clear on the fact that we need a revolution in Amerika, and it is going to be a long, hard journey.
Tool obviously put a lot of effort into the graphic and instrumental parts of the album, but very little effort into the lyrics. The lyrics that MIM can understand often attack abuses of power. The problem is that this is often done at a psychological level and not a systematic one. This approach makes it easy to blame the masses for their own oppression instead of the power structure.
One song damns a "belligerent fucker," who Tool wants to "shut down." Instead of offering a material analysis of problems, Tool thrashes wildly. People who are looking for serious social change need to come up with effective strategies, not make directionless attacks on power.
MIM can sympathize with people who are angry, disgusted or depressed with everybody around them. The people of Amerika, more than those of any other empire in history, are indeed the most corrupted by privilege. Instead of randomly blaming the masses, we need to analyze which groups benefit from the current structures and which don't. Then we need to take sides.
Tool appears to be heading in the correct direction, but it needs to make a greater effort to define its politics if it's future albums are to be a force for positive change. --MC5
The Cranberries's have a new song "Zombie" with reactionary pacifist politics that is getting a lot of air time. The song focuses on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and condemns the armed liberation struggles of the oppressed while maintaining complete silence about the greater violence of the oppressors.
Most insidious, it appeals to the masses' strong and just desire for an end to war and violence and diverts that desire into counterrevolution and continued oppression.. As Mao Zedong said, "We [revolutionary communists] are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun."(1) To rid the world of war and violence, we need to first rid the world of the gross inequalities which make the violence of the oppressed against their oppressors just. To do so requires armed struggle which "Zombie" opposes.
Also insidious about "Zombie" is that it is pretty good musically, and likely to appeal to many potentially revolutionary youth on the grounds of musical quality alone.
About the only thing MIM can be happy about in "Zombie" is that it's hard to understand. The lyrics are printed in microscopic type, and unless you know that the Irish armed struggle started in 1916 and you saw an interview with the Cranberries where they explain that the dead person in the song was killed by the IRA, you won't get it. MIM tries to be as clear as possible in our limited media. If the reactionaries want to be muddled, that's fine with us.
Youth are a large part of MIM's organizing efforts, and the way in which some bands use their cultural popularity with youth to propagate reactionary politics is disturbing. The Beatles were probably the most popular band in this century, and they used their influence to spread pacifism and attack revolutionary science.
The Beatles' "Revolution," told youth to forget about upholding Chairperson Mao's revolutionary line and instead "free their minds," presumably with drugs, religion, psychology, Beatles music - i.e., with selfish, individualistic escapism. The Beatles, too, appealed to the young masses' hatred of war: "We all want to change the world, but when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out. You know it's gonna be all right.... [So don't worry about fighting imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy. After all, Maoists] want money for people with minds that hate."
Similarly, the Cranberries tell their young audience that the revolution is a result of a psychological problem, not a result of a real force: imperialism. According to the Cranberries, centuries of military, political and economic violence imposed on the Irish masses by British imperialism doesn't exist except in the delusional minds of Irish nationalists.
The song opens with a description of the death of a young British casualty of Ireland's just war for national liberation: "Another head hangs lowly...." The Cranberries say that "It's been the same old theme since 1916," when the Irish masses rose up against British imperialism.
Like the Beatles, the Cranberries ignore the violence of the oppressors and determine that the cause of war is revolutionaries' lack of individualism. To the Cranberries, revolutionaries are mindless zombies, hence the song's title.
Revolutionaries need to combat imperialist ideology in all arenas, including "alternative" pop music and culture generally. Young people who agree with us on this point should create anti- imperialist culture for MIM, or work in other ways to build MIM-led anti-imperialist institutions. By doing so, we can build towards the day when the airwaves are controlled by the people to serve the people, and reactionary pacifists like the Beatles and the Cranberries do not get disproportionate, unrebutted airplay.
- MC49
NOTES: 1. Mao Zedong "Problems of War and Strategy" Vol. II, p. 225.
by MC49
Rap artist Tupac Shakur (AKA 2Pac) died on August 13th, six days after being shot four times in a car-to-car shooting in Las Vegas. The imperialist press described Shakur as being "known for songs of violence" and wrote that "Shakur often boasted of his 'gangsta' ties and had the words 'Thug Life' tattooed across his abdomen."(1) The Los Angeles Times also ran a sidebar headlined "Rap Violence" next to an article about Shakur.(2) Blaming the victim, imperialist lackey Jesse Jackson said of Shakur, "Sometimes the lure of violent culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call. He couldn't break the cycle."(3)
Furthermore, the imperialist press is doing its best not to let people know about Shakur's more political statements and lyrics. One quote from Shakur sums up the tension between his lumpen gangster side and his proletarian revolutionary side, while also serving as an answer to the hypocritical rulers and lackeys who point their fingers at imperialism's creations: "I'm a product of this society....You know, I'm a revolutionary. I'm straight thuggin' out here. Thuggin' against society. Thuggin' against the system that made me."(4)
MIM does not agree with Shakur's equation of "thuggin'" and revolutionary activism. MIM's enemy, furthermore, is not society. We seek to unite all the elements of society which can be united against imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy -- principally imperialism at this time.
While Shakur had his lumpen "gangsta" side, he also had a self-critical take on his role in it. "'This thug life stuff, it was just ignorance,' Shakur said in an interview last year with Vibe Magazine. 'My intentions was always in the right place...I'm going to show people my true intentions and my true heart. I'm going to show them the man that my mother raised.'"(2)
In 1971, Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, was one of the "Panther 21" defendants falsely accused of a bombing conspiracy. As a result, Tupac was in literally in prison before he was born.(3) His mother was in prison for years for the crime of being anti-imperialist. The son that his mother raised would be a revolutionary son who would fight imperialism on the side of the oppressed people of the world.
The best answers to Shakur's self-righteous critics can be found in his lyrics. In that spirit, some of his best are excerpted here.
Violent (1991)
They claim that I'm violent Just 'cause I refuse to be silent
These hypocrites are having fits 'Cause I'm not buying it, defying it
Envious, because I will rebel against Any oppressor,
and this is known as self-defense ...
I told'em fight back, attack on society
If this is violence, then violent's what I gotta be
If you investigate, you'll find out where it's coming from
Look through our history; Amerika's the violent one
Unlock my brain, break the chains of your misery
It's time to pay back for evil shit you did to me
They call me militant and racist cause I won't resist
You wanna censor something?
Motherfucker, censor this!
My words are weapons, and i'm steppin' to the sirens
Waking up the masses
But you Claim that I'm violent
...
Words Of Wisdom (1991)
Killing us one by one
In one way or another Amerika will find a way to eliminate the problem
One by one
The problem is the troublesome Black youth of the ghetto
And one by one
We are being wiped off the face of this earth
At an extremely alarming rate
And even more alarming is the fact
That we are not fighting back ...
This is for the masses
The lower classes
The ones you left out
Jobs were given,
Better livin'
But we were kept out
Made to feel inferior
But we're superior
Break the chains
In our brains
That made us fear ya'
Pledge allegiance to a flag that neglects us
Honor a man that refused to respect us
Emancipation, proclamation, please!
Lincoln just said that to save the nation
These are lies that we all accepted
"Say no to drugs",
But the government's kept it
Running through our community,
Killing the unity (5)
The war on drugs is a war on you and me
And yet they say this is
"the home of the free"
But if you ask me its all about hypocrisy
The Constitution, yo, it don't apply to me and Lady Liberty,
stupid [sexist epithet deleted-- MIM] lied to me
Steady strong nobody's gonna like what I pumpin'
But its wrong to keeping someone from learning something
So get up, its time to start nation-building I'm fed up, we gotta
start teaching children
That they can be all that they want to be
There's much more to life than just poverty
This is definitely words of wisdom
I charge you with the crime of rape, murder, and assault
For suppressing and punishing my people
I charge you with robbery for robbing me of my history
I charge you with false imprisonment for keeping me
Trapped in the projects
And the jury finds you guilty on all accounts
And you are to serve the consequences for your evil schemes
Prosecutor, do you have any more evidence? ...
On with the knowledge of the place we've been
No one will ever oppress this race again
No Malcolm X in my history text
Why is that?
'Cause he tried to educate and liberate all blacks
Why is Martin Luther King in my book each week?
He told Blacks, if they get smacked, turn the other cheek
I don't get it, so many questions went through my mind I get sweated,
They act as if asking questions is a crime
But forget it, 'cause one day I'm gonna prove them wrong ...
The Amerikan dream, though it seems like its attainable
They're pulling your sleeve, don't believe
'Cause it will strangle ya' ...
Thought they had us beaten when they took out King
But the battle ain't over till the Black man sings
Words of Wisdom
Nightmare
that's what I am--Amerika's nightmare
I am what you made me
The hate and the evil that you gave me
I shine of a reminder of what you have done to my people
For four hundred plus years
You should be scared
You should be running
You should be trying to silence me
But you can not escape fate
Well it is my turn to come
Just as you rose you shall fall
By my hands Amerika,
You reap what you sow 2pacalypse--Amerika's Nightmare
Ice Cube and Da Lench Mob--Amerika's Nightmare
Above the Law--Amerika's Nightmare
Paris--Amerika's Nightmare
Public Enemy--Amerika's Nightmare
Krs-One--Amerika's Nightmare
New Afrikan Panthers--Amerika's Nightmare
Mutulu Shakur--Amerika's Nightmare
Geronimo Pratt--Amerika's Nightmare
Assata Shakur--Amerika's Nightmare
MIM notes the passing of Tupac Shakur with sadness, and encourages his fans to work with us to follow through on the revolutionary, proletarian aspects of his message.
Notes:
1. Los Angeles Times, 14 September, 1996, pp. A1, A18. Also in Los Angeles Times, 9 September, 1996, p. A1: "the rap star known for the violence in his lyrics and his life".
2. Los Angeles Times, 9 September, 1996, p. A16.
3. Los Angeles Times, 14 September, 1996, p. A18.
4. Spin, date unknown (approx. 1995), p.44.
5. Shakur was completely correct on this point. See MIM Notes article in this issue.
A new song by the band Stabbing Westward is hitting it big on the airwaves. In August the band opened for the Sex Pistols along with Gravity Kills.
At a Massachusetts concert the band's lead singer said, "I don't understand not playing with the Sex Pistols. Who wouldn't open for the Sex Pistols?" in reference to the fact that another band turned down the chance. So Stabbing Westward looks up to the Sex Pistols which indeed did not get shown up by Stabbing Westward or Gravity Kills being some poor rehash of its old self.
The Sex Pistols of 1977 and 1978 were the epitome of punk rock. Now, without their old bass player, they still sound like their records of the old days and they didn't play any love songs at their Massachusetts appearance this August. What the Sex Pistols do say about love in their songs is scathingly sarcastic.
However, Stabbing Westward's song brings us back to the decadent romance culture with a vengeance. "What I was died with your belief in me. . . I don't know what's true emotion. HOW CAN I HAVE SEX WITHOUT YOU!". This last sentence is yelled staccato and screams for our militant submission to the romance culture. According to Stabbing Westward's lead singer, he doesn't know emotion or sex without his lover.
In any kind of popular music in the imperialist countries, a central criterion is can the music entertain without relying on and reinforcing the romance culture? For MIM, Stabbing Westward's energies are misplaced and sold-out to the romance culture. There is much that needs to be said and done with a vengeance, writing more love songs is not one of them.
It is typical in the decadence of imperialism that the strongest feelings of the youth concern the romance culture. The system reinforces the idea that there seems to be nothing of importance to engage the youth with otherwise. The imperialists have no forward-looking agenda to tap the energies of youth, except offering bought off complacence into the oppressive culture. Because the imperialist education and media system does not allow youth to learn of or gain contact with the life-and-death struggle of the international proletariat, romance culture seems like the only alternative. MIM sees, as a principal contradiction within the white nation, an antagonism between youth and imperialism. The limited offerings from imperialism are a short lived existence of environmental degradation and world-wide oppression. To the pent up anger and vengeance of Amerikan youth, MIM says to organize with the internationally oppressed, and build a real movement against imperialist limitation and oppression.