“You know why we’re not going to quit? Because we’re one, we’re one unit. We’re tired of being beaten; we’re tired of being oppressed.” --Attica inmate, 1971

In the last two installments of Mp3 Spotlight we have looked at the work of individual musicians who have put their creative energies towards building social movements.

Cornelius Cardew lived a singular life in modern music. He helped give birth to electronic music in the 1950’s, connected the U.S. and European musical avant-gardes, and pushed the limits of improvised music with groups such as AMM. From the mid 1950’s through the early 1970’s Cardew burned like a comet, redefining experimental music and earning legend status. But when his commitment to Marxist politics intensified he left it all behind to create “people’s liberation music”.

Electronic Music and Minimalism

For our purposes here we will look at ‘both sides’ of Cardew’s life and music, although it is unwise to compartmentalize such a complex human being. Cardew followed a boyhood passion for classical music all the way to the Royal Academy of Music. But it was his gig after graduation that put him in a nexus of ground breaking music. At the age of 22 Cardew traveled to Germany to work as the assistant to composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen was opening up a new world of music making machinery, electronically generated sounds, and compositions that made full use of these developments. Their close creative relationship lasted for three years.

I want to kick off this ongoing series on the webzine with a look at a seminal political artist. Christy Moore is a powerful vocalist, song interpreter, and a passionately political person and performer. To many he may be simply a folksinger, but Christy Moore is a voice for the voiceless.

“Radical Blogging Is The Main Trend In Our World Today”

Let’s focus on two trends in radical blogs, both based on Marxism. One is the emergence of a web of prolific Maoist/Marxist-Leninist blogs in the United States. The other is the world of Marxist blogs emanating from English-speaking western Europe. I will start this entry with a look at the Maoist-inspired blogs.

Liberation movements in the United States lost a brave and vibrant participant in the death of Bob Kohler, a leading figure of the American Gay Liberation Movement.

Bob lived dozens of lives in his 81 years on the planet. Although Bob was best known as an early leader of the Gay Liberation Front he was also a talent representative for mostly Black artists in the early 1960’s, a vintage clothing store owner, World War II veteran, a talented and empathetic listener, bath house proprietor, peoples’ historian, Stonewall uprising participant, and a link between the gay struggle and other liberation struggles.