Massive Attack today pointed their email list to demonstrations protesting a renewed nuclear defense system in the UK. What’s unique about this particular movement is the number of high-profile British musicians expressing their position, including Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Ian Brown, Jarvis Cocker, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and Razorlight:
Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Massive Attack, Bloc Party: No Bomb! [ENERGYLAB]
The movement has a theme song, as well: “Don’t Bomb When You’re the Bomb,” by Blur. Interestingly, the single had a mysterious release: it showed up in UK record shops with only a plain red label and the name of the track written in Arabic. Music link and more explanation from high-cool:
DON’T BOMB WHEN YOU’RE THE BOMB [high-cool.net]
Virgin Records is in on the act, too, with a no-name MySpace page with the track. Nice to see one of the majors taking a political stand.
A fan on YouTube has even assembled a music video:
Back to the issue at hand, there’s an official site for the demonstration tomorrow, with excellent background on why opposing the Trident defense system is a good idea. Excerpt:
We don’t want to go quietly into the darkness of a new nuclear age. We don’t think we should be spending billions on weapons of mass destruction and we don’t believe we’ll be any safer with a new generation of Trident. …
You could be writing, reading, talking, protesting. Make a noise. Or you could whitewash your windowpanes, put a paper bag over your head, sit under the stairs and wait for the bomb to drop.
UK readers, if you go, send us photos — especially if you get a paparazzi shot of Thom Yorke. I’ll generally keep politics off CDM, but I’ll say I’m personally against nuclear proliferation, because I don’t like bombs. Oddly enough, it takes Socialists to make this argument. As a capitalist (living right off Wall Street, no less), I firmly believe blowing up the planet is bad. As this argument sets nicely to music, involving musicians is a good.