Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Also Gets at Alicia Keys.. Stand United-Boycott Israel

Yesterday writer Alice Walker got at Alicia Keys in an Open Letter asking her not to do a concert in Israel as a way to protest their Apartheid-like policies toward Palestinians… Well Alicia Keys is being stepped to again.. This time by Pink Floyd‘s Roger Waters.. In his letter he notes that he along with Bishop Desmond Tutu wrote to Stevie Wonder about playing for Israel’s army and that he complied.. He says she hopes she’ll join  others to stand united against oppression.. Here’s the letter below which appeared at PACBI.

Roger Waters

Dear Alicia Keys

I read today Alice Walker’s eloquent and moving entreaty to you in her open letter.

It is hard to add anything except to implore you to follow all the links she has directed you to.

To introduce myself to you, I am a fellow musician, my name is Roger Waters, I used to be in a band called Pink Floyd, and, believe it or not, I still work.

I had reason last December to write a letter to Stevie Wonder to encourage him to withdraw from an engagement in LA. It was a Gala to raise funds for the Israeli Defense Force. I wasn’t the only one to write, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the great advocate of peace and reconciliation, was among many, many others who wrote as well. To Stevie’s great credit he withdrew.

We are all part of the same old story, nothing has changed since the bad old days of apartheid South Africa and Segregated America. We must stand united with all our brothers and sisters against racism, colonialism, segregation and apartheid.

Please, Alicia, do not lend your name to give legitimacy to the Israeli government policies of illegal, apartheid, occupation of the homelands of the indigenous people of Palestine.

Others may try to persuade you that by playing in Israel you may magically effect some change; we know that this is not true, appeasement didn’t work with South Africa and it has not worked in Israel. I know I tried it ten years ago, things have only got worse.

I appeal to you to join the rising tide of resistance. Join the many millions of us in global civil society who stand together on the side of justice and peace for all humanity. “We shall overcome one day.”

With love and respect,

Roger Waters

 

Black Panthers Patrol Streets of Greece to Protect Folks from Racist Attacks

For those who don’t know, there’s been a significant rise of virulent far-right racism throughout Europe that has coincided with the push for austerity..What has emerged are vicious attacks on immigrants by roving Neo-Nazi, white supremacist gangs who have turned to blaming non-European for the financial collapse. Ground Zero for alot of this has been in Greece, where we’ve seen the extreme levels of austerities.

There’s been a rise of Neo-Nazi style group called Golden Dawn which has gone all out to rid of the country of Africans, immigrants, and non whites. They are now a huge political force which has been used by the elite to smash down on folks deemed undesirable..

Below is a video put out by Golden Dawn folks.. They make themselves out to be saviors of the people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtWueuFHJik

Here’s the reality of Golden Dawn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_pqCxWFgcA

Michael Chege

Recently a Black Panther group has sprung up in Greece to protect residents who are being mobbed on at night..Thats caused quite a stir..Founded by Michael Chege who is Kenyan born but has lived in Greece for over 28 years, he and his crew have started patrolling their neighborhoods at night when Golden Dawn members are most likely to strike..Complicating their efforts is the fact that Greek Police have been harrassing Panthers and immigrants in general demanding to see their papers.. like they did in Apartheid South Africa and currently do in Arizona under SB 1070.

In an interview done on  told Britain’s Channel 4  this past week he stated: “I am a member of the Black Panthers and everybody knows that. So I am giving them (Golden Dawn) a straight warning – don’t mess with black people, anyhow. And I mean it.”

“I’m not afraid of this neo-Nazi, stupid, idiotic group…In world war two, they were crushed. In world war three, we will exterminate them out of the face of the earth.

“They want to do what Hitler did. Try it. They will have the same fate and even worse,” he continued. You can read and see the interview HERE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaSZg_Id_Ao

Golden Dawn members claim they are not Neo-Nazi’s but Patriots that needed to flush the country of foreigners..At least that’s the feedback I got when I first reported this story from people claiming they were members. Whatever the case, this whole saga is familiar.. we’ve seen this play out the same way over the years from the US and the rise of the KKK and now the recent Tea Party to what went on in Nazi Germany..Instead of battling banks and the corporate elite who caused financial ruin, we see folks turning on those who have the least and are most vulnerable. Remember  it was just a couple of years ago, many of us saw and cheered on Greeks who took to the streets in response  to out of control austerity. Much of that anger and energy that was been redirected and compromised.My guess is that at the end of the day these are storm troopers funded by the big elite whose goal is to keep turmoil amongst the people and not at them..  Below is a mini documentary on the Golden Dawn and their recent rise to power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afZbNBiMpHU

An Open Letter to Alicia Keys from Alice Walker

This is powerful letter from writer Alice Walker to singer Alicia Keys asking her to boycott Israel..Over the past few years several prominent artists including Stevie Wonder and the late Gil Scott-Heron had to be asked to reconsider their position in playing for Israel and entities representing it.. Both complied and joined the thousands of artists globally who have already agreed..We’ll see if Keys joins the Movement.

Dear Alicia Keys,

I have learned today that you are due to perform in Israel very soon. We have never met, though I believe we are mutually respectful of each other’s path and work. It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists. You were not born when we, your elders who love you, boycotted institutions in the US South to end an American apartheid less lethal than Israel’s against the Palestinian people. Google Montgomery Bus Boycott, if you don’t know about this civil rights history already. We changed our country fundamentally and the various boycotts of Israeli institutions and products will do the same there. It is our only nonviolent option and, as we learned from our own struggle in America, nonviolence is the only path to a peaceful future.

If you go to my website and blog alicewalkersgarden.com you can quickly find many articles I have written over the years that explain why a cultural boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions (not individuals) is the only option left to artists who cannot bear the unconscionable harm Israel inflicts every day on the people of Palestine, whose major “crime” is that they exist in their own land, land that Israel wants to control as its own. Under a campaign named ‘Brand Israel’, Israeli officials have stated specifically their intent to downplay the Palestinian conflict by using culture and arts to showcase Israel as a modern, welcoming place.

This is actually a wonderful opportunity for you to learn about something sorrowful, and amazing: that our government (Obama in particular) supports a system that is cruel, unjust, and unbelievably evil. You can spend months, and years, as I have, pondering this situation. Layer upon layer of lies, misinformation, fear, cowardice and complicity. Greed. It is a vast eye-opener into the causes of much of the affliction in our suffering world.

I have kept you in my awareness as someone of conscience and caring, especially about the children of the world. Please, if you can manage it, go to visit the children in Gaza, and sing to them of our mutual love of all children, and of their right not to be harmed simply because they exist.

With love, younger sister, beloved daughter and friend,

Alice Walker