Cheers for Zack and Rage

A big cheers to Zack de la Rocha of the band Rage Against the Machine for his strong and defiant statement against the Bush Regime, and the system behind it, at the Coachella Music Festival on April 29. Rage Against the Machine broke up in 2000, but they reunited to play at Coachella.

To introduce "Wake Up," one of the songs in their set, Zack said that the Nuremburg laws that were applied to the Nazis after World War 2 should be applied to all the U.S. presidents from Truman on, including the current one. Then he went on to say, “But the challenges that we face, they go way beyond administrations. Way beyond elections. Way beyond every four years of pulling levers. Way beyond that. Because this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel, that in order to sustain itself, it needs to destroy entire countries and profit from their reconstruction, in order to survive. And that is not a system that changes every four years; it's a system that we have to break down – generation after generation, after generation, after generation…WAKE UP!!!”

The next day, Fox News' Hannity and Colmes hosted right-wing rocker Ted Nugent and flaming reactionary commentator Ann Coulter, to attack Zack and the band. They claimed that Zack had threatened Bush, distorting what he said to hide the point that he was making--that Bush and other U.S. presidents were guilty of war crimes. Hannity called for the Secret Service to investigate and even arrest the band, calling what Zack said a "terroristic threat." So now telling a very basic and undeniable truth is deemed "terrorism" and the reactionary mouthpieces demand that the state come in! NO WAY! Zack and Rage must be supported against any attempt by reactionaries to go after them.

Revolution will have more on the Coachella festival and Rage Against the Machine's performance in a future issue.

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