Sound Strike is a coalition of Artists that have committed to supporting the International Boycott of Arizona in the wake of the passage of SB 1070. These artists have made a commitment to work together to be part of a larger artist community to raise awareness and opposition to the predatory and punitive treatment of immigrants in Arizona. Sound Strike wants to not only play a role in repealing SB 1070, but also in galvanizing a new generation of ideas that reject the old ways of thinking while affirming that we are all equal.
Why Sound Strike is needed?
The battles raging in Arizona against immigrants are not typical of wedge issues we see from right wing extremists. In most cases the extremists influence the political system, in Arizona the extremists ARE the political system. A shocking number of Arizona law enforcement officials, politicians, and demagogues have close connections to organizations that believe diversity in American equals the deterioration of America.
As a result, immigrants in Arizona have become a metaphor for ‘those people’ in campaigns of hate that prey on the dizzied spirits of everyday people of all races battered by the economic malaise. Working class communities have been tricked into support for policies to create intolerable conditions for immigrant workers, children, communities and all those who as Tom Morello said, “have become suspects first and people second.”
Law enforcement agencies in Arizona engage in protracted and fanatical harassment of immigrants. Arizona is a place where immigrant parents are routinely separated from their children for simply having a broken taillight. The agitated climate has allowed the most notorious sheriff to establish frightening almost all White “volunteer posses” in his immigrant sweeps, many of whom are armed.
While SB 1070 has been a wake up and rally cry, it is only the latest policy in a State that is embroiled in fuming racial divisions and hateful rhetoric towards Latinos.
What Sound Strike does?
- Help raise money for organizations fighting in Arizona,
- Perform at benefit shows and speak about this issue in our art,
- Provide online written and video content to help raise awareness,
- Conduct press interviews to build opposition to the injustices in Arizona, and
- Engage fans in dialogue about moving beyond hatred.
We must see the Arizona boycott as a fight we must not only win, but a fight we must stand up against anywhere in America. This is our opportunity to show the yesterday thinking extremists that our generation does think different and that we will act on it.
Read Zack de la Rocha and Sal Reza Article in Huffington Post, “Why the Arizona Boycott Continues.”
For more information email, thesoundstrike(a)gmail.com
