Dropkick Murphys: Solidarity With Wisconsin Workers

The Dropkick Murphys

would like to take a moment to acknowledge the struggles of the working people of Wisconsin and to pledge our support and solidarity by releasing the song 'Take Em Down' from our upcoming album. We think it's appropriate at the moment and hope you like it.

I do like it. It's a rousing kick in the ass -- "We gotta take the bastards down -- let them know!!" -- that would raise the hairs on the back of your neck if shouted by a few thousand desperate, determined, and pissed off people.

Ted Rall [is] different from almost everyone else in public life who wants the corporate state to refrain from war crimes and destroying nature. He thinks violence is viable and the only real option on the table when the other choice is doom. ... He wants a revolution. And I agree with him. A revolution is exactly what the United States needs.

That quote comes from an essay/review of Rall's new book, The Anti-American Manifesto, posted recently at OpEd News.

The essay's by-line - Charles M. Young - raised my eyebrows. I used to enjoy the work of a music critic by the same name roughly 25 years ago. He wrote for Rolling Stone (penning the cover story of the worst-selling issue in the magazine's history) and Musician, and he played bass in a NYC punk band called Iron Prostate. Could this be the same guy? ... In a few internet clicks, I had my answer: Yes!

Young now writes for a website called This Can't Be Happening, which is where the Rall essay was first posted, in mid-January. In that essay, and many others, time and time again, Young argues logically that the answer to many of the US's problems -- the problems of any capitalist society, actually -- is socialism.

Rall, from a Q&A with the CUNY Graduate Center Advocate:

I would say that there is no such thing as non-violent revolution; no radical change has ever taken place without violence or the credible threat of violence ... The rich and the powerful don't give up wealth and power voluntarily so you can't fight it non-violently without effectively tying one hand behind your back. ...

[I asked myself] whether there was any possibility that this system, the Democrats and the Republicans and the corporatist capitalist system that they support, could or would address any of the really serious pressing problems that are faced by the Unites States today --  whether those are income inequality or the environment and climate change, or skyrocketing deficits, or war and militarism, or healthcare --  and I don't think so.

[W]e're talking about a government that passes a health care reform plan that actually makes health care more expensive and harder to obtain ... We are talking about a democratic president who issues an executive order granting himself the right to assassinate American citizens ... I am forty-seven years old, I have seen a constant downward trajectory and I came to the conclusion more in sorrow than in anger that the system had become unreformable. ... There's no Left whatsoever in the United States. All there is is wimpy liberals. ...

[I]t's actually kind of ridiculous to be in a situation where you have to write a book like this ... [I]t's only in the United States that we have such childish politics that the idea of bringing up revolution as an option is somehow shocking or radical. ... The revolution is not underway, but certainly the revolutionary climate is upon us. And the Europeans seem to be, as usual, setting the standard for what needs to be done.

Meanwhile, people in Egypt -- and more than a dozen other countries around the world -- are ordering pizzas (from a local joint called Ian's!) to be delivered to the Wisconsin protesters. Fuck the fries -- gimme some Freedom Pizza!