Ill Communications Part I

Ill Communications Part I
An open letter in response to James C. McKinley Jr.’s NY Times article, “At the Protests, the Message Lacks a Melody,” insisting #Occupy lacks an anthem
by La Guardia and Subhash Kateel
Once again, the New York Times takes it upon itself to be the gatekeeper of social movements. The paper that has really good articles until it doesn’t, first reduced the Occupy movement to “pantomiming progressivism” right before embracing it. Now it unilaterally declares that the movement lacks an anthem. For James C. McKinley Jr., the article’s author, his evidence is the lack of Bob Dylan-esque tunes flowing out of the lips of Occupy protestors.
Maybe McKinley wrote his article before searching YouTube, or reading other news sites like CBS or the Miami New Times (twice). Because we can count at least 4 anthems off the top of our heads. We should know, we wrote one of them. But so did Rebel Diaz, a group called Occupy Freedom, Ground Zero and the Global Block Collective and a group out west called The Roaring.
Each of the anthems hail from a different region but speak to our common struggles. When we sing or rap or whatever we do, we do it based on what we see in real communities. And we see a lot of people that are tired of an unbalanced system. Our anthems aren’t lazy, complaining, we don’t wanna work, somebody hold our hands, rich bad/poor good songs. They are honest looks at struggles facing the 99% that we know and see everyday, while making a public decree that there WILL be changes.
As for our anthem, (“We Are The 99%), we aren’t Bob Dylan, or a group of billboard chart topping international recording artists. We’re a community organizer turned radio show host, temporarily unemployed rapper, music teacher/producer, and a vocalist…But we are also the 99%…
If James C. McKinley wanted to truly write an article that broke new ground about Occupy anthems, he could write about what makes this generation of anthem artists different.
The singers, producers, and thought creators behind most Occupy anthems are, no doubt, musicians and music lovers; but also more. In the case of Rebel Diaz, they run a community organization in the Bronx, the Rebel Diaz Art Collective. And while other folks were complaining about the lack of melanin at Occupy Wall Street, they did something about it by bringing their members out from the Bronx to Wall Street.
The people that put together “We Are The 99%” in Miami have been part of organizations like Seed305, Families For Freedom, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Catalyst Hip Hop, PATH to Hip Hop and Amnesty International as organizers, directors, community workers and participants for over a decade.
In other words, the creators of Occupy anthems don’t just sing for a better world, we try our hardest to practice what we sing. But make no mistake, we will sing and chant, organize and mobilize until we really see a change that benefits the communities we love.
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by Subhash Kateel
#Occupy is NOT the Liberal Tea Party! It shouldn’t be either.
It was just a matter of time before the #Occupy movement spreading across the country would be compared to the Tea Party. This past week, everyone from Bill Maher and CNN to Glenn Beck and the Tea Party Patriots’ founders themselves have invoked, or spoken against, the characterization of #OccupyWallStreet as a liberal version of the Tea Party movement.
There are a few things that seem to unite the majority of these commentators:
“I think it [#occupy] is actually a very good thing. I don’t necessarily agree with everything that is coming out of…the signs you see there…specifically about capitalism necessarily being evil…and against free markets. But I do think it is a good thing for the American people to wake up and see what is happening with corporate nepotism and the big corporations…how much of a stranglehold they have on the American political system. And that is I think in line with a lot of the Tea Party beliefs. Big government and big corporations are the reason for a lot of our problems today.”
“What is our role in society? Do we live in a democracy or plutocracy? Do we live in a country where we truly have a say in the economic decisions that lead to our well-being? Or do we have no role whatsoever?”
Show is up, write up coming soon…Download HERE or press play below. Plus, our Hip Rock remix of “We Are The 99%” is below…If you feel it, spread it.
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TONIGHT! WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12 @ 7pm
or tune into 880 AM (S. Florida)
FAMILY! Last week, we had a whole show on #occupywallstreet and other #occupy movements going on around the country. We also unnveiled an anthem for the 99% of us “hustling, struggling and treading water,”courtesy of us, Laguardiaworld.com and producer Devin Arne. On our show tonight we got a bunch of stuff for you to talk about and listen to.
Why #Occupy the Sunshine State?
We got feedback from our Florida listeners asking us to talk more about what’s happening here. We got feedback from our non-Florida listeners asking us what the hell Floridians had to complain about. To them, we have no snow, no Wall Street, and a bunch of beaches. Well I could tell you all the things that Florida has to be mad at, but I would rather have our friends over here do it. Join us as we talk about why Floridians and Miamians are so so angry, they would rather #occupy stuff than go to Disney World or the beach.
We Are The 99% Hip Rock mix tonight!
Thanks to you, our Anthem, broke 1000 views on youtube. But we were just getting started and our family down here (Laguardia and superproducer Devin Arne) decided to create a HipRock remix with Fernando Castro…Check it out on our show tonight…it will be fire!
Breaking Bread When You’re Broke or “99 Ways to cook Ramen noodles…” (LaGuardia from “We Are the 99%)
As part of our new “when you’re broke segment,” we wanted to talk about food, and what to do about it when you are short on funds. The average family (depending on what you mean by average) can spend anywhere from 12% to 30% of their income on food. While most expenses like rent, electricity, and the cable bill (does being broke mean no telenovelas or Breaking Bad?) are fixed, food is one of those things that can have some wiggle room in your budget. Does that mean a lot of $1 cheeseburgers at McDonald’s? Is it possible to eat healthy and cheap? How do you do that when the only thing free range in your neighborhood are rats and the only thing grass-fed are stray dogs (we won’t even)? Well tonight we are gonna chop it up with a chef or two about how to eat to live, while saving a little bit of bread.
You know the routine…Tune in! Call In! and Let’s Talk About It!
TONIGHT! WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12 @ 7pm
or tune into 880 AM (S. Florida)
Folks, the show is up. In case you missed it, Let’s Talk About It! and LaGuardiaWorld.com decided that the 99% need an anthem. So we made one, check it below. If you wanna listen to the show, download here or press play below. If you want to hear the Anthem for the 99%, press play on the youtube track.
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Check the main website for Occupy Wall Street:
occupywallst.org
Find out who the 99% are:
wearethe99percent.tumblr.com