Omaha Steve's Labor Group

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(32,342 posts) Wed May 1, 2013, 11:20 AM May 2013

Interview: Tom Morello talks Teamsters May Day 2013

http://www.teamster.org/content/interview-tom-morello-talks-teamsters-may-day-2013

While May Day is not a national holiday like Labor Day, it celebrates workers across the globe. It began in the United States in 1886 to commemorate the martyrs of the Haymarket riot and the fight for the eight-hour workday. But what good is a working-class holiday without good working-class music?

This year, Morello, the pioneering guitarist behind the politically charged rock group Rage Against the Machine, has partnered with the Teamsters to promote songs from his union-inspired album, “Union Town.” He is giving away his music on the Teamster.org website in honor of May Day 2013. Morello has worked with the Teamsters in the past, performing at the 2011 Teamster rally in Los Angeles and the Teamster Convention that year. Accompanying the May Day 2013 “Union Town” giveaway, the following Teamster Nation interview with Morello gives us a look at his inspiration and insights on music and the labor movement.

Question: Through your music you've been involved in many different movements and social justice causes. But you've been especially involved in labor and union activism. Why?

Morello: I come from a coal mining family in central Illinois and unions were always a big part of the life and fabric of the town. It was always ingrained in me from the time I was a little kid that it's the solidarity of workers that is a crucial counterbalance to corporate greed. And if we don't stand up together, we will certainly be taken advantage of individually. I've been a member of Los Angeles [American Federation of Musicians] Local 47 since 1989 and a member of Industrial Workers of the World as well. I think in a time when the working class and unions are being assailed in the United States, I do my best to fight back with my music.

Given your labor upbringing, had you always aspired to dedicate an entire album to labor and union songs or was that more inspired by recent events?

It was more inspired by recent events. Some of the songs, specifically “Union Town,” were written in response to the labor uprising in Madison, Wisconsin. “Union Town” is a combination of original compositions of mine and classic labor songs that are set with a Rage Against the Machine attitude – including “Solidarity Forever,” Woody Guthrie's “This Land is Your Land,” and “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night.” Since that music is an important part of the history of labor struggle in this country, I wanted to compile my own vision of labor songs with some of the union classics into one cohesive record – and then give it away!

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