Peace Not War
Various artists
Stop the War Coalition (UK)
Order at <http://www.stopwar.org.uk/#cd>
REVIEW BY LUKE SMITH
With the world music industry becoming more commercialised everyday, and with most major record labels being reluctant to allow political content on the recordings they release, putting together an overtly anti-war album is almost unheard of these days. However, that's just what Peace Not War is.
Peace Nor War is a double CD of pro-peace and anti-war songs organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the organisation that mobilised more than 400,000 people to demonstrate in London on September 28 against the war on Iraq. All proceeds of the CD go to the coalition and to equivalent organisations in other countries.
Peace Not War offers a diverse collection of songs from different genres and cultures. Signed and unsigned artists from around the world feature. Lyrics and streaming audio from many other supporting artists are also being offered free on the companion web site as they are gathered.
The producers were overwhelmed by the support they received when they called for participating artists, including from the likes of Ani Difranco, Public Enemy, Billy Bragg, Massive Attack, Ms Dynamite, Nitin Sawhney and Coldcut. Sydney-based Ginger Tom's "Hey, Hey, USA: How Many Children Have You Killed Today?" flys the flag for Australia's anti-war young people.
"A handful of musicians with limited resources and no budget contacted other musicians, unaware of the depth of feeling already out there. Suddenly we were 'bombarded' with CDs through the post, and had to choose between enough songs to fill four CDs. Many musicians had already recorded songs which were waiting for a platform, while others went straight into the studio when they heard about it" to record songs especially for the album, said co-producers Mudge and Kelly.
Every track on the compilation stands up and shakes its fists at Bush's, Blair's and Howard's war-mongering. The songs range from analysis of the US imperialist drive for world domination to words of support for the Third World. There is optimism for the future throughout.
As most activists will tell you, a broad movement is the best movement, and the ability to gather some of the more artistic fringes into the heart of the movement has been well utilised in many struggles, the obvious one being the anti-Vietnam War campaign. You will notice that there are no contributions by Bob Dylan or recycled John Lennon tracks, which may come as a slight disappointment to some listeners. But this indicates that there is a wealth of young, contemporary artists out there willing to offer their talents to the cause with the same passion and vigour that their mentors did in the past.
Peace Not War is available to campaigning groups for fundraising at a lower price. For more information visit <http://www.peace-not-war.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, February 5, 2003.
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