We all know that wide swathes of the global media are
dominated by celebrity nonsense which breeds a deep cynicism towards the
entertainment industry. But when celebrities like Morrissey, Russell Brand and
now Antonio Banderas suddenly speak out against the status quo, something else
is happening.
A few days ago, singer Morrissey publicly thanked Russell
Brand for standing up for rebellion in a 2,000-word tirade which the former
Smith’s front man posted on the fan website True-to-you.net.
He supported Brand’s call to abstain from voting in
rebellion against the 'broken political system”. The "most powerful vote you
can give”, Morrissey said, “is No Vote".
He mourned the lack of real debate in the UK: “At what point
did the dis-United Kingdom become a cabbagehead nation? Where is the rich
intellect of debate? Where is our Maya Angelou, our James Baldwin, our Allen
Ginsberg, our Anthony Burgess, our political and social reformers?
“At what point did the shatterbrained scatterbrains take
over – with all leading British politicians suddenly looking like extras from
Brideshead Revisited,” he asked.
Brand’s famous Newsnight interview with Jeremy
Paxman has had nearly 10 million views on YouTube. In the face of a lot of
pooh-poohing and an attack by fellow comedian Robert Webb – who said that Brand
had caused him to re-join the Labour Party (how sad is that?) – Brand has stuck to his guns. He insisted recently:
"I'm happy to be a part of the conversation, if more
young people are talking about fracking instead of twerking we're heading in
the right direction. The people that govern us don't want an active population
who are politically engaged, they want passive consumers distracted by the
spectacle of which I accept I am a part."
Perhaps most dramatic of all, from within the very heart of
the beast, the times they are a’ changing. More and more Hollywood stars are
joining the fray to encourage young people to question the system and seek
alternatives to it.
The unearthing of a 1997 video of Matt Damon reading a 1970 speech by late
US activist-historian Howard Zinn is adding to the momentum on the internet. It
makes clear that Brand’s condemnation of the impoverished nature of our
democracies expressed feelings which extend far beyond British borders.
There is an immediacy in Damon’s voice as he calls for civil
resistance, including “the right to abolish the current form of government”.
Damon’s call – via Zinn – is for people to stop obeying laws that protect the
rich and imprison the poor, whilst allowing the true criminals to go free. The
international tenor of the speech is striking in its call for a “declaration of
interdependence” amongst the people of the world.
Veteran actor Donald Sutherland says he wants his film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to inspire “a youth-led
uprising against injustice that will overturn the US as we know it and usher in
a kinder, better way”.
Now actor and director Antonio Banderas has called for an
end to corporate power. He has told Spanish CNN interviewer, Ana Pastor that we
are living in a “post-democratic
era”. Praising former Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez he lamented the corporate corruption of Barack Obama’s presidency.
In response to Pastor’s questions about the financial crisis
Banderas blamed “the markets, the lobbies, the big corporations” and suggested
they didn’t have to take responsibility when countries and governments had
problems. “We’re not being governed by the people we voted for.”
When Pastor asked “How do you put a stop to that?”, Banderas
responded: “You break it like Chávez did in his day, you get all these big
corporations and you nationalise them. There was no other way out.”
Banderas, Morrisey, Brand and Sutherland are straws in the
wind of a seismic change that is pretty much global in its scope. The old
politics is dying on its feet – not before time – and these artists in their
own way express the yearning for an alternative. We should use the opening they
have helped create.
Corinna Lotz
A World to Win secretary
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