With the election in November closing in (less than two months!) politics have become important among citizens across the country. Along with the political debates that can be heard on television, or even just the unexpected slanted views in local papers, politics are also present in music. The band Propagandhi devotes a large sum of their music to politics that deal with issues that affect the everyday lives of people living in not only America but also many other countries running under near dictatorships. Propagandhi was founded in the early 1980s and released their debut album, How to Clean Everything, on Fat Wreck Chords in 1993. Since then, they have released five more albums including live and rare material.
Among the issues that Propagandhi confronts in their music, American foreign policy waves a dominant flag, along with issues of civil liberties and class struggle. Where most people fall uninformed, Propagandhi takes the initiative to bring these topics to the surface. Propagandhi takes a more humanitarian stance against globalization and capitalism. Bassist Todd “The Rod” Kowalski points out that American foreign policy is centralized on American interest no matter how adverse the consequences may affect the people of other countries.
“In fact, the idea of American foreign policy having anything to do with human rights is completely absurd,” Kowalski said. “In Rwanda and the D. R. Congo, the U.S. has done nothing despite the extreme humanitarian crisis that has killed a few million people. On top of that, in Sudan exists the longest running war in the world. What has the U.S. done to assist? The answer to that can be found in yet another question: how much oil, or other natural resources of interest, is there to obtain in Sudan?
“The still darker side of American foreign policy is the way it is built around making money for weapons manufacturers, oil companies and construction companies that have ties to the reigning government. These companies see huge benefits as the average citizen pays the taxes,” Kowalski said. “American foreign policy claims that it weighs ‘the lesser of two evils.’ The fact of the matter is that ‘the lesser of two evils’ is always what benefits Americans most, but more importantly, the paper weight that gets circulated into the government’s wallet.”
Tracks like “Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes” and “Albright Monument, Baghdad,” (both from the group’s latest release, 2000’s Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes) conceptualize Kowalski’s political commentary into fist-pumping punk rock. Kowalski’s political fuel seems to have an endless agenda, keeping Propagandhi’s music full of energy and awareness.
“The largest influence on American foreign policy is not what we can do for our country, but how our country can stay on top of the political and economic pecking order,” said Kowalski. “As horrible as it sounds, the agenda of politicians revolves not around public opinion and interest, rather than in the interest of their own political and financial goals. Even the so-called leader of our nation — no, I am not talking about Dick Cheney — George W. only recently tried to fulfill his personal agenda by attempting to amend an amendment that directly targeted lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual citizens by limiting their civil liberties.”
Kowalski added, “They think in terms of their own personal egos, as Donald Rumsfeld once revealed when he said, ‘One day our children will sing songs about us.'”
In a time when criticism is a requirement toward understanding, Kowalski is out to inform his band’s frothing fan base of the dangers of believing everything you see on television.
“Media watchdogs decide what is newsworthy enough to provoke the most interest regardless of how much truth or half-truth the issue contains. The outcome is a news system that repeats the same distorted opinions endlessly without really saying anything or expanding on ideas. Since America doesn’t have economic or imperialistic — I mean, political — interest in countries that need aid, there also seems to be little to absolutely no media coverage about those countries.”
Although not all issues in American foreign politics affect people on an everyday basis, citizens are lulled into believing everything that they hear or see on television. Propagandhi’s music contains strong informal political messages, but some of the most important for the time being. Just as the group sums up its message on the anthem “Hate, Myth, Muscle, Etiquette,” “The basis of change: educate! Derived from discussion, not hate, not myth, not muscle not etiquette. Intellect not re-elect!”