Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello Among Speakers At Sound Strike Press Conference

Zack de la Rocha & Tom Morello

Organizers of The Sound Strike, the group heading the artist movement against Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law, held a press conference today at the Palladium, just days before Rage Against The Machine are set to take over the legendary venue.

Speakers included both Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello, as well as Conor Oberst (singer of The Mystic Valley Band) and representatives from Puente, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the United Farm Workers, as they discussed the current issue in Arizona and what their efforts through Sound Strike were.

Rage Against The Machine will be performing an anti-SB1070 show, with proceeds benefiting the Sound Strike, this Friday night at the Palladium. It’s their first show in LA in 10 years. Don’t bother trying to score tickets, they sold out in about 10 minutes on Monday morning.

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The first speaker was Salvador Reza, representing Puente, a “human rights movement that works to resurrect our humanity by teaching and learning to eradicate intolerance when it presents itself at individual, economic, political, social and religious settings affecting our daily existence.” His speech was short, but sweet. He talked about how Rage’s song “People of the Sun” has been an inspiration to the movement and how it related to migrant workers. “Migrant workers ARE the people of the sun,” he said. “Families are suffering through separation. Over half of the people that are deported daily from the US are from Arizona.” He ended his segment with a plea to Obama to end the criminalization factor of undocumented immigrant workers.

Zack de la Rocha

Zack de la Rocha was the next speaker on the list. From the get go, you could almost feel how passionate he is about this issue when he began to speak. “All 3 bands performing Friday stand for the fight. SB1070 goes into effect on July 29th, this is a week of action,” he said. Zack’s grandfather was an Mexican immigrant who crossed into the US in Arizona several years ago. One issue he was extremely adamant about was the treatment of Maricopa County prisoners, who are under the direct rule of the highly-controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “I’m repeatedly in awe after hearing stories about the Sheriff. He causes so much pain and suffering to the prisoners and parades them around for photo-ops,” said de la Rocha. He went into detail about how the Sheriff uses endless attempts to humiliate inmates, such as forcing male inmates to wear pink underwear. He also told a story about a woman who was forced to give birth while handcuffed and restrained. “He picks at the wounds of everyday pains and infects it with hatred.”

He discussed how he was moved by a letter that was handed to him during a rally in Arizona, written by female inmates of Maricopa County. He shared an excerpt with us. It was a plea for help from these women who were mothers, wives and daughters and were locked up on false charges. They were treated like they were the worst criminals on Earth, when they were just doing their best to try and support their families. He then posed a series of questions to end his turn. “How can we not unite with artists to form the Sound Strike? How could we not stand up for our Arizona fans? How could Rage Against The Machine NOT put on a show to help the issue? These are toxic ideas culminating in a law that says we are NOT all equal.”

Zack and Tom will be bringing the Rage to the Palladium on Friday

Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, spoke next. “We aren’t the only ones presenting a case for an injunction against this law,” he says. “The Department of Justice has also filed a similar case. We have the law and enduring national values on our side.” He also posed the question of whether or not states have the authority to supersede the national government. “The Constitution says no,” stated Newman. “We don’t want 50 different republics within our country.” He also pointed out that there are self-proclaimed Neo-Nazis patrolling the borders.

When Mystic Valley Band singer Conor Oberst heard about de la Rocha and RATM’s efforts, he said he felt “compelled to act.” “The law will isolate a community and use them as a scapegoat,” he said. “There will be a distrust between law enforcement and the community they serve. If we don’t say that it’s unacceptable, it will continue to erode the soul of America. We need to hurt them (lawmakers) where it hurts the most, in their pocketbooks.”

Tom Morello, who I might add was looking VERY sharp, took his turn on the mic. “This will be the first Rage show in LA in 10 years. We’ve played around LA, in places like San Bernardino and Coachella, but this is where Rage started at,” said Morello. “ We chose the Palladium because it's where some of the first Rage shows ever went down. We're going to rock this mother to the ground.
” Tom Morello “We chose the Palladium because it’s where some of the first Rage shows ever went down. We’re going to rock this mother to the ground.”

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (alongside Mexican revolutionary Cezar Chavez), was the last to speak. She talked about how this isn’t the first time Arizona has attempted to pass prejudice laws. “In 1972, there was a law passed that would send you to jail if you boycotted. That is when we coined the term ‘Si Se Puede’,” said Huerta.

The conference ended with a brief Q & A session. A good question came up first. “There are some bands that are saying that playing in Arizona is more important than ever right now. What do you say to that?” de la Rocha was the first to respond, stating that SB1070 is a “symptom of a much bigger problem.” He also noted that Arizona was the last state to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that a huge boycott against the state of Arizona helped make that happen. Morello chimed in next, stating “we were asked by the people of the state to boycott.” Later in the Q & A, de la Rocha backed that up, saying “Arizona citizens asked us to defend the rights of our brothers and sisters there. We need to push towards reform with a human rights framework.”

de la Rocha estimated that between $300-350k will be raised between ticket sales and artist donations, but that number could easily increase. If you want to help stay connected with the cause they are fighting for, check out The Sound Strike’s website here.