Drive to silence rapper and campaigner Lowkey reaches new low
JVL Introduction
Skwawkbox recently revealed that rapper and campaigner Lowkey had been disinvited from the 2022 Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival, following behind-the-scenes pressure from the GMB union.
This is not simply an isolated attack on an individual artist but part of an international project to silence the many powerful voices in the cultural sphere critical of Israel.
In this case the GMB letter attacking Lowkey’s invitation asked the organisers “for evidence that they had consulted with members of ‘the Jewish community’ as part of their planning for the show”.
Who speaks for “the community” and is accorded rights to censor in advance? Should every ethnic or religious group have a right of veto if someone some amongst them might not like is invited to speak? Merely to point it out highlights the absurdity of this position.
This is simply an attack on freedom of cultural expression and must be fiercely resisted.
This article was originally published by Artists for Palestine UK on Fri 26 Aug 2022. Read the original here.
Drive to silence rapper and campaigner Lowkey reaches new low
The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, a trade union-organised ‘celebration of solidarity’, disinvited the pro-Palestinian artist following behind-the-scenes pressure.
Loading article text…
If there is a deeply reactionary cause going then you can often find the GMB supporting it.
The GMB is enthusiastic about nuclear weapons and fracking: two things that threaten our very survival including, of course, the survival of GMB members.
Outrageous that any organization should ask for a respected artist of humane views to be banned from a festival celebrating a milestone in the historic struggle for universal human rights. Outrageous that of all institutions a union should have demanded his exclusion. Outrageous most of all that their demand has been acceded to — spinelessly, in order to appease a vociferous and litigious group insisting that the manifold human rights abuses of a powerful state be obscured and minimized.
This is only one of many examples of the latter-day universal triumph of mendacity and injustice. Corruption and lies polluting every institution, obscene wealth, obscene levels of poverty, judicially approved persecutions and incarceration of journalists, indiscriminate bombing and murder of oppressed civilians: all of it licensed by governments including our own that lay claim to be democracies subject to the rule of law. And all of it supported by a supine media that smears and vilifies the honorable at the behest of powerful corporations and the states they control. What kind of world have we made for ourselves? What kind of future are we heading into?
Tolpuddle has an email, [email protected], to which I wrote:
Did Tolpuddle Festival really ban the brilliant spokesman for human rights and renowned rapper Lowkey on the orders of some right wing spokesmen for Israel? As a Jew and fan of Lowkey I find it incredibly sad that the Labour Party and now the Tolpuddle Martyrs shout “antisemitism!” to protect Israel from criticism.
Thank you Benjamin for the email contact. I have followed your move and sent them an email expressing my deep disgust at the gutless caving in to GMB pressure. I would urge others to do the same.