This Week with David Rovics

New song: "Boycott, Sanction, and Divest"

A song of appreciation for all the protesting students, staff, and faculty at Columbia and many other institutions across the US.

Up the Rebels: Songs of Resistance session 3

The third in my series of musical broadcasts about the history of resistance in its many forms.

In this session I share songs and thoughts exploring:

The mostly Irish soldiers who left the US Army and joined the Mexican Army during the Mexican-American War

The gold diggers' rebellion in Ballarat, Australia in 1854

The syndicalists' occupation of the Danish Stock Exchange in Copenhagen in 1918

The Japanese diplomat who saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jews during WWII

The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in 1968, and helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson's stand in defense of the survivors

The explosive beginnings of the Icelandic environmental movement in 1970

The notion that music can change the world

When the US Invaded Mexico (and I Wrote A Folk Song About It)

The story behind the song, "St Patrick Battalion."

New song: "The Ballad of UK Lawyers for Israel"

Israel wages real, genocidal war against Palestinians. But in other arenas, the pro-Israel lobby in its various forms wages war against global public opinion. The Zionist entity targeting me in recent months has been UK Lawyers for Israel, so I wrote them a jingle.

UK Lawyers for Israel

I woke up one morning with an email in my inbox
Containing lies and slander, known locally as “bollocks”
I was about to tour in England, singing songs about
The holocaust in Gaza, when one of the venues pulled out
They had gotten a letter from UKLFI
Threatening consequences if they did not comply
As Israel commits its war crimes, more and more people see
But this brave bunch of barristers are gonna keep the world free

The list of their accomplishments are right there in black and white
They take credit openly right there on their website
If you got kicked off of PayPal, GoFundMe or Facebook
They probably brag about it – go and take a look
Anyone who calls out Israel as a fascist state
If they get any attention, they can expect to meet their fate
Lose their jobs, have lies and slander spread about their name
Canceling careers, that’s the name of the solicitors’ game

UK Lawyers for Israel intends to turn the tide
To advocate for the state that is committing genocide
If you cry out against the slaughter that could be their cue
Their next target might be you

You can see there on their website, their email list is tiny
But they can compensate in cash for what they lack in popularity
And their legal threats aren’t limited just to the UK
Wherever someone supports Palestine, they’ve got something to say
If it’s a gathering in Glasgow or a conference in Berlin
These livid lawyers will make sure that censorship will win
They’ve even got a charity, and a troll farm, too
And they don’t care if you are a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew

Chorus

They took the Labor Party, centered in their sights
And accused all the best of them of being antisemites
They took the best professors and they got them fired
They took former Supreme Court judges, said that they were liars
If you're afraid to speak out, the roots of that fear
May result from a campaign intended to create that atmosphere
If you're feeling threatened, the reason why
Could just be the Lords and Ladies of UKLFI

Chorus

We Interrupt Our Usual Programming

And now for a few words on eating and paying the rent.

Linda Wiener's Echo

When people die, they leave behind many different kinds of echoes.

The Hasbara Trolls Switch Platforms

My pet battalion of pro-Israel internet trolls have migrated their operation from Facebook to X, and refined their emphasis as well.

"The Rule of Law": Myth vs. Reality

I humbly submit that the pretense of the leadership of the Democratic Party that it's different because it believes in the rule of law is nonsense.

Shaun McCafferty does "St. Patrick Battalion"

Shaun McCafferty has a brilliant new live album that's out on all the streaming platforms now. Here's one of the tracks -- a wonderful rendition of "St. Patrick Battalion."

"Up the Rebels" session 1

Today I did a live broadcast which will be the first of a series of online concerts I plan to do about resistance.

Whether we're talking about armed uprisings, mass civil disobedience, or actions carried out by much smaller groups of people, current events and history are full of stories of resistance.

"When you fight, you win" may not quite be actually true, even if it's a good slogan. But even if making the effort doesn't always get the desired results, resistance in its many forms often leads to positive changes that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

The themes I explore in this episode include:

• When the Ottoman Navy rescued as many as 800,000 Spanish Jews in 1492
• The Merthyr Rising in Wales in 1831
• The Rent Strike Wars in New York State in the 1840's
• The resistance to British occupation by the Irish Republican Army in the 1970's and 1980's
• The blockade of Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1993
• Muslim-Christian solidarity on the Kenya-Somalia border in 2015
• Palestine Action's continuing resistance to Elbit Systems' efforts to supply the Israeli war machine with weaponry
• The resistance of Ansar Allah, aka the Houthi Army, in solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza on the Red Sea