culture of protest: time to support KCSB

Posted by rflacks on: Tue 19th Feb, 2013

This week KCSB begins its annual membership drive. The station for
50 years (!) has been providing an astonishing variety of

musics and cultures and public affairs programming. We carry Amy Goodman and
Al-Jazeera news, and a lot of good locally based reportage. And I've been on the air with the Culture of Protest for more than 30 years. It's been a great chance for me to learn a lot about

the inter-relating of the musical and the political and to share songs of
struggle from the past and the immediate present.

I hope you'll participate in the fund drive. In return for your
generosity, I'm offering copies of some shows that may be of interest, signed copies of my new book on music and movements...and a brand new album of political song by David Rovics.

You can make a pledge by sending me an email at rflacks@igc.org
providing your name, address, phone and donation amount.

The basic membership levels are $25 for UCSB students and $50 for
non-students. For a basic pledge, you can request one of the following recent
Culture of Protest specials:

Remembering Rosa and Abe: features interview with Rosa Parks (its her centenary) and songs about her + the complete Lonesome train—the legendary radio cantata musically depicting Lincoln as an embodiment of grassroots populism

Remembering Paul Robeson: a program featuring Robeson;’s voice throughout the decades and his passionate speeches challenging racism and empire.

Remembering FDR: Roosevelt’s second inaugural in its entirety makes interesting comparison with Obama’s + songs about FDR you might not know.

Obama and King: Pres. Obama made a stirring speech dedicating the MLK
monument—and we couple that with some fiery words of King's plus songs that honor him on the King holiday.

We'll play samples from all of these on the air this Thursday and next @ 6-7pm
pst 91.9fm (www.kcsb.org)

Or...we have a couple of copies of David Rovics new CD: Meanwhile in
Afghanistan.

Or...we have a couple of copies of my new book: PLAYING FOR CHANGE:MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN SERVICE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS—co-authored with Rob
Rosenthal.

Any one of the above can be yours for a basic pledge of $50 ($25
for ucsb students). Any two for $75. All 4 of the Culture of Protest cd’s for
$100. please call 805-893-2424 between 6-7pmThursday 2/21 or 2/28 to make a pledge (it’s great to get those calls!)

Or pledge on line at www.kcsb.org

Tags: kcsb, community radio, culture of protest pledge drive

About

Dick Flacks here...sociology professor emeritus at UCSB. Budget cuts mean that I can't continue my annual course on political sociology. Maybe a blog will be a space for me to continue to ruminate and pontificate. And maybe (as a veteran teacher on these matters) I can offer some ways of thinking about what's happening nationally and locally that will be useful, as we struggle to make sense of the tortured complexities of these times. I've been a leftwing activist for more than 50 years. What we've been struggling for all these years is full democracy--to increase the opportunities for people to have real voice in the decisions that affect them. Step by step over these years we've made some gain...but it is a long march, and one that never ends. The big barrier to democracy in our society is the concentrated power of corporations. At the same time, democracy is undermined by the felt powerlessness of people in their daily lives--the persistent belief that our problems are only our own personal concern. It's a strong cultural theme--such individualism--constantlly reinforced by mass media and everyday circumstance. But the current big crisis of the economy maybe makes it more possible for more people to understand that we've got to have social reform and economic reform. So my writing here is aimed at helping us figure out what to think and act on that so that we can hope for new democratic possibilities. WE'll be talking about the local and the national. The blog name comes from an old labor union hymn: Step by step the longest march can be won. Many stones can form an arch...singly none. And by union what we will can be accomplished still. Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none. For 27 years I've had a weekly radio show on KCSB (91.9 fm. www.kcsb.org) It's called the Culture of Protest. It's comes from my fascination with music and social movements. I collect 'political' and 'protest' music and that's what we play each week (Thursdays 6-7 pm). So sometimes here we'll share and talk about that. I'm worried about one thing about the blogosphere. And that's the way that some people use the blog comment space for anonymous nastiness. I'm sick of the kind of political blather that assaults the motives of others, and sees dark conspiracy behind every thing one doesn't like. This kind of stuff is helping to poison the political atmosphere. So I'm going to strive for a civil tone to whatever interaction may happen on this blogsite.