For the love of freedom, gender equality, democracy and music, we must support Pussy Riot.
There couldn’t have been more than 20 of them, but they were hard to miss. Colorfully dressed, masked and carrying a banner adorned with an obscenity – Tel Aviv’s small protest in solidarity with Russian punk band Pussy Riot greeted me on Saturday night, at the end of Rothschild Boulevard, right where the J14 protests began last summer.
It seems odd for Israelis, plagued with the threat of war with Iran, with the guilt of the occupation and with the disaster of our neo-liberal economy, to take on the issue of Pussy Riot. So three girls in another part of the world dressed up funny, caused a provocation and are about to pay for it. They played a political song in a Cathedral in Moscow and now face prison time. Should we really go out on the streets wearing red ski masks and rally for them? Why should their fate be anywhere on our agenda?
We have been so strongly indoctrinated to look only at our local issues, that global struggle baffles us, but the nature of global struggles is that they unite many issues that are relevant to many places. The song that got Pussy Riot in trouble was a prayer for the removal of Vladimir Putin, and the struggle against Putin’s rule is similar to the one we lead every day against our own corrupt politicians. It is no accident that one of the Tel-Aviv protesters wore a mask in the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Indeed, Putinist Russia has become a model for post-modern authoritarianism, the sort that cunningly disguises itself as democracy. Dissident Russians and Israelis are facing similar structures of power, both of which employ lies, disinformation and infringements of our freedom of speech. Putinism is hardly limited to Russia, but being successful there, it now threatens to reach many corners of the earth. More difficult to pinpoint and remove than traditional dictatorship, it is “Arab-Spring-proof,” and thus truly dangerous.
This coming Friday the verdict will be pronounced in the case against Ekaterina Samoutsevitch, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Whether or not they will be sent to prison for years (the maximum penalty for their charges is seven years) they have won. They have taken the Putinist issue out of Russia by transcending Russian politics and appealing to two global communities: feminists and Rock fans.
The Pussy Riot affair may be the most substantial confrontation with authorities in rock history, Jim Morrison may have been arrested for exhibitionism and Keith Moon had to pay for a car he drove into a pool, but not many events of greater magnitude were registered in the west. Rock claims to be anti-authoritarian. It claims to be political. These claims are only seriously put to the test when it challenges regimes that show zero tolerance to criticism. “God Save the Queen” is hardly an example.
Whether one finds their music palatable or not, the lyrics of Pussy Riot prove that political content belongs in popular music, and brings it to new levels. At a time when LGBT rights and women’s rights are both suffering in Russia, the band’s song “Punk Prayer” ties the issues together and places combined blame on both the religious and political establishment:
“Black robe, golden epaulettes /All parishioners are crawling and bowing / The ghost of freedom is in heaven / Gay pride sent to Siberia in chains. / The head of the KGB is their chief saint / Leads protesters to prison under escort / In order not to offend the Holy/ Women have to give birth and to love.”
One could argue, of course, that the band’s activities do offend the pious public and constitute an infringement on the freedom of worship, which demands maintaining the sanctity of sacred sites. For this the three defendants may rightfully deserve to pay a modest price (and be willing to), but the atrocious seven years in prison with which they are faced, prove that their criticism holds water. Pussy Riot is bravely protesting the corrupt union of church and un-democratic state. The same that we have seen in Francoist Spain, and, to a great extent, in Israel of today, where the rabbis of religious Zionism enjoy nearly unlimited political influence.
The cause of freedom is global. For love of democracy, we must support Pussy Riot. For love of music, we must support Pussy Riot. For love of Gender equality, we must support Pussy Riot. For love of our northern neighbors, the Syrians, who are being slaughtered continuously by their regime thanks to the support of the Kremlin, we must show solidarity with those young musicians. Tel-Aviv’s anonymous protesters reconnect us to the family of humankind, and prove that we have everything to gain from joining hands with the world and combining our many struggles.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALS92big4TY[/youtube]