Pussy Riot

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Yesterday footage of Kossac militia in Sochi beating and actually whipping members of the now-infamous political punk group Pussy Riot while they were performing in protest of the Olympics made its way around the mediasphere and the web. While it’s astonishing that a country already struggling with bad press would allow its police to use such archaic yet brutal means of repression in front of the world media, I find it more astonishing and impressive that the group went right back into the belly of the beast just a short time after some of their members were released from jail after being incarcerated for doing a similar type of performance/protest.

I’m equally impressed with their ability to get the music video they were filming guerilla-style when the whip-yielding cops busted in out so quickly…and presto, here it is, their video for Putin will teach you how to love, shot outside of the Sochi Olympic Games, with an English translation of the lyrics below the video:

50 billion and a gay-driven rainbow,
Rodnina and Kabaeva will pass you those flames
In prison they will teach you how to obey
Salut to all bosses, hail, duce!

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

Sochi is blocked – Olympic surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB is an argument, the police is an argumentState tv will run your applause.

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

Spring to Russia comes suddenly
Hello to the messiah as a shot from Avrora
The prosecutor will put you down
Give him some reaction and not those pretty eyes

A cage for the protests, vodka, matrioshka
Prison for May 6, more vodka and caviar
The Constitution is lynched, Vitishko’s in prison
Stability, the prison meal, the fence and the watchtower

For TV Rain they’ve shut down the airwaves
They took gay pride down the washroom
A two-ass toilet – a priority
Sentence to Russia, medium security, 6 years

Putin will teach you how to love the motherland

The motherland
The motherland
The motherland

NewsPoliticsQueer

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin passed anti-gay legislation, the free world has responded with outrage. Organizations such as Pride House International have demanded boycotting the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and restaurants and nightclubs owners have poured Russian vodka down the drain in solidarity with the LGBT community. Meanwhile, US-Russian relations have sunk to their worst levels since the relationship between Kennedy and Khrushchev, which culminated in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Recently Obama announced he may not attend the next major summit with Russia. Though this mainly theatrical move is designed to protest Russia granting America’s most sought after spy, Edward Snowden, temporary asylum, it also addresses a series of cold winds blowing in from Moscow, the incarceration of female punk trio Pussy Riot, Putin arming Syrian rebels and the anti-LGBT law among them.

Putin Pussy Riot portrait.

Obama may have miscalculated. Despite America’s own deficiencies upholding LGBT rights, the US represents the most powerful state partner of LGBT communities. Severing dialogue with Russia will not resolve the issues.

Russia is a global superpower. Its government operates with near impunity, is heavy-handed in subverting dissent from its citizens and censoring and suppressing free media. This perpetuates Russia’s tyranny indefinitely. Therefore, without US dialogue, there is no negotiation or solution. Russia’s LGBT community would be voiceless.

Unless the world boycotts the Sochi games (no country has done so officially yet), asking individual athletes to sacrifice their place to compete would be asking them to sacrifice the prime of their youths. Like governments ending diplomacy, individual athletes not appearing at the games to protest would end the conversation. Olympic coverage of the issue would drift or be silenced, like Tibet’s protests at Beijing 2011.

Economic sanctions and cutting US tourism to Russia is also insufficient. Though Russia’s economy is export-based, many countries rely on its iron umbrella to support their own illiberal regimes and even Ukraine, its staunch Soviet-era opponent, depends on Russian oil.

Putin would have also anticipated lost tourism revenues from Americans due to the LGBT ban. However, China is expected to surpass America in global travelers and is likely to boost Russia’s tourism industry. Xi Jinping’s first foreign visit as China’s new leader was to Russia, renewing relations between former Cold War allies.

Obama and Putin meeting.

The US will need to negotiate with Russia if it truly stands behind LGBT rights. For this to happen, Obama’s LGBT base will need to apply pressure on a presidency in its last term.

Since both Russia and the US remain on frosty terms, mediation between the two giants could work with a neutral third party acting as a buffer. A UN mediator either from a neutral state or the private sector could facilitate talks. The US and Russia could even send representatives instead of Obama and Putin themselves.

Canada, with its longer history of LGBT rights and the US’ closest ally, historically and geographically, could be an influential middleman. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Obama’s relations are lukewarm. This would have to change by whatever legal means necessary.

Putin anti-gay ban protest in Netherlands.

Ultimately, to safeguard Russia’s LGBT community, the US must give in to Putin in some areas. Unless the global community boycotts and ceases economic trade with Russia completely, the talks will have a secondary effect, perhaps one affecting the Syrian rebels.

If this doesn’t work, Obama’s reputation as the Lincoln of LGBT civil rights movement will be tarnished. Even worse, Russia’s LGBT community will suffer through its longest winter yet.

MusicNewsPolitics

Some of you, I’d like to think most of you, would have heard about the Russian feminist punk-rock collective Pussy Riot. A year ago, on February 21st, 5 members of the Pussy Riot collective did an impromptu performance on the solace of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The performance of the song Punk Prayer – Mother of God Chase Putin Away was to protest against Vladimir Putin’s government and the links between him and leaders of the Orthodox Church during his election campaign.

As a result of the guerilla performance, 3 members of the group were arrested and sentenced to two years in jail on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The government emphasized that the group was anti-religion to get the support from the people, as religion is sacred in Russia. Pussy Riot has repeatedly said that the performance wasn’t against Church and that the lyrics Holy Shit in their song were an evaluation of the situation in their country, an opinion, not a blasphemy.

This video amongst others by the group are being ruled extremist in Russia and might soon be banned from the Russian internet!

Now a year after, one of the 3 members was released early but two of them, Maria Alyokhina (24) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (23) are still in prison. Both are young mothers and have requested their sentences to be delayed until their children are teenagers but were refused. They are serving their sentence in remote prison camps.

All of this is happening in the country hosting the winter Olympics in 2014, not a very good example of democracy and freedom if you ask me. Amnesty International has called Maria and Nadezhda prisoners of conscience following the severity of the response by Russian authorities. It is very important to keep supporting what Pussy Riot started and get them out of jail!

Irreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir organized a 5 à 7 at Divan Orange on February 21st to mark the one year anniversary of Pussy Riot’s performance and incarceration.

The performance included the group’s own version of the Punk Prayer, the lyrics had been put online a few days prior and some of the crowd were singing the whole way through. Most of us sang the chorus Shit! Shit! This is Holy Shit! Pussy Riot’s video of their performance was playing repeatedly on a screen. It was a very powerful experience.

Afterwards, I asked a few questions to Baptiste, the man behind the event.

Q. Why was the event organized?

A. Because I read the lyrics, they are so perfect in supporting Gay pride, feminism, everything I stand for.

Irreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir is a project that started 4 years ago and has been active for the past year and a half. The idea of the group is to change lyrics of songs while keeping them happy and festive but giving them a deeper message. The song Rainbow in the Sky by Mahalia Jackson was used to talk about gay pride and some of the lyrics were inspired by verses from the Bible.

baron-irreverandIrreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir is based on Gospel. The origins of the Gospel movement were explained during the evening too! Very interesting. The Gospel is there to force people to ask themselves questions about religion – about everything really – the main goal is emancipation, from all your prejudices. Gospel music was born during the period of slavery in the USA. Slaves weren’t allowed to express themselves openly, and had to be docile not showing emotions except on Sundays. On Sundays, they would go to church and be expressive (so long as it was to Jesus). It was a form of liberation. It explains the exuberance you find in Gospel; the crying out, calling and answering. The church goers would scream “Preach” when they heard something the Reverend would say that they agreed with and when it spoke directly to their heart. Allelujah was the word you would hear. Also, since animist drum rituals were obviously banned, the parishioners took to clapping instead. The roots of Gospel are about more than religion, they are about affirmation.

Irreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir is here for the people who say NO! Who refuse to just go with the fallacies that we are sold today. It is here for the free thinkers and to bring back a sense of community.

It is great to see more and more people waking up and saying No, enough is enough!! Keep it up! Free Pussy Riot!!

Find out more and join the Choir at www.irreverendjames.com