Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I am so psyched to hear that the nonviolent protest of students at Cal (University of California at Berkeley) is being celebrated in song! Though not all of the protests have been nonviolent, it is the nonviolent response that is getting people’s attention. Why? My guess is because it is do damn brave! Anyone can don a black bandanna and throw rocks at windows in anonymity. Anyone? Anyone who doesn’t know they have a better choice. Or anyone who knows they have a better choice, but isn’t ready to try it.

There is a better, louder, braver choice, and that is standing solidly in the face of violence, and refusing to be broken by it. That braver choice is what is being celebrated in the song “Lady Valia Stood Her Ground”, by the San Fran band Foolproof Four. Check out the song on their MySpace page [or you can download it at the end of the post].

Here’s a note from Noah Grant, a member of Foolproof Four, who posted his comment on the ReclaimUC Blog :

“…I‘m also a recent cal alum, and I’m fully behind your movement. i also wrote and recorded an a capella song in support of you, of Zhivka, of the people who took over wheeler, and of everyone else who supports the movement. please give it a listen when you get a chance, it’s really for you all….thanks for sticking up for what you believe in.”

And some words from nuestro hermano Pancho at Metta following up on that comment:

“Let’s get more of those story telling songs!”

“We need to re-write history and write history from _OUR_ perspective, not those sick of corporate/state power. They use the events of the past as tools to distort people’s minds. Read between the lines of “history”. Unwritten history is more significant, from my perspective, that which is written. When a mother takes care of her children, loves them and feeds them well, nobody sends a wire to the propaganda machines of the Empire…”

The power of writing history is one of the powers of song, and of art in general in any movement, including the movement toward a nonviolent future. We can use it to write our own present and future, to tell the stories of our lives, to inspire action, to keep our hearts light, and to educate, collaborate, and achieve transformation together.

A quote to illustrate follows from James Connolly, a quote that towers in mural form over the revelers and performers each week at the Starry Plough (Berkeley’s friendly neighborhood revolutionary-spirited Irish pub, in front of the Anarchist infoshop The Long Haul), most notably over the notes of  live Irish fiddles, fifes, and drums each Sunday night. You’ll find it just on the outskirts of the Berkeley Bubble and loud enough to be heard all the way to Oakland:

“No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetic expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle.”

“Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is the dogma of the few and not the faith of the multitude.” — 1907

Peace to our songwriters and artists. Peace to those who have the courage to choose nonviolence in the face of violence. Peace to those who choose violence for whatever reason they do. Peace to those who don’t know they have a choice. Peace to all in 2010!

PS: You can download the song in mp3 format here: “Lady Valia Stood Her Ground” by the band Foolproof Four.