Soundtrack of the Revolution

//by Huey from Berlin-Kreuzberg //German original in REVOLUTION #7

The (International) Noise Conspiracy spielt „Black Mask“

„People say we’re crazy because we talk about revolution. Because we live in pretty fucked up times. But at least we have the courage to dream and to fight!“

With these words, The (International) Noise Conspiracy began their concert in Berlin. The name says it all: the secretive but ever-present worldwide communist conspiracy that Winston Churchill and Joe McCarthy always warned us about has finally presented itself to the public - in the form of a four-person band from Sweden.

The Conspiracy uses rock songs that sort of sound like garage music from the 60s to propagate ideas about struggle, communism, and world revolution.

On their new CD "Armed Love", which was released this summer, every single song contains a call to revolutionary action. The lyrics are about barricade fighting, imperialism, alienation - everything a communist punk band should cover. For example: "we're gonna move like a movement - we, all together, are just like a landslide"; "Just give me a black mask!"; "Let's make history right now!"; "I don't want to wait forever, I want freedom on this side of heaven!".

10 great songs, 39 minutes of music - good stuff to get worked up before a demo.

But the Conspiracy does more than just sing - their trademark call to "smash it up" is meant literally. For example in June 2001 they were on the streets of Göteborg: as tens of thousands of demonstrators protested against a summit of the EU ministers, the band set up their stage right in the street fighting zone and played a little accompanying music.

A Voice of Protest

Every generation has its songwriters: Joe Hill, Kurt Weill [songwriter for the KPD in the late 20s], Ton Steine Scherben [band from the West Berlin squatter scene in the 70s] or the Dead Kennedys. For our generation - for the hundreds of thousands of us that besieged the summit meetings of the ruling class in Seattle, Genoa, Göteborg or Geneva - the Conspiracy is like a voice. The determination of millions of "Anticapitalistas" is packed into a three-minute rock song and pressed onto CD.

Of course it's rather hard to tell whether T(I)NC are commies, anarchos or autonomists. Which "wing" of the movement do they belong to? On their second album they sing: "I got my heart set on destruction, of the Bakuninist kind" (referring to the founder of Anarchism Mikhael Bakunin). But right after that comes the lyric: "we need a new direction, an insurrection" - a clear reference to Lenin's "Letter's from Afar", which he wrote to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia in September 1917 to argue for an armed workers' insurrection.

But is it surprising that the boys from Sweden propagate thousands of different (and often contradictory) ideas? They are speaking for an anticapitalist movement that is itself diverse and contradictory. T(I)NC never took up the task of working out a clear programme for the movement (as REVO tries). The protest band is there to encourage anticapitalist fighters out on the street - and they do a wonderful job!

And in any case, singer Denis Lyxzén said in an interview in the last issue of [Berlin music magazine] Uncle Sally's: "We are convinced that smashing the capitalist social order is necessary and the only way to get a better world."

There we have it, black on white. When is the last time you saw something like that in a cultural magazine printed in color on glossy paper? Normally statements like that are reserved for small, poorly copied politcal sheets like ... nevermind.

Feel the music

After appearances in S036 in Berlin-Kreuzberg and various summer festivals, The (International) Noise Conspiracy is making a name for themselves in the German left. On October 28th they are back in SO36 - for other dates see their web site. At 16 euros the concert is a bit expensive, but it's not every day that you can see such a passionately revolutionary show.

Don't have 17,99 euros for the CD? "Armed Love" isn't only available in stores. Just follow Denis's advice from the last concert: "You can download these songs tonight off the internet."

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