machines against the rage

Britain’s ruling elite express fear of “class war”
Chris Marsden
wsws.org
December 11, 2009

Class war eh?

ChristieBooks is the site maintained by Scottish anarchist Stuart Christie. His granny made him an anarchist; sadly, he failed to kill Franco. Still, there’s hundreds of great films on the site — including An Anarchist’s Story, a recent documentary on fellow Scottish anarchist Ethel MacDonald (1909–1960), the woman who became the English voice of anarchist radio in Barcelona. Further, Uncle Stuart’s writings on Spanish anarchism are essential reading.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CRASSMAS NO.1

A group has been set up on Facebook calling on UK consumers to refrain from buying product X and to instead purchase “foul-mouthed metallers” (The Sun) Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 pop hit ‘Killing in the Name’ so as to break the monopoly The X Factor has held on the #1 spot in the pop charts. Thus RATM are — or rather were — competing against not only The Muppets and a muppet karaoke star * (Joe McElderry) from shit TV show The X Factor [but also my ability to construct incomplete sentences: I win]. An English couple called Jon and Tracy Morter started the group to stop The X Factor from claiming the “Christmas Number One” for the fifth year in a row.

Several weeks ago, multi-millionaire host and showbiz hack Simon Cowell said the campaign ws stoopid; ten days that shook the UK pop world world later, he’s now “gutted”:

Cowell ‘gutted’ by chart defeat
UKPA
December 20, 2009

Pop mogul Simon Cowell said he was “gutted” at losing the battle for Christmas number one as Rage Against The Machine beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry in the fight for the top spot.

The rap metal act saw their expletive-ridden 1992 hit Killing in the Name sell 500,000 copies in one week and become the first ever Christmas number one that was available only through downloads.

Cowell offered his congratulations to the couple behind the campaign, Jon and Tracy Morter…

And congratulations also to Sony, the company what owns both RATM and The X Factor (tho’ the sweary 90s pop *s have apparently agreed to donate their share of the profits to homeless charity Shelter).

Of course, what I’d like for Crassmas is a copy of Bakunin: The Creative Passion by Mark Leier (Thomas Dunne Books, 2006).

See also : Facebookers rage against Simon Cowell’s Christmas juggernaut, Richard Allen Greene, CNN, December 11, 2009 | Facebook campaign rages against sugary seasonal ballads, Valkerie Baynes, The Age (AAP), December 20, 2009 | Rage against Cowell for yule No. 1, Valkerie Baynes, The Sydney Morning Herald (AAP), December 21, 2009 | Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts, BBC, December 21, 2009.

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
This entry was posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Film, History, Media, Music, State / Politics, Television, War on Terror and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to machines against the rage

  1. Lumpen says:

    Rage Against The Machine are on Epic Records = Sony BMG = same label as X-Factor. The fact that Sony BMG have now shifted possibly double the units they otherwise would have means someone out there is laughing very, very hard. From the Popbitch newsletter (11/12/09):

    There’s an internet campaign to back Rage Against The Machine’s Killing in the Name as Xmas number one. On the same label as the X Factor track, there’s a nice conspiracy theory that Cowell has bought the publishing rights and is behind the campaign…

  2. @ndy says:

    Ah yes.

    Osama bin Laden eat yr rotten heart out.

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