MUSICIANS ROCK MIAMI PROTESTS
Julia Scott, AlterNet
Indie musicians headlining the Tell Us the Truth Tour join hands with activists to challenge free trade policies at the FTAA summit.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17217<snip>
Headliner Billy Bragg is joined by fellow musicians Boots Riley of The Coup, Mike Mills of REM, Audioslave's Tom Morello, country guitarist Steve Earle, blues rocker Lester Chambers, and others in a spirited effort to entertain as well as encourage audiences to demand government accountability around two specific issues: media consolidation and free trade.
The two topics were not chosen at random. The tour kicked off at the National Conference for Media Reform in Wisconsin in early November, where presenters shared strategies on creating a progressive alternative to the corporate media monopoly. The June 2 decision by the Federal Communications Commission to remove many of the obstacles to more concentrated, less regulated media ownership permits one media company to own a newspaper, three television stations and several radio stations in the same market.
The performers have since traveled from the Midwest to the Southeast, bringing their eclectic sound to cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville and Atlanta. This week, they will disembark at the People's Gala for Global Justice in Miami, entertaining the thousands of protesters who will converge on a gathering of top officials working toward the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an expansion of NAFTA to include the entire Western Hemisphere.
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