Sound of Our Revolution | November 2023: Intersectional Solidarity

Our experiences are different, but we share a common oppressor.


Contributed by Jonny Collins


I’ve been wanting to do this theme for a while. It’s one of those things that always feels very important from both an academic and practical point of view and is always relevant but never at the forefront of my mind each month when I get around to doing this.

But in these times of polarization, divide and rule tactics from the Tories, and heightened bigotry and violence against oppressed groups, it feels a good a time as any to focus on how inequalities and oppressive systemic discriminations intersect to create unique experiences and distinct challenges due to the same systems. We need to recognize it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to fighting and replacing these systems. If we’re not taking these unique identities and experiences into account then all we’re really doing is replacing one oppressive system for another, maybe slightly more narrowly targeted oppressive system.

The experiences of cis and trans women, for example, is very different and not interchangeable, but a lot of those bigotries and systemic causes come from the same place. Same with racial and religious minorities, disabilities and neurodiversities, the very young and the very old. All of these are groups that in one way or another are at best neglected, if not actively oppressed, by most governance systems around the world.

And then we start getting combinations of the above and creates unique and exciting ways for these systems to oppress us more! Hooray!

So, what this month’s playlist is trying to represent is a sense of solidarity between these intersections – a range of oppressed voices with their own unique experiences with oppression, and a sense of comradery and solidarity with people of different intersections facing different oppressive forces from the same sources.

It was actually a harder task than I envisioned. There’s definitely more representation of some groups than others, but I think all of these songs encapsulate the heart of the community-focused, intersectional, open unity needed to defy the far right’s division tactics and centrist status quo maintenance, and if nothing else creating a safe space for people of many different marginalised intersections and combinations to thrive and survive, much like the community and environment we’ve been trying to curate Blizzard to be since day one. (To, I hope, modest success in some regards at least. And always striving to do better, with Intersectionality always at the forefront of our minds with how to make these improvements to make ourselves more accessible, safe and appealing to other groups that none of the small team who run this are necessarily a part of.)

You can listen to the playlist in the following places, and I’ve included Bandcamp links where applicable should you wish to buy music direct. If not included most of them can be found on Amazon Music or iTunes, should you wish to more actively support the artist than just through the exploitation that is the streaming industry.


1: Know Your Enemy – Killdren

The Illumniaughty – 2023 – Breakcore

https://killdren.bandcamp.com/album/the-illuminaughty

Your enemy is not sneaking across the borders
They’re the ones who create and police them
Your enemy doesn’t come to steal this land
It’s those who have long held the deeds

Starting off with this recent track from Breakcore bandits Killdren, a band who have never shied away from explicity in their lyrical content and thumping electronic instrumentals.

“Know Your Enemy” is a classic piece of rhetoric in this theme that is crucial to remember in the face of fascist governments attempting to utilise divide and rule tactics against its people. These oppressive powers often secure and maintain power over us by using fellow marginalized people as scapegoats, distracting us from the fact that it is them who are the real problem. We see this with the current refugee panic, and indeed Israel/Palestine conflict.

The Tories LOVE to get away with dividing progressive votes in a system that rewards that status quo party even without a majority of votes, and if they can weaponize and encourage xenophobic hatred and debunked anti-migrant rhetoric to give themselves more votes in the process? Even an unpopular Tory party can win against even the most milquetoast of opposition parties.

This song clearly outlines who our enemy isn’t, and who our enemy is, and that guttural refrain and bass heavy beat really hammers that point home in every chorus, punctuating every unambiguous verse. Killdren are a perfect band for when you’re at breaking point and just need loud obnoxious EDM with punk production and sensibilities to scream along to, and have songs covering most any major theme of anger and political frustration you can feel in the last 4-5 years or so. This one seemed very on theme and a great start to this playlist of intersectionality, discouraging us from that age old trap of fighting our fellow oppressed instead of oppressors.

2: Q.U.E.E.N. – Janelle Monae ft. Erykah Badu

The Electric Lady – 2013 – Soul

And while you’re sellin’ dope, we’re gonna keep sellin’ hope
We rising up now, you gotta deal you gotta cope
Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies, will you sleep?
Or will you preach?

Moving on to an old Blizzard favourite, Janelle Monae is a queer icon, and this I believe is their magnum opus. A supremely catchy R&B masterpiece all about being a part of and celebrating multiple marginalized groups. People are sleeping on Janelle Monae honestly, they’re a legend, and in any just world they’d be topping the charts week after week.

Instrumentally proficient, upbeat and funky, empowering and fun, this is everything an anthem of intersectional solidarity should be and more, and why it has a frequent spot on these lists.

3: Class Struggle – Dog Park Dissidents

The Pink and Black Album – 2023 – Punk

https://dogparkdissidents.bandcamp.com/album/the-pink-and-black-album

We’re only free to be you and me to the degree
Capital and the state consent
We only live our lives and we can only thrive
Within the boundaries they have set

Going a bit more specific now, Class Struggle by Dog Park Dissidents is a masterclass in queercore punk rock and the intersection between class and queerness. This is one of the greatest modern queercore bands in my opinion, their songs are intelligently written, lyrics clearly communicated, hooks to die for, and combined you get top tier intersectional punk rock.

This song is all about how the lip service and progress that has been made over the past several years for gay rights is really only relevant when it comes to posh rich white gay men, and less so when it comes to the common queer experience, which is rooted in poverty, oppression, hostility, and systemic barriers that keep us there. If you’re a successful white middle-aged CEO who likes to suck dick, good on you, you do you – but if you’re poor, trans, non-white, etc then your life experience has hardly improved at all due to these apparently groundbreaking steps.

There are still clear chains for the vast majority of queer people, that now a very small subsection has what they want they are leaving us to grapple with and in some cases actively tightening them.
Queer liberation cannot be separate from class liberation, you can’t have one without the other, as they all come from the same systems.

Liberation for all, or not at all, that’s what this song is about, and that is such a crucial message as we head into election year, for a party of fascists to be replaced with a party of centrists who will give us nuggets of meaningful change if any at all, that will be heavily biased and only target certain areas. It’s altogether, or nothing, remember that.

4: Solidarity – Enter Shikari

Common Dreads – 2009 – Electronicore

We will sing as one in solidarity
We will swim together
No longer treading water
We’re flowing with the tide

Good ol’ Shikari – this is a fairly vague song on solidarity as a whole that while it doesn’t dive into intersectionality specifically, still feels relevant, and is as uplifting and inspirational as any anthem on the theme needs to be, with their own unique brand of Electronic post-hardcore, booming choruses and calls to action sticking in your head for days after you listen to them.

5: Call You Out – Mommy Long Legs

Try Your Best – 2018 – Punk

https://mommylonglegs.bandcamp.com/album/try-your-best

But your white feminism makes me wanna gag, girl
That shit is racist, it’s time we face this
If we don’t call it out we’re never gonna change it

Getting onto one of the first new bands of this playlist, Mommy Long Legs have a very old street/skatepunk vibe to their instrumentals, raw production, satisfying melodic bursts of riffs, and a simple structural progression rounds off a classic punk tune that could’ve come straight out of the 70s or 80s, with lyrics channelling the Riot Grrrl icons of the 90s and beyond.

“Call You Out” is what it says on the tin. Callouts have a bit of a bad reputation. I think they tend to be associated with overblown social media drama. While they can sometimes be used as a way to make people feel smug and like better leftists – generally they are an important tool, as without them, movements can very easily get co-opted, shaped and infiltrated into things counter productive to the cause.

Feminism is particularly susceptible to this, with not just trans exclusionary radicals, but feminist white supremacist groups as well. Without calling it out, and making it clear it’s not welcome here, it damages the entire movement, and what is the point in a feminism that doesn’t fight for all different kinds of women? Exactly.

6: Comrades – Bambu

Party Worker – 2014 – Hip-Hop

https://bambubeatrock.bandcamp.com/album/party-worker

Criticize the comrade
Take a criticism from the comrade
And try to get better for my comrade

This is another new one to me, I don’t know much about the artist, and this is a very poetic hip-hop track over a subtle understated beat not all that dissimilar from artists like Immortal Technique.

What drew my attention here is the above quoted line – all about criticizing your comrades, taking criticism, and trying to be a better ally/advocate for them. I think the left is often seen as a perfectionist group, who if anyone ever does anything worthy of being called out, they are cast aside, but this isn’t the case.

It can be scary to get things wrong, especially in social areas you do not have the knowledge or experience in. But ultimately criticism itself is an act of love and solidarity, and people are unlikely to give you criticism to your face if they don’t think that your heart is in the right place. You can take that to try and improve, or you can double down, it’s your choice, but generally everyone wants the first outcome.

Criticism is not inherently negative, it’s about correcting or challenging an idea you have voiced to help you be shaped into a more thoughtful, aware and empathetic person to the plights of people who aren’t you or don’t share all your traits.

And that whilst criticizing or being criticized, just knowing that the solidarity is still there, and they’d still take a bullet for you and vice versa. I really like this, it sounds like an incredibly healthy and useful outlook, around a subject that I feel a lot of people struggle to know how to react with.

7: Gaddaar – Bloodywood

Rakshak – 2022 – Folk Metal

https://bloodywood.bandcamp.com/album/rakshak

Kabhi nahi toote (so hold your ground)
Sabhi jhoote (against their lies)
Ek saath hum (together we are)
Mazboot hai (unbreakable)

When I first heard this band’s sound described to me, I was like “Huh, that sounds neat”. Then I actually heard it, and I was blown away. Djenty Nu Metal riffs with traditional Indian folk instrumentation and elements create a wall of sound that scratches every single musical itch I have.

Gaddaar has nearly made a few playlists on ambience and sound alone – and really this song is a bit more generic and vaguer in its theming than some others on this playlist. But the “So hold your ground against their lies, together we are unbreakable” is incredibly pertinent given what we’ve been talking about regarding divide and rule.

The Tories and Republicans and really any far right political party anywhere in the world has demonstrated time and time again that they don’t mind lying if they can get away with it (which they can, and frequently do) so holding your ground against the lies they spread about you or your fellow oppressed is crucial to fighting back. If we don’t let these lies affect us, they will have a much harder time breaking us.

And this main riff really hammers home that sense of a universal uprising against an oppressive power that is so long overdue in this country. Fucking incredible stuff, listen to Bloodywood if you aren’t already.

8: Outcast Stomp – G.L.O.S.S.

Demo 2015 – 2015 – Punk

https://sabotagerecords.bandcamp.com/album/g-l-o-s-s-demo-2015-7

This is for the outcasts
Rejects
Girls and the queers
For the downtrodden women who have shed their last tears
For the fighters
Psychos
Freaks and the femmes
For all the transgender ladies in constant transition

More hardcore Punk now from G.L.O.S.S. – a brutal, raw ode to outcasts and oppressed people standing up together and finding home with each other against a state that is trying to get rid of them.
Dirty heavy hardcore riffs and chord progressions, thumping marching drums, impassioned guttural vocals, a perfect underdog fighting the machine anthem for the ages.

9: Multiply And Divide – The Soviettes

LP III – 2004 – Pop Punk

Fight!
They’ll divide then multiply

Despite being commonly associated with songs about relationships and girls and fancying your girlfriend’s mum, the genre of Pop Punk hadn’t entirely abandoned its political inspirations and drive in the 00s. This track by aptly named “The Soviettes” is about as communist as you’d expect, and all about being divided and outnumbered if we let them and reminding us why fighting against that is so damn important.

Very bouncy, very catchy, just as easy to dance and revolt to, first one, then the other. You pick the order.

10: Servants – Zeal & Ardor

Stranger Fruit – 2018 – Black Metal

https://zealandardor.bandcamp.com/album/stranger-fruit

Now listen here, you can join us
Or you can die in the fire
No way that you’re coin-less
This is the end of the line
When the servants have their way

This is a great playlist for inventive and interesting metal music. As a recovering metalhead, I was always more drawn to the more experimental combinations and approaches to the music, rather than the 63284th thrash band called Metal Riffer or whatever.

Zeal & Ardor are my favourite kind of Metal band, as they have been gatekept out of the metal archives for not being metal enough, which is usually a good sign that they’re doing something interesting and cool with the genre. Zeal & Ardor’s whole premise according to the vocalist is “What if American Slaves embraced Satan instead of Jesus” – and that creates for a fucking compelling, haunting sound.

The Bluesy Soulful vocal lines interrupted by harsh discordant black metal demonic riffs capturing the despair and uprising solidarity present in all slave music, but breaking through a completely new musical language and they work wonders together.

Not specifically intersectionality, but definitely in concept incredibly relevant, and far too interesting of a band to leave off on a technicality.

11: It’s Okay to Punch Nazis – Cheap Perfume

Burn It Down – 2019 – Riot Grrl

https://cheapperfume.bandcamp.com/album/burn-it-down

Let’s get intersectional
Basic human rights for all
We won’t stop till fascism’s dead

This is another old Blizzard favourite – and only really included here for the above line “Let’s get intersectional, basic human rights for all”. It’s a simple message, but one delivered so clearly here. It’s also got an infectious hook and a perfect Riot Grrrl punk bounce to go wild (and punch Nazis) to.

12: Where My Girls – Dai Burger

Soft Serve – 2017 – R&B

This is for the shawties that ain’t got no wedding ring
We just make up for the bling rocking iced out belly rings
And for the wifies who do – shout out to you boo!
You made the right choice, and happiness looks good on you!
To my shawties in the gym, keeping trim, showing off the melanin
Give it up for them BB-dubs, looking luscious and feminine.

Less overtly political here, this Dai Burger track I just love. Its unashamed endorsement and celebration of many different types of women is incredibly heartwarming in a climate where feminists seem more and more challenged to exclude and oppress rather than celebrate and build each other up, even if their experience of womanhood looks incredibly different.

All wrapped up in a smooth floating R&B groove, pounding bass, and just completely earnest love to women of all different colour hairs, marital status, size and shape. It’s wholesome as fuck, and exactly the kind of celebration and inclusion we should be encouraging in whatever wave of feminism we’re in now. I love it, and I hope you do too. But if you don’t, I love you also.

13: From Underdog Kids, To Every Rad Fem – Hunting Hearts

Pride Not Prejudice – 2019 – Punk

From underdog kids
(Rising up for your rights)
To every rad fem
(Losing sight of the fight)
We’re the underdog kids and you
You’re not a feminist!

Sticking with feminism specifically here, this optimistic climbing punk track delivers its thesis statement of Trans Exclusionary feminists not being feminists with such… just fun? I don’t know how else to put it. The lyrics have some anger behind them, but it’s all delivered in such high spirits and it’s a really nice uplifting vibe that inspires you to live your best inclusive feminist life, and I am so into it.

It’s nice for an anti-terf anthem to be saying how bad terfs are, but in a tone that celebrates how great trans inclusion is instead between the lines. It’s a really cool vibe and brings me a lot of joy.

14: STINKIN RICH FAMILIES – Grove ft. Bob Vylan

PWR // PL*Y – 2023 – EDM

https://theyisgrove.bandcamp.com/album/p-w-r-pl-y

The stinkin’ rich,
They want us to hate each other
‘cause they know that we hold all the power
they’re pointing us at each other
So that we spend all our power, and we lose it lose it.

I have been OBSESSED with this song ever since it dropped. I saw Grove supporting Bob Vylan last year and was immediately in love with the drum and bass heavy dancehall infused hip-hop with punk attitudes of Grove. And a collaboration with Vylan seemed imminent and perfect, and it is exactly that.
Slightly more distorted guitar tones in the mix, but otherwise this is pure Grove showing off their lyrical mastery in a savage takedown of “The Stinkin Rich” as they put it.

Just before the first chorus they nail this theme with “They want us to hate each other ‘cause they know that we hold all the power”. This is why they use this tactic and importantly it’s why it often works. There is power in numbers but split and divide that power fighting themselves means they can run away with the win before we’ve even got our pants on.

Theming aside this is just a great track though, and break at the end is just iconic. Who says EDM can’t be punk? Losers, that’s who.

15: Woman – Little Simz ft. Cleo Sol

Sometimes I Might be Introvert – 2021 – Hip-Hop

Tell ’em you’re nothin’ without a woman, no
Woman to woman, I just wanna see you glow

This is another nice one about celebrating women, particularly women of colour, all around various parts of the world Little Simz admires, over a smooth soulful Hip-Hop beat that washes over you with feminine positivity and has on a purely sonic level carried me through some of the more anxious parts of my life. The beat just wraps around you like a blanket lasso pulling you through whatever struggles you’re stuck with and comforting you on the way.

I generally prefer Little Simz in her Venom era, but this is such a lovely and wholesome track I can’t fault it, 10/10.

16: COZY – Beyoncé

RENAISSANCE – 2022 – R&B

Black like love too deep
Dance to the soles of my feet
Green eyes envy me
Paint the world pussy pink
Blue like the soul I crowned
Purple drank and couture gowns
Gold fangs, a shade God made
Blue, black, white, and brown
Paint the town red like cinnamon
Yellow diamonds, limoncello glisterin’
Rainbow gelato in the streets

I’ve gone on about how great this album is enough, and the one that really made me get the Beyoncé phenomenon more than any other. This song is honestly just here for the second verse as she works in every colour of the progress flag over this satisfying driving house beat all about feeling comfortable as the way you are and not giving into any societal pressures to try and change that.

I know, at the end of the day, Beyoncé is a very rich person, and as far as intersectionality goes isn’t a perfect ally – but she is an icon for a reason, and the guts to drop this on an album and just have it be the best album of 2022 by any metric that matters is worthy of respect in my eyes.

17: Your Feminism is not my Feminism – Mykki Blanco ft. Ah-Mer-Ah-Su

Stay Close To Music – 2022 – Alternative Hip-Hop

https://mykkiblanco.bandcamp.com/album/stay-close-to-music

Your feminism’s not my feminism
Unless it includes all kinds of women

Back to the feminism point – you’re probably sick to death of this song as I use it all the time. But it really is the perfect intersectional feminism anthem, mournfully singing as trans women of colour that your feminism isn’t theirs if it doesn’t include ALL kinds of women, and that shouldn’t be a hard thing to grasp. So, this chorus melody repeating that point over and over again cannot be overstated.

Women of colour, trans women, disabled women, butch women, queer women, working class women. If your feminism doesn’t include all of these then it’s not our feminism.

18: Rich, White, Straight Men – Kesha

Rich, White, Straight Men – 2019 – Pop

What if rich, white, straight men
Didn’t rule the world anymore?

Oh yes, this Kesha deep cut is a BOP. And this is the song that made me re-evaluate my irrational dislike of Kesha based off of her 2010 hits. I found her original charting hits irritating at the time, but since then she’s just been putting out banger after banger (and even then, those early cuts have grown on me now I’m not a cynical 15-year-old).

Having her shamelessly put out this single with a circus clown beat singing all about all the ways life could and should be better for women, gays, and people of colour if we stopped letting ourselves being ruled by rich, white, straight, men. The intersection with the most societal privilege.

Of course, here in the UK we’ve had our fair share of fascists who weren’t all of those things – although it’s interesting that our first modern non white Prime Minister is also by far the richest Prime Minister we’ve ever had. And looking at Theresa May, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, and a lot of the other horrendous MPs in that party, you don’t have to be a white straight man to be the worst – but removing all of their influence couldn’t hurt, that’s all I’m saying.

19: The Poverty of Philosophy – Immortal Technique

Revolutionary, Vol. 1 – 2001 – Hip-Hop

In fact, I have more in common with most working- and middle-class white people than I do with most rich black and Latino people
As much as racism bleeds America, we need to understand that classism is the real issue.
Many of us are in the same boat and it’s sinking, while these bougie motherfuckers ride on a luxury liner, and as long as we keep fighting over kicking people out of the little boat we’re all in, we’re gonna miss an opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.

This is almost more of a dissertation than a song. Immortal Technique rapping for 6 minutes on the liberation of Latino and Black people, diving deep in the corruption and systemic issues of the US government – the parts of democracy they stole and bastardised from the so called “third world” largely only impoverished at the fault of the states.

And ending on verses about having more in common with poor White men than rich Latinos and Black men, cementing that idea of class solidarity and examining these social issues with intersectionality at the forefront of their minds.

It’s almost impossible to pick just one quote from this song, as it is a nigh perfect takedown of American imperialism and oppression, and the fact that this was released over 20 years ago and is still relevant is as respectable to the artists as it is depressing that hardly anything has changed since then, except maybe for the worse.

Seriously just give it a listen, if this doesn’t inspire you, then I don’t know what will.

20: Second Wave Goodbye – War on Women

War on Women – 2015 – Riot Grrrl

https://waronwomen.bandcamp.com/album/war-on-women

You would do well to remember just how fluid is gender
You’re a relic of the second wave, and we’ve waved goodbye

Possibly the ultimate Punk trans inclusive anthem from (as far as I can tell) cisgender women. War on Women’s self-titled album is a masterful modern Riot Grrrl record – with several of its tracks featuring on these playlists.

This may be my very favourite though. The Rhythmic riffs in that delicious hook “We’re all Women”, the lyric construction and delivery demonstrating confident unambiguous solidarity with trans women, “Second Wave Goodbye” was not the turning point away from the dated second wave of feminism, but it is a benchmark effort for modern feminists distancing themselves from the bigotries and biases some who haven’t progressed past that phase have stuck with. An absolute tune, you’re missing out if you’ve not heard it.

21: WE MARCH (Stronger Together) – Ryan Cassata ft. Hello Noon, Clayton Bryant, Niko Storment, Mya Byrne, Tom Goss, Cameron Overton, Kc Shane, Jessica Manalo, Landon Olague, Samson Winsor, Mateo Briscoe & Xantheartist

Stronger Together! – 2022 – Indie

We’re stronger together than we are apart
We’re raising our voices; we speak from the heart
And we will keep marching ’til freedom is ours

Penultimately, we have this 2022 protest collaboration between trans and queer artists spearheaded by Ryan Cassata.

A superb songwriter, this track takes modern indie internet production and creates a modern take on the timelessness of folk protest songs and is all centred around the idea that we are stronger together than we are apart. Which … yeah, that’s the whole point of this solidarity. If we’re not divided, we have the power to make change, so this felt like a perfect note to draw this playlist to a close.

That’s not to say that we should march hand in hand with people who actively want us dead. The idea of being stronger as a collective, I feel, is in danger of being misconstrued that we shouldn’t be challenging those who perpetuate bigotries, crimes and uphold oppressive regimes against us.

Absolutely not. But as Killdren said right at the beginning … it’s pretty obvious who your actual enemies are, and who are the people who are also victims of the same power that is suppressing you.

Recognizing that and acting in unity against the oppressive force is the power we need to overcome these endless years of neoliberal and far right oppression. And this song inspires that feeling in me at least, and tragically, you’re not also me, so I don’t know what to tell you. Hopefully it will inspire that in you too, but I can’t control that, I can just tell you why I like these songs, and I’ve done that now.

22: Mutual Aid – Faintest Idea

The Voice of Treason – 2012 – Skacore

https://faintestidea.bandcamp.com/album/the-voice-of-treason

We are the many
And they are the few

And finally, the Blizzard Outro music for the last couple of years. Mutual Aid was the song that made me fall in love with Faintest Idea – and became the unofficial theme song for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Manifesto in 2019 (at least to me.) And still makes me mourn the government we could’ve had instead of this absolute shitshow.

Faintest Idea take British Streetpunk and smash it with Third Wave Ska – creating punk that is bouncy, heavy, angry, meaningful, and beautifully arranged. This is one of their softer tracks that focuses more on the ska, but it’s a perfect uplifter to whatever is getting you down socially and politically, uplifting you into a state of solidarity with everyone else in your position, or any of the other intersections we’ve talked about who you stand with, and make you want to rise up together, screaming along with the chorus, boosting morale and inspiring revolution.

We are the many, and they are the few. Together as the many, we won’t let them break us. Know who your enemy is, call out those who are doing the oppressors work for them against other groups, include all kinds of women in your feminism, and punch some Nazis for good measure. That is what Intersectional Solidarity is about, and these songs all illustrate that for me.


That’s the playlist, final one for the year! I got this one up late, so you’ve missed the live show it was at now but have a look at our upcoming shows here anyway: https://www.outsavvy.com/organiser/blizzard-comedy

And Follow us on Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy and @BlizzardComedyChannel on YouTube to see our past, present and future Live streams. And check back here in about a month for our playlist of the Best Revolutionary music of 2023.