We’re dead impressed with this simple yet effective promo released by the Petrol Girls this morning vocalist Ren released this statement along with the video a few hours ago:
Cut the shapes, out of the flag, swap them, switch them, patch and stitch them, hoist that raaaaaaag.
GOOD MORNING! Here’s our fabulous new video for NO LOVE FOR A NATION – a beeeeautiful collaboration of Gingerdope’s incredible video making talents, and an art project I’ve been doing for some time, cutting and stitching national flags.
We shot this video on the way from Austria to the UK for our September tour, via Germany and France. The live footage is from LOUD WOMENFEST <3. We got a bit of funding from PRS, and, whilst we were limited in the ways we could spend
it, we wanted to find a way to feed some of it back into the politics that this song advocates and the community that we’re part of. Zock had the idea of hiring radical spaces to shoot the video in. DIY social centres and a radical bookshop – these are places in which radical organising takes place,
where information can be disseminated and our community can gather. We filmed at SUB in Graz, Kafe Marat in Munich, Villa Belleville in Paris and Freedom Ⓐ bookshop & publishing in London. Thanks to all of those spaces and to everyone who took part in this project so last minute!
It was in these kind of spaces that I first encountered the slogan ‘NO LOVE FOR A NATION’ in the form of stickers, banners and graffiti, and it has informed my politics ever since. I’ve found that many people are quick to make accusations of naivety against those of us that question the nation state, but I would argue that its far more naive (not to mention heartless) to think we can continue organising human society in the way that we do. Nations create borders and borders create violences like detention, deportation and the denial of safe passage. It is a bizarre and often cruel way of organising societies on the basis of where people happen to have been born. It is those on the edge of this way of defining ourselves that suffer its harshest consequences – refugees,
migrants and asylum seekers. It is not acceptable that 18,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since 2014, because they were denied safe passage on the basis of their nationality.
Simultaneously, populist nationalism takes aim at these people, and uses them as a scapegoat for the failings of capitalism and neoliberalism. If history has taught us anything, it’s that we must resist the rise of populist nationalism that is sweeping the planet.
We stand in opposition to Fortress Europe but mourn Brexit as the result of populist nationalist politics and a xenophobic, dishonest and at times overtly racist campaign. We are not proud of Britain – we are embarrassed. Above all we are angered by the rise in racism and xenophobia since the Brexit result. We are deeply troubled and angered by the way in which populist nationalism has emboldened racists and fascists across the world. Populist nationalism is the weaponisation of the Nation State. Obviously the Nation State has material outcomes, manifested in reality as physical borders, passports, governments and armies. But at its core, the Nation State is just an idea – a notion – something that exists in our collective imagination and is consolidated through culture – through monuments and museums, through
football and flags.
This song, video and art project aims to question, and contribute to destabilising the idea of nations. Can we collectively imagine ourselves in a different way? The nation rose from the decline of the monarchy – what will rise from the decline of nations? Can’t we find better and more inclusive
ways of collectively understanding ourselves?
ALSO -UK people, whilst you’re here – GO REGISTER TO VOTE – TORIES OUT TORIES OUT TORIES OUT!!!!!
We’re off on tour with Refused and Thrice this Sunday! full dates for that and our UK tour over at www.petrolgirls.com
PLUS, we’ve been announced for SXSW and New Colossus in the US next spring!
https://www.sxsw.com/…/first-wave-music-festival-showcasi…/
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/nycs-new-colossus-back-for-2n…/
(Ren)
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