Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.06.2005, Side 15

racist, pro-Bush, pro-war, pro-
whale-killing bullshit. You know,
don’t just tune them out as being
stupid or unreachable, sit down and
talk to them. And communicate
rather than argue.
I found the best argument that’ll
convince rabid Bush supporters
that the war is wrong is to point
out what a bad military strategy it
is. The more we blow up and kill
people in the Middle East, the more
we create future Osama bin Ladens,
future suicide bombers, you know,
that makes our own country less and
less safe. And then they go, “Yeah,
that is a good point.” [Laughs] But
people are not going to receive that
information watching crap on Fox
News, Sky TV or CNN, which is a
lot more biased than a lot of people
realize. We have to tell people
ourselves.
I’m not saying going one-on-
one is the most effective way to
create change, I’m saying it’s one of
them. I don’t know what the most
effective tactic is because it changes
with the issue. You know, Judy
Berry of [environmentalist activist
group] EarthFirst! pointed out that
sometimes you have to find a way
to stop production. In their case
they were fighting to keep the old
growth redwoods, you know, the
oldest, largest trees in the history
of the world from being cut down
and being made into firewood
and picnic tables. They knew that
marches and demonstrations and
boycotting corporations only go so
far so they had to stop the logging,
so that’s where the sabotage of
trucks and lying down in the road
and things like that came from. A
common assumption is that they
were all spiking trees so that a saw
would fly into a logger’s face and
hurt them but that stopped very early
on. It was meant to be a non-violent
movement.
Do you think you’ll ever come back to
Iceland?
I’d like to some time, sure. I enjoyed
Iceland very much. It’s such a
different place from anywhere
else I’ve been in the world. You
definitely get the feeling that you’re
living on an isolated island after
a while and that would drive me
crazy but I would definitely love to
come back and explore some more
of it for sure. And I’d like to say
hello to my friends [former bass
player from Kukl] Gummi and
Gulli. Gummi’s now a scientist who
showed me a project he was working
on to use crystals to try and harness
geothermal energy, which Iceland
has a lot of, which you can use to
heat homes and create electricity,
instead of having to buy electricity
from corporations.
Does it work?
I don’t know, but I’d love to find
out. I haven’t heard from him in a
long time.
OK, well, thank you for your time. Is
there anything you’d like to add?
Oh yeah, hi to Kiddi, the guy who
put my show on, too. [Laughs]
Jello Biafra plans on touring
Europe this summer with the classic
experimental metal band The
Melvins, to support their album Never
Breathe What You Can’t See. For
more information on Biafra or the
Alternative Tentacles label, check out
www.alternativetentacles.com.
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Open 12 - 22
Laugavegur 11
see centerfold for location
myth. They didn’t start talking about
red states versus blue states until
about three years ago. And a lot of
other research shows that that’s all a
lot of bullshit, that a majority of the
people in both kinds of states favour
a woman having a right to have an
abortion, they want corporations
to be forced to obey the law, they
want to be paid properly, they want
to have health care like Europeans
do, and half of them even think
that the environment is a greater
consideration than the economy or
jobs. That’s the kind of thing you
don’t hear.
Another big myth is that it was
so-called “moral values” that decided
the election. But it turned out the
moral values myth came from a poll
taken of only seven thousand people
where only 22% said moral values
were the most important thing in the
election. And 20% said the Middle
East and 19% said terrorism or
something, the Iraq War was one of
those two, too. Iraq and terrorism
were the two. Where if you added
those two together that would be
39% and a much bigger concern, but
they made the questions different so
they could split it up.
Would you ever tour any of the so-
called red states, like Alabama for
example?
I’ve toured all over the south and
would do it again.
Do you think it’s realistic to vote third
party these days?
I voted third party in the last
elections and I’ll do it in the next
one. As long as people continue
voting for the Republicrats, no real
change is ever going to happen. You
know, after the election in 2000, a
lot of people on the left were saying
Nader had cost Gore the election.
Gore cost Gore the election. If the
Republicrats can’t give the people
what they want, they’re going to look
elsewhere.
A person’s political views often change
as they get older. Has there been any
change in your outlook over the past
ten to twenty years?
Well, definitely when it comes to
voting. There was a period of time
there when I didn’t believe in voting
at all. But after talking to Frank
Zappa about creating change on a
local level I changed my mind about
that; I mean, there are many political
positions on a local level that you can
run for, sometimes even unopposed.
You can create change on the local
level and work your way up.
Do you see yourself running for office
again? If you did, who would your
competition be?
When I was nominated by the New
York Green Party as their candidate
for president [in 2000] it took me
completely by surprise.
But you did run for mayor of San
Francisco [in 1979].
Well, that was more of a prank, and
a pretty effective one, too. [Laughs]
No, I don’t know if I’ll run for
office again, so I can’t say who my
competition would be.
What is the most effective action people
can take to change the status quo?
What is the biggest mistake they make?
I think the biggest mistake people
make is believing that there’s
nothing one person can do. There’s
nothing they can do, therefore,
why bother? You know, just try to
survive, pay the rent and feed your
family. But there are things even
someone who is struggling to pay
their bills and raise their children can
do. Not everyone can be an activist
full time or even part time and I
respect that, but one of the things
you can do, if you want to, is make
a little vow with yourself: “I’m not
cooperating with corporations or
their agenda anymore. They can’t
have me.”
Starting with, they can’t have my
money anymore. No more money
to chain stores, no more money to
chain restaurants. And even in the
independent stores, start thinking
about how many products you
buy are made by global corporate
predators and start buying something
else. I mean, American beer tastes
like shit anyway. What are people in
Iceland doing drinking Budweiser
for? You know, why buy crap like
Miller or McDonald’s when you
can buy something else? Icelanders
are in a much better position than
in the United States as far as not
having as many corporate chains and
multinational corporations running
everything. At least as far as I can
tell. That’s something to hang onto.
Is Iceland in the EU?
No, it’s not. It’s in the European
Economic Community.
Ah ha. You know, don’t
automatically buy the EEC policy
or the EU concept that you need
to make your economy more like
America’s and run your health
care system for the profit of a
few gangsters instead of making
people well. The American model
is not always the best. We’re a very
unhappy country where a lot of
people aren’t allowed to see a doctor
and a lot of people get shot to death
all the time. So, we don’t always do
things best.
So don’t give them your money,
another great one to boycott is
cigarettes, you know, because all the
tobacco companies are just hell bent
on sucking up the world, financing
horrible right wing politicians like
Jesse Helms, people like that. He
was put there by tobacco companies.
Look at all the other damage he did.
Yeah, I was a teenager during the
Reagan years.
Yeah, but Helms was around a lot
later than that. [Laughs] Plus, if
you boycott cigarettes your breath
won’t smell so bad during sex. I
mean there’s all these benefits, too.
You support the independent music
stores, there’s better music in these
stores, probably a lot more Icelandic
music in these stores. And you can
support the local bookstores instead
of the chains. The clerk may even
know how to read and care about
literature. You support the local
independent market. You might be
able to buy Icelandic locally grown
and organically grown food instead
of genetically modified Frankenfood
that doesn’t even say what it is on
the package.
And as hard as it is to find
meaningful work that will pay
the bills, try not to work for
them [corporations] either. But
if you must work for one of them
remember that the digital age has
opened up a whole new frontier
of sabotage on the job. You know,
a prank a day keeps the dog leash
away.
And another one I always tell
people is don’t hate the media,
become the media. You know,
participating in and supporting the
underground independent zines,
sharing information on the net, and
try to make sure it’s true before you
send it out. But also becoming the
media means going one-on-one with
people you know at home, work,
school, family, if they’re spouting