Below is a series of common questions we’ve received in the past, and especially since re-launching in 2024. We hope they will help guide you on your journey towards (hopefully!) joining our movement.
Before diving in, we highly encourage you to read the statement we published in July 2011 (“It’s Bigger Than Jello”) when Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine cancelled their planned gig in Tel Aviv after major international pressure (which we helped to coordinate along with PACBI and other groups). This will not only help you to understand the historical juncture that gave birth to PAA in the first place, but will give you a taste of our vision for the network at its founding.
Despite changes & lessons since, much of that vision continues to serve as our horizon as we move into a new era of PAA, so it is a useful starting point for anyone thinking about joining us.
And now, on to the FAQ!
Who can sign up to join Punks Against Apartheid?
Our network is open to any artists or organisation which feels aligned with our Points of Unity & overall mission. You can be a solo artist or a huge collective or anything in between.
In addition, we have always been open to membership from groups that are more politically-focused, or even ones not necessarily in the ‘artistic’ field, but which organise around cultural BDS or Palestine more generally. That means everything from workers’ co-ops to indymedia outlets to student groups and more!
The only exceptions are individuals with no political, artistic, or other affiliation at this point in time. While we want as many people as possible to join the network, signing our Points of Unity is not quite like signing a petition–we are looking for folks who have a ‘public persona’ (even if that means just in your small local area!), because the purpose of BDS is to apply as much coordinated pressure as possible, which ‘named’, public individuals are better poised to do than ‘civilians’.
If you still want to support and you’re not an artist, group, or collective of any kind–drop us a line anyway, and let’s chat about what signing up or simply supporting looks like for you!
But what if I/we don’t fit the ‘punk’ label?
What we will say is–when in doubt, sign up anyway! More than ever, we need all hands on deck in this critical time to support the Palestinian liberation struggle with every ounce of strength we can muster. So this is no time to get precious about ‘genre’ and the endless, circuitous debates that that usually entails.
We have historically been quite broad with our understanding of ‘punk’ anyway, and at our peak, we even had a few folk and ska crews alongside all of the stereotypical punk/Oi/grindcore/etc. die-hards!
So whether you are now or were previously a punkie something-or-other, or whether you simply feel aligned with the ‘spirit’ of grassroots, DIY, radical autonomous cultural production, or even just aspire to move that way with your art & your work…we want you on board!
The important thing is for all of us to get creative, get surreal, and get organising for Palestine! Liberation can’t wait for accomplices!!
What happens when I/we sign up to PAA?
If you have provided us with all the correct contact info, we refer your application to our New Members Approval group, where we check to make sure our values are aligned. Once approved, we will send you an e-mail/message to invite you to link up with us on Signal. We are really keen to have representatives from each group on the chat with us–even if you’re only available occasionally!–so we can check in about campaigns & share our different regional organising needs.
We will then give you access to our logos, zine, and poster files for you to begin printing & using locally, and offer you the opportunity to join one of our many sub-committees/affinity groups. We will also encourage you to attend at least one bi-monthly Global Call with bands around the world to introduce yourself to the network.
We will then announce you publicly on our social media accounts based on the short statement you provided on your form (see examples here). From there, we ask that you help boost & re-share content about our activities and those of fellow signatories wherever possible, as well as to put your PAA-affiliation out there publicly so folks can learn more about us & sign up to join too.
Is that it? What is expected of us once I/we’re all set up?
This is where the real fun begins. We have always been a decentralised, member-driven network, which means that our organising has always adapted to the needs & desires of our signatories–meaning that you get to help democratically determine what our organising priorities are at any given time along with the global network.
At its most minimal, membership of course entails an expectation of fulfilling the 6 Points of Unity in your work as well as the standard social media PR stuff mentioned above. However, we are a proactive organising network as well, which has historically meant stuff like:
- Supporting larger campaigns against BDS-violating artists and music festivals by signing on to existing petitions or drafting our own (see historical examples)
- Organising events/shows to raise awareness about Palestine & BDS, raise money for Palestinian organisations/families in need, and encourage more artists to join the network & refuse to cross the international ‘picket line’ (see historical examples)
- Taking part in local & international Palestine solidarity campaigns wherever we can, in the form of solidarity statements, endorsements, marches, demonstrations, direct actions, and more (see historical examples)
- Creating original artistic works & benefit albums to support all of the above (like U.T.B.O.A.Z.N.!)
- Actively forging alliances with other anti-racist/anti-colonial/queer/trans/feminist/etc. liberation movements and using our platform to mutually support each others’ work (see historical examples)
This last item is a point of pride for us. While Palestine is our network’s ‘North Star’, we have always practised a radically intersectional ethos at PAA, wherein solidarity with other movements has been just as important as our own work. We have therefore gone out of our way to be responsive to alliances with other groups like De-Militarize Brooklyn Navy Yard in NYC, (historically) the Black & Brown Punk Show in Chicago, Decolonise Fest in the UK, Engineers Against Apartheid in Detroit/Japan, and more.
We don’t plan on stopping that cross-movement organising anytime soon, and welcome any support from our signatories in creating these meaningful opportunities to advance radical objectives. Some of our most powerful collaborations came from members themselves who have worn multiple ‘hats’ as artists & organisers throughout their lives. So if that kind of wondrous heretical mix & matching sounds like your cup of tea, well…what are you waiting for? Sign up already!!
How can this work be sustainable? All the merch stuff sounds expensive.
That’s a great question. Fundamentally, PAA is not focussed on profit-making as a primary objective, and does not have paid ‘staff’. But we do aim to be self-sustaining, and in this sense we have an internal, redistributive ‘Fighting Fund’ taken transparently from a small % of sales to help members overcome financial obstacles to their organising, and support them in the case of a strike.
We take inspiration from groups like ABC No Rio in the US & the Piehouse Co-Op & How to Catch A Pig in the UK, who have been part of a larger movement to help artists to not only boycott and withdraw their labour from mainstream capitalist music production, but to truly foster a parallel cooperative ‘solidarity economy’ of independent artists who get to live their principles and get paid for their work without having to compromise either. We aspire to contribute to that beautiful, brash, visionary DIY ‘undercommons’ that resistance music tends to gravitate towards out of necessity some day too.
Ultimately, whatever we end up doing, you can rest assured that it will be discussed & voted on by the signatory members themselves. That consensus-based, rank-and-file, revolutionary-democratic mentality is the life-blood of our network and the heart of our understanding of solidarity. So if that sustainable future ever plays out for us, it will only ever be because of thoughtful folks like YOU reading this now who have made the effort to build those structures by signing up and figuring it out together.
If you have any other questions, concerns, or proposals, please drop us an e-mail or contact us on any of our social media pages and we’ll do our best to answer promptly.
In the meantime, if it feels right, bring the Points of Unity back to your band/collective/Politburo, have a chat…and come back and freaking sign up already!!!