Jord Samoleski of Propagandhi on parecon, veganism and the politics of punk rock

international | arts and media | feature

Thursday January 25, 2007 13:03

by w.

improvemyself at hotmail dot com

December 2006 Interview

The Handsome Jord

Canadian political-punk band Propagandhi played Dublin for the first time in five years on the 12th of December to a youthful and energetic crowd at the Temple Bar Music Centre. The band, known for the heavy political content of their albums and live shows, are touring to promote their latest album “Potemkin City Limits” their first release in over five years. After their show I talked with drummer Jord Samoleski about his life in politics and music.

Propagandhi have been quite busy in Winnipeg during their down time between albums with some band members helping to run their “G7 welcoming committee” record label and others involved in social justice work. Propagandhi are somewhat unique as punk-rockstars as they practice what they preach. All band members are vegans, in line with the band's strong stance on animal rights, and many are involved in radical social movements which they promote through their music.

Jord tells how he is involved in a Canada-Haiti action network to expose the role the Canadian government is playing propping up the Haitian regime, “Canada are currying favour with the bush administration by participating in a coup d’etat and breaking international laws…Quebec hydro is down there [in Haiti] securing deals”. Their last two albums have been accompanied by a wealth of information on veganism, Parecon, Chomsky and Cointelpro and their live sets have been known to include lengthy anti-capitalist diatribes.

The band’s record label “G7 Welcoming Committee” is run on a Parecon (participatory economics) system with workers having a democratic say in decisions and sharing profits equally. “Participatory economics and democracy is something I think this world seriously needs to consider and improve on” Jord says before going on to criticise Fat Wreck Chords, the label which released their first three albums; “It allows you to be critical of enterprises which are run top-down in a more dictatorial way…that form of social organisation is more fascist than it is democratic” . G7 have some serious releases behind them having published Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Anne Hanson as well as releasing records by The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Clann Zu and The Weakerthans.

The band’s latest album marks a break with their former record label “Fat Wreck Chords”, who have released all of their work since 1992. Jord explained how the break is the result of their former label’s shift towards the corporate world: “It is mind boggling all the bands that inspired us to be a political band from day one were anti-capitalist to the core…I think the whole anti-globalisation movement was picking up so much speed…and then these bands are literally aligning themselves with mastercard, dodge trucks and video games. The whole thing turned from being in your face and challenging…I found it soul-destroying to watch it all unfold”.

During the last US election Propagandhi infamously refused to contribute to a music compilation called “Rock against Bush”, which was an effort by the owner of Fat Wreck Chords to get youths to back the Democrats under the banner of “Punk Voter”. Propagandhi came in for strong criticism for refusing to back one party over the other but Jord explained their decision; “The imperialist history that both of those parties have…The punk-voter campaign over-emphasised voting and under-emphasised belonging to grassroots organisations and keeping the heat on these people between elections” . Jord goes on to explain how Propagandhi believed a more grassroots or libertarian form of politics which agitiated for change from the bottom up. This fundamental difference, Jord explains while laughing to himself, means he doesn’t think they’ll ever release another record with their old label.

Jord is certainly unique for a punk he is articulate and polite with a great knowledge of politics. For a vegan he appears to be quite well fed and muscular, not at all emciated as one might imagine vegans to be. He explains how the bands attraction to the animal rights movement is more than a health or ethical issue; “There’s huge ecological issues…which might be the prime issue for this century, I think veganism is a substantive alternative to a meat-based diet or economy, it’s just so wasteful”. When pushed on the issue Jord jovially concedes that a vegan diet is not for everyone: “I’m not going to rag on some latin american farmer for keeping chickens”.

When not busy recording or touring Jord does support work with refugees in Canada alongside a group called “No-one is illegal”. He explains in detail the cases he has dealt with of people being deported to Pakistan and elsewhere and his own frustration with the lack of coverage of such issues in the Canadian media. He also works with people who have been institutionalised and are being re-introduced back into the community, not typical work for a member of a million-selling rock band but easy to reconcile with his gentle demeanor.

Jord is eager not to repeat the five year gap between albums, especially so as they have added a new guitarist who he is excited about. “With the new guitar player, it’s going to add a new dynamic and we’re all very excited about that” . Jord seems positive for the future of the band and it’s political message “If we can just influence a few people to get involved in projects…then we consider ourselves an extension of the older punk rock scene, when we were kids getting into this we weren’t instant political activists” .