Rock's axis of activism

Audioslave's Tom Morello and System of a Down's Serj Tankian on Bush's war plans, the corporate media after 9/11 and how their Axis of Justice can reach America's alienated youth.

By Maria Armoudian

Feb 6, 2003 | Tom Morello is unapologetic for his "left of Ralph Nader" politics. At first, with agitprop rockers Rage Against the Machine, and more recently with his new band Audioslave, the guitarist has used music as a conduit for social and political commitment. "That was the mission statement from day one," he says. "I had to find a way to work my convictions into my life's work."

After the World Trade Center attack, Morello wanted to promote a peaceful alternative to what he considered the vengeful, militaristic rhetoric of politicians. Responding in particular to George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech, Morello -- once a scheduling secretary for former Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) -- developed the Axis of Justice, a traveling "freedom school" that would accompany Rage Against the Machine as it headlined the Ozzfest tour. It was an ambitious idea written into the band's contract: Big screens would feature the work of filmmaker Michael Moore; a gigantic, eye-catching display would house 10 nonprofit organizations; and there would be an on-site counselor to assist victims of violence. There was one glitch, though. Rage Against the Machine broke up, and the Axis of Justice was left with no contract and no champion.

Morello enlisted the support of Serj Tankian, lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling nu metal band System of a Down, who were also slated for Ozzfest. Tankian, a well-read and articulate rocker himself, wanted to help save the installation from oblivion, partly to rescue an exhibit about the Armenian genocide, the relatively little-known massacre of approximately 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish forces in 1915. (Tankian is of Armenian heritage by way of Southern California.)

Tankian did in fact revive a bare-bones version of the Axis of Justice. Although the giant display was reduced to a card table, shoved to the back of the music fest and pared down to four or five nonprofit organizations -- when they showed up at all -- the advocates insist that the tour has made an important impact.

"That [diminished display] doesn't really matter," maintains Tankian. "Because as far as I'm concerned, if you have the truth on your side, you don't need huge video screens and whatever to get your point across. Each of the organizations is reporting a lot of sign-ups, people are joining on, subscribing and reading their information and passing around their stickers. It's very positive."

"This is just the beginning," says Morello. Axis of Justice is now a nonprofit organization, he adds, with Morello, Tankian and Rage staffer Jake Sexton as directors. The idea is to attach it to rock shows all over the world, to introduce the idea of a personalized Axis of Justice to other bands and to eventually produce Axis of Justice benefit CDs.

Now that Ozzfest is over, what is the plan for the Axis of Justice?

Tom Morello: We hope to provide more progressive-minded bands with a warehouse of information and ideas and to facilitate ways for them to have an Axis installation at their own shows. Say, for a band in Amarillo, Texas, or Birmingham, Ala., we will help to bridge them to organizations and information for their own issues. If you're in Peoria, Ill., it's not that easy to generate enthusiasm or energy about the plight of the Zapatistas, but there may be a strike at the McDonald's there where the high school kids work. Or maybe the local Wal-Mart is not allowing stickered albums. It's a way for young people to organize. Then, when they get some victories under their belt, all of a sudden they have their hand on the wheel.

You've been politically active supporting progressive causes for a long time. Was the axis of evil speech the inception of this particular organization?

The inception was a year before at Ozzfest in San Bernardino [Calif.]. I was shocked and horrified at the number of people with white-power tattoos [who felt] comfortable with their Nazi and Klan shit. I couldn't believe it. As someone who played in a hard-rock band for a long time, I thought, this is my music too. So the idea germinated there. At this year's Ozzfest, the majority of bands on the main stage are multiethnic. With Rage, we had done [political action] more haphazardly, sort of throwing a dart against the activist wall to see what I could get in, say, Pennsylvania. Now, we're looking to create a well-structured, organized opportunity for kids who go to concerts to really plug in, get information, become active and get help. I called Serj initially, when we were going to be sharing the main stage. [He and System of a Down] were pretty thrilled to be a part of it and had some good ideas.

So you formalized it after 9/11?

Yes, that's where it got its name. Bush was describing the negative impact that the "axis of evil" would have on society, and I thought that could apply to the "axis of profit," particularly now with the unparalleled corporate crime.

So, what wisdom do you have now, more than a year later, about 9/11?

The true lesson of 9/11, which has been obfuscated by war-makers, is that it humanized international violence. And by reading the obituaries, seeing the stories of loved ones left behind and the transcriptions of the last cellphone calls of people who died and people who experience the loss, [people realized] that it was us -- you and me. You felt it and sympathized and empathized in a way that you don't when it was Norman Schwarzkopf pointing at a map. Often the victims of international violence are at the hands of our tax dollars -- yours and mine. There are grieving families there and lives that are shattered. The lesson is that the taking of innocent lives is always devastating to society. The idea is to stop the international cycle of violence, and to look with the same humanism on people beyond our borders who suffer the same things.

Next Page: "Many artists use their audience's trust to sell cars. We try to parlay it into political change"

• View blog reactions