In the past week Representative Peter King and “60 Minutes” have compared U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning to Aaron Alexis, the Washington Navy Yard shooter who killed twelve people, and presented Manning as a disloyal American. This makes Ted Hearne’s composition inspired by Chelsea Manning exceptionally relevant to the moment.

The last British prisoner in the infamous U.S. military prison, Guantanamo Bay, was finally released on October 30. Shaker Aamer was flown to the United Kingdom and rejoined his family, which he had been separated from since he was captured by U.S. forces around fourteen years ago. Upon arrival, he

Somewhere around forty or more Palestinians have been killed since October 1. While there have been instances where Palestinians were armed and engaged in attacks, many of these deaths have been a result of execution-style shootings by Israeli forces. And, at the same time, at least seven Israelis have been

The global refugee crisis in Europe persists, as over a million of the most vulnerable people seek resettlement in countries which can support them with humanitarian aid. Yet, some of the most wealthy countries in the world have failed to appropriately respond to this desperate moment. Amnesty International estimates only

In the protest anthem, “Freeway,” singer-songwriter David Rosane sings, “Sorry for the inconvenience. We’re just trying to change the world.” It is premised around an apology-but-not-an-apology to those upset they cannot get anywhere in their vehicles because people are clogging the streets while protesting. Also, grassroots struggles are on a

Indigenous singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie sings, “And me I watched it grow: corporate greed & a lust for gold & coal & oil and, hey, now uranium.”

In the days of slavery and Jim Crow, there was a type of work song commonly sung by black Americans known as the hammer song. Blues singer Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, popularized this particular tune. The work song is constructed in the following form—a line repeated three times for a

The Canadian government is investigating whether a scientist violated the public service’s “ethics code” when he wrote and performed a protest song against Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As reported last week by the Toronto Star, Tony Turner was put on leave with pay. Turner is a longtime employee, who has

For this week’s protest song, Alec Hall submitted a piece created as a comment on the criminalization of black bodies in the United States and how black life is often erased from American culture and society. The 11-minute string quartet composition, “28 Hours,” is the first reader-submitted protest song featured here at Shadowproof.

J.B. Lenoir’s “Alabama Blues” is a rather well-known blues protest song. It stands out because, by the 1960s, it was increasingly rare for blues musicians to sing about poverty, despair, and social injustice. And, fifty years since the tune was recorded under the supervision of Chicago blues master Willie Dixon, its lyrics still carry a deep resonance.