Every morning, I wake up to a new statement about divesting. In almost all cases, the said divestment is a performative gesture which never materialises into any substantive action which the Palestinians ask of us. Music and dance have recently resurfaced as modes of self expression and liberation. Simultaneously, however, we have seen the mediums being contaminated by greed and violence, all while promptly repackaged as a site of healing and consumption.
The most recent statement which I read was from our once beloved Boiler Room on Tuesday. It came in the midst of a widespread boycott sparked by their new acquisition by Superstruct Entertainment—owned by private equity firm KKR, which has direct ties to Israeli weapons manufacturing. In response, Boiler Room had a few things to ‘clarify’ about their corporation and whatever the f*ck their corporate social responsibility is. Instant flashbacks to when HÖR was on the boycott list and gave us a ‘statement’ to fast-track their redemption arc.
Before I share my thoughts on statements, I want to amplify Ravers for Palestine, a collective which, since day zero, has held music spaces, DJs, collectives and labels worldwide accountable for their complicity in the ongoing genocide.
I have a few points I would like to highlight from Boiler Room’s vapid statement, which tl;dr is smoke and mirrors.
- Due to their initial acquisition in 2021, their employees at ‘any level’ do not have any administrative rights which can influence the ownership of their company. What that means is Boiler Room’s logo is basically a false identity marker which is being used by very bad companies who do very bad things; especially in Palestine.
- In the statement they very clearly mention ‘we are unable to divest because we have no say in our ownership.’ But as people we still have the option, or dare I say the duty to keep boycotting. If the original founders and builders of Boiler Room have left the table, then so should we.
- Boiler Room’s deceptive co-opting of ‘underground’ and ‘alternative’ music movements has furthered the extreme commodification of music at a time when musicians across the globe are mobilising to unseat corporations from having rights of any kind to their works and not being paid fairly for it. Not only are systems like these quite literally stealing from musicians, but they are also ‘divesting’ those funds into enabling a genocide.
So, what does that statement mean? It is a very classic trick of corporate deception. And in a timely manner, I read that statement right after I had just finished watching Severance, a show about late-stage capitalism coalescing with our personhood. Throughout the show, we see a similar tactic to what the likes of Boiler Room and HÖR try to deploy: make statements and get the neo-libs cheering, do not even attempt at making any institutional changes, say things like ‘the board truly listens’ and then hope our already overwhelmed selves simply forget. Nothing changes with statements or acts of vain performance, which, sadly, some of us still see as ‘progress.’ In reality, these statements are not manifesting from a place of genuine concern or care, but they are simply reactionary measures aimed at keeping their shareholders values unaffected.
Following BR’s letter, was a statement by Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel dubiously commending Boiler Room for ‘distancing’ itself from KKR. “All festivals and companies owned by Superstruct Entertainment are clearly implicated in parent company KKR’s complicity in Israel’s genocide and underlying regime of settler-colonial apartheid, albeit through no fault of their own,” the organisation stated. “Regardless they therefore have an undeniable and profound ethical obligation to urgently take a clear stance against that complicity.”
There is a very surprising cognitive dissonance with PACBI’s stance. Absolving BR on the grounds that they do not align themselves with KKR or Superstruct and recognise that by proxy are directly supporting the genocide, but have no choice, does not halt the flow of capital to either entities, no matter how much Palestinian merch they make. Similarly, by offering a hollow co-sign, in many ways, PACBI is, itself undermining the BDS movement’s core commitment to divesting from all investments to and with Israel, especially and above all, economic activity.
When we realize what makes such platforms powerful is us; people, listeners, and makers, we can redirect our attention to more grassroots organizations and communities which prioritize people over profits. An example would be the UK based three wheel drive collective, a non-profit gathering of sorts, centering local talent, championing transparency and a DIY ethos around music and festivals. Broadcasting from Bethlehem, Radio Al-Hara is another such beacon of sonic dissemination which serves as an active network for revolutionary solidarity since 2020.
I ask us all this question: How many statements till we see an end in complicity to a genocide which only gets worse every passing second? How many empty words before we realize at the heart of BDS is an anti-capitalism sentiment too? To paraphrase Arundhati Roy: Statements are a piece of political theatre which requires an audience to hold any ground. Let us not become an audience which is severed from our consciousness and humanity.
Corporate greed is the seed that blossoms colonisation. So I ask us all, do we keep reading these statements and pat ourselves on our backs for nothing or actually simply boycott the system, stop being the cogs in their greed driven wheels and redirect our prized attention towards spaces and people who earnestly support musicians.
