"Blacklisted" musicians to be helped to defend their rights
A campaign "Rock Solidarity" has started in Minsk. Its aim is to support independent rock-musicians.
The program's coordinators, together with the forbidden rock-musicians and the fans of Belarusian music will try to solve the problem of black lists by joint forces.
"Rock Solidarity" coordinators announced the campaign’s start by handing out more than 1 000 CDs "Songs of Freedom-2" in Minsk. Some musicians presented in the music collection are prohibited now.
"We handed out the CDS and told the people that such campaign had started, that we wanted to help the musicians to defend their rights, – says the campaign's coordinator Ales Lukashevich. - There's a sticker on each CD which tells where and how one can find more information about the campaign. Even now, we see that more and more people join out groups on Facebook and vkontakte.ru social network".
Thus, handing out the CDs was an action to mark just one stage of the "Rock Solidarity" campaign. According to Ales Lukashevich, they plan to establish contacts with the prohibited musicians and show them that they are not alone. Apart from that, they want to convey the information about existence of the "black lists" and the musicians who are not allowed to perform, to the broader circles of the society. And, of course, they want to solve this problem together with the officials.
Now the organizers negotiate, first of all, with the "dinosaurs" of the Belarusian rock music - Lyavon Volski, Alyaksandr Kullinkovich, Zmitser Vaitsiushkevich, Aleh Khamenka and Ihar Varashkevich. After that, they are going to work with other musicians who got "blacklisted".
"We plan to meet with the musicians this week and to talk seriously to them. What do they want? What is their vision of all that? Do they need this kind of support? As it is not right to launch a campaign of solidarity with the prohibited musicians without their participation".
Let us remind you, a series of Belarusian bands have been quietly forbidden and they are not allowed to perform in public now. The concerts have been cancelled one after another due to different reasons, and the musicians tried to find the way out of the situation by themselves. Some of them give concerts abroad, others started working on new albums or organize concerts secretly, some just sit and wait.
The further development of the events depends on all the participants of the campaign. Besides, the organizers urge everyone to join it, but stress that there will be no pickets of forbidden actions.
"Everything is up to people, it is important what they want to do, what they want to participate in. Everyone can share his idea and we all will try to realize it. We are going to establish safe and active communication with all participants of the program".
More information about "Rock Solidarity" is available in the social networks: Facebook and Vkontakte.ru.
