TOM MORELLO Gives Passionate Speech at NYC Anti-ICE Rally.
On Tuesday (May 12th), Tom Morello attended the “Hands Off NYC” protest against ICE. Giving a speech to the crowd, he said in part:
“I’m Tom Morello and f*ck you. It is great, brothers and sisters. It is great to be back in the city of my birth. My mother and I lived at 142nd in Riverside a long time ago, and brothers and sisters, if I’ve learned one thing in all my years since then: It’s that if it looks like fascism, sounds like fascism, acts like fascism, dresses like fascism, talks like fascism, kills like fascism, and lies like fascism, brothers and sisters, it’s f*cking fascism.
“It’s here, it’s now, it’s in LA, it’s in Chicago, it’s in Minneapolis, it’s in big cities and small towns, and it’s right here in your city. These Gestapo tactics have been employed ruthlessly right here in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, whose inscription clearly: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.’ That’s the promise.
“Here’s the reality. Today, those huddled masses yearning to be free are hunted, hounded, disappeared, beaten, and dead in custody under mysterious circumstances. This betrayal of humanity, this betrayal of compassion, this craven betrayal of justice must be resisted, protested, defended against, stood up to, exposed, ousted, overthrown, and driven out by you and by me. That’s right!
“A close family friend was recently kidnapped by ICE. A grandmother, a law-abiding, hardworking grandmother. Coming home one night from the grocery store, was jumped by masked gunmen — government thugs — thrown into an unmarked van and deported without a hint of due process.
“Trump claims that immigrants are criminals and rapists. Well, this immigrant grandma never murdered 180 schoolgirls in Iran by bombing them to pieces, and this immigrant grandma never sexually assaulted underage kids with Trump’s ruling class buddies on Epstein Island. That’s right.
“You wanna arrest murderers and rapists? You need look no further than the damn White House. That’s right!
“Oh, and if you really wanna make America great again, here’s an idea: Stop deporting grandmothers and gardeners and field workers and schoolkids, and start deporting f*cking racists. That’s right.
“Because in its 250th year, our country’s original sin is being revisited. The Trump regime is demanding liberty for themselves while inflicting white supremacy on the rest of us. But there is hope, my friends. There is hope because there is strength and courage and love and the unquenchable thirst for justice in the hearts of millions of Americans.
“Hands Off New York, for example, is an inspiration and template for action. They have courageously stood up against ICE and this terrible rising tide of state terror, demonstrating that together we must stand up for our neighbors and for ourselves, for democracy and for justice, because ain’t nobody comin’ to save us except us.
“And brothers and sisters, it is now or never. That is why right now, every act of art is an act of resistance. Right now, every truth spoken is a beacon of light in the gathering darkness. And right now, let every freedom song sung be a trumpet of hope to the heroes among you who will stand up and undo this madness. Thank you.
“We are living in a time where ideas are a crime, where gender is a crime, where skin color is a crime, where the truth is a crime, while the real criminals dine and toast with dictatorship on their minds and golf clubs in their tiny hands. What is called for right now is a mass movement of peaceful anti-fascist crime fighters. It is you, so let’s go. Let’s take the power back and adjourn this motherf*cking authoritarian clown show once and for all.”
