On Saturday, June 26th, RIO (the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization) organized a special Hiphop concert in the ”Red Island” in Berlin: a far cry from mainstream and ghetto-gangster-rap, three artists from Germany, England and Chile showed what political rap can sound like – class struggle rap to be precise.

The Ruby Kid from England, Cien from Chile, and Holger Burner from Hamburg are three rappers who see their music as a contribution to the class struggle. In front of 150 people, they performed songs about repression, resistance and the necessity of a different world.

At the very beginning, The Ruby Kid emphasized the theme of the night: „If you take one thing away from this evening, then this: The only way to change the world is through class struggle.“

Although it wasn’t always easy to follow his impressive wordplay, The Ruby Kid tried to get his message across to everybody in the room: „If you struggle to decipher my metaphors I’ll speak plainer: A war exists between bosses and those who survive through wage labor. If you work for a living, you’re on my side, if you live by having others working for you, you should find somewhere to hide.“

Cien (Spanish for „Hundred“, aka Unocerocero, Spanish for „One Zero Zero“) performed in Spanish and Mapuche (the language of the indigenous Mapuche people in Chile) and was supported by the un-anounced special guest Claudito from the Band Conexión Musical. Among other things, he spoke about the struggle of the Mapuche against the Spanish colonizers and about the resistance against the continuities of the Pinochet dictatorship in today’s Chile.

In the end, Holger Burner rocked the house and performed a new track „The only thing we’re lacking is solidarity“, which still needs some rehearsal but promises to be a great protest song.

All in all, it was a great night, and we were able to go home with new inspiration and new motivation for our coming tasks in the class struggle. RIO wants to thank everybody who came to our concert, especially the artists. With the money we made we will organize a Marxist summer academy in Prague in mid-August.

by Stefan Schneider, RIO, Berlin

Pictures of the Concert on Flickr