17.7.15
UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to an emergency involving the radio station’s management, the show cannot take place, as there will be no one at the station, and one of Hamja’s previous shows will be played instead. Apologies for any inconvenience. I will try and reschedule.
On Sunday, at 3pm GMT (that’s 10am Eastern Time), I’ll be hosting a two-hour radio show on One Harmony Radio, an online community radio station in Brockley, south east London, where I live. I’m standing in for activist/curator Hamja Ahsan, who has to attend Eid celebrations.
Here’s One Harmony Radio‘s website, so please listen online at 3pm on Sunday!
I appeared on the show with Hamja on June 28, and had a great time, reading from my books The Guantánamo Files , The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion, playing some of my favourite songs — including a number of roots reggae classics — and also playing “Fighting Injustice,” a song I wrote that is featured on my band The Four Fathers‘ debut album, “Love and War” — available for just £7/$11, which can be sent anywhere in the world.
Hamja also played the first verse and chorus of another of my songs from the album, “Song for Shaker Aamer,” featured in the campaign video for We Stand With Shaker, which I established in November 2014, with the activist Joanne MacInnnes, to call for the release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison.
The We Stand With Shaker campaign video is below, and please also check out ‘Tory Bullshit Blues,” another of my songs, which is available via Soundcloud.
On Sunday, I promise more of what I shared with Hamja and the listeners on June 28 — great roots reggae tunes from the 70s and early 80s, some talk about Guantánamo, Shaker Aamer, and the current woeful state of the UK under the Tories, malevolently determined to destroy the state provision of all services, and to send us back to some age of feudal servitude for all but the super-rich.
I’ll also play “Song for Shaker Aamer,” I’ll play “Fighting Injustice” again, as — hopefully — a rousing call to arms, and I’ll also play, for the first time on radio, my song “81 Million Dollars,” also featured on “Love and War,” about the Bush administration’s torture program, $81m being the amount that the architects of the program, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were paid by the US government to develop the cruel, pointless and illegal covert program for which no one has yet been held accountable. The song is, I hope, as much of a rallying cry for campaigners calling for those who authorized and implemented the torture program to be prosecuted as “Fighting Injustice” is for those defending social justice and a fully-functioning state from Tory butchers obsessed with privatisation.
In conclusion, I hope you can listen in on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it!
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose debut album, ‘Love and War,’ was released in July 2015). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign, the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, calling for the immediate release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).
To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, and The Complete Guantánamo Files, an ongoing, 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011. Also see the definitive Guantánamo habeas list, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.
Please also consider joining the Close Guantánamo campaign, and, if you appreciate Andy’s work, feel free to make a donation.
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker. Also, photo-journalist (The State of London), and singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers).
Email Andy Worthington
Please support Andy Worthington, independent journalist:
12 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
Andi Vincent wrote:
I’ll tune in Andy!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 1:09 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Andi. Glad to hear it!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 1:10 am
Andy Worthington says...
Marion Heads wrote:
Will try and tune in on Sunday
...on July 18th, 2015 at 1:11 am
Andy Worthington says...
Oh, that’s great news, Marion!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 1:12 am
Andy Worthington says...
Marion also ordered a CD, and when I asked her what she thought of it, she replied:
Loving it Andy, Educating Bowmore through the medium of music.
...on July 18th, 2015 at 2:43 am
Andy Worthington says...
I am so pleased to hear that, Marion!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 2:43 am
Andy Worthington says...
Michael S. Kearns wrote:
I just got mine Andy, will play it tomorrow on the way to my DZ!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 2:43 am
Andy Worthington says...
Great news, Michael. I look forward to hearing what you think, especially about ’81 Million Dollars.’
...on July 18th, 2015 at 2:45 am
Andy Worthington says...
Marion Heads wrote:
The more I listen the more I like Andy, the harmonica and flute are amazing 🙂
...on July 18th, 2015 at 8:48 pm
Andy Worthington says...
That’s so great to hear, Marion. Excellent to receive such positive feedback!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 8:49 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Jan Strain wrote:
Andy! Got the CD today!! Thank you for getting it out so quickly…Now to throw it on the player and listen to the melodious tunes by The Four Fathers
...on July 18th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I hope you like it, Jan! Looking forward to hearing what you think!
...on July 18th, 2015 at 11:24 pm