KSCU: Anti-flag energizes local youth

By Cameron Collins

Last week I made it out to the A-F Records Mobilize for Peace North American Tour featuring Anti-Flag, Thrice, Against All Authority, Pipedown and Virus Nine in San Francisco. The night was highlighted by Anti-Flag's enthralling set for political freedom, even here in the United States, and the constant chants against President George W. Bush that came from the crowd.

This tour is not about destroying the U.S. government, but about mobilizing the youth to get out and do something in order to ensure that American atrocities that led to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will not continue. In short, as Americans, we should not allow the government to continue carrying out terrorist attacks on other nations while we are condemning them within our own. This is not to say that the members of Anti-Flag are against America, because they are the first to state that they love the United States. They simply want to change the United States into a country that we can all be proud of: free of the hypocrisy that currently plagues it, especially under the Bush Administration.

The tour is also in support of Anti-Flag's new record, Mobilize. In classic Anti-Flag fashion, the album is a call for peace, equality and unity among the peoples of the world. The tour is not just a call for peace in the United States, but for Unity throughout the world so that nation-state lines are no longer relevant and we may all live in peace.

For over 10 years Anti-Flag has been on the road trying to support their cause, and this tour is no different. While it has already passed by here in the Bay Area, this doesn't mean that we still shouldn't be involved. If you do not feel like directly supporting the cause, at least go out and buy any records that are put out by A-F Records, or anything that Anti-Flag themselves have put out. At least that way you can continue to help in the fight against violence. That's the whole point ... to Mobilize!!

Watch for a KSCU Benefit Compilation in April that features Anti-Flag, amongst many other well-known bands.