Macklemore vs. McCarthyism

The rapper Macklemore was booted off a US tour with popstar Ed Sheeran after speaking up for Palestine on stage. Rather than go quietly, he went public about the coordinated campaign behind his cancellation, leading all the other support acts to abandon the tour in solidarity. This act of defiance and moral courage has tapped into a growing mood of disgust towards Israel’s genocidal actions in the Middle East and McCarthyite efforts to silence dissent.

Macklemore raised slogans in solidarity with Gaza during two shows at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 4-5 September. On the second date, Macklemore delivered a two-minute introduction to ‘Hind’s Hall’, written in support of nationwide student encampments for Palestine in 2024:

“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: free Palestine. I said, ‘Free Palestine!’ I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”

He went on to address “all my Jewish brothers and sisters”, stating that “criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.” He called for the freedom of Cuba, Lebanon, the Congo, Sudan and Iran, as well as “all the people in America who have to live in fear because of this organization, ICE.”

Macklemore’s brief speech against injustice and imperialism was rather mild in manner and made no specific mention of Israel’s many crimes. But hearing the words 'free Palestine' was apparently sufficient to send Israel’s snowflake supporters into paroxysms of rage.

Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial. pic.twitter.com/BOJ9xMoIZn

The Israeli American Council (IAC) launched a petition demanding the rapper be pulled from the remaining dates of Sheeran’s tour. Pro-Israel hacks from the music industry like Boy George and Pink joined the chorus of condemnation, with the latter resharing an Instagram post by the rabidly Zionist ‘StopAntisemitism’ account, accusing Macklemore of ambushing fans with “anti-Israel propaganda”.

As the smear campaign grew, 2014 images of Macklemore allegedly dressed like a ‘Jewish stereotype’ started circulating to ‘prove’ his antisemitism. Macklemore’s apology and explanation for the 2014 incident were even accepted by the Anti-Defamation League at the time. This decade-old ‘evidence’ has nothing to do with the present hysteria; it has been dredged up to discredit Macklemore due to his support for Palestine.

Sure enough, it was announced on Monday that Macklemore was dropped from the remaining tour dates. Unlike many other celebrities and public figures put in this position, he neither apologised nor backed down. On the contrary, he ripped the lid off the way the establishment curtails freedom of speech to protect its interests.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Macklemore explained that Ed Sheeran was called by Robert Kraft, billionaire CEO of the Kraft Group and owner of Boston’s Gillette Stadium.

View this post on Instagram            A post shared by BEN (@macklemore)

“Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to play in that stadium,” Macklemore wrote. “Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”

In other words, a cabal of fatcat venue owners in the ‘Land of the Free’ blackmailed Sheeran’s promoter to censor an artist speaking out against genocide. Kraft also happens to be named in the Epstein Files, having allegedly sought one of Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers to defend him after he was accused of soliciting prostitutes (per Forbes), though he was never charged.

With the cat out of the bag, Kraft confirmed that Macklemore was barred from playing at Gillette Stadium due to his “recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”

At this point, Sheeran could have leveraged his considerable celebrity, and the threat of lost revenue, to oppose this outrageous attack on artistic freedom. Instead, he crumbled like pastry and Macklemore was removed from the tour.

“[Ed] told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with,” Macklemore wrote. “I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood.”

Sheeran later denied responsibility, saying the decision lay with his promoter. On the conflict itself, Sheeran insisted “I am not complicit”. He decried the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” and insisted that “just because I choose not to speak publicly [...] it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

But as Revolutionary Communist Party spokesperson Fiona Lali said in an interview with LBC, this claim to neutrality is farcical. By ‘both sides’, Sheeran is talking about the best-equipped army in the Middle East, armed and supplied by the richest countries in the world, and a mostly unarmed, civilian population that has been decimated by three years of genocidal war. Behind his weasel words, Sheeran is complicit in censorship and has functionally taken a side: with the oppressor.

Sheeran further claimed that he did not want to “abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.” However, all the other supporting acts on the tour, including Finneas Eilish, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, have now pulled out in solidarity with Macklemore. In a statement on Instagram, Rowe said:

“[As] Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine, and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and the savage murder of children. I would lose all respect for myself to carry on as normal.”

The Class-A coward Sheeran was even left without his backing band Beoga (members of the Irish Artists for Palestine movement), who also withdrew.

Yesterday, Macklemore further put his censors on the spot by pledging to donate the entire $1 million of his net earnings from Sheeran’s tour to “six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people”, inviting Kraft to match the donation. “Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting.”

Kraft then claimed that Sheeran had spoken with him and promised to donate $2 million out of his own pocket as “aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis”. The singer asked Kraft to do the same, evidently in a desperate attempt to put this spiralling PR disaster to bed.

This representative of the Epstein class defensively stated he has “dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people” and that “all lives are worth protecting”, although his statement did not actually commit to parting with a single cent.

In a small indication of the mood amongst young music fans, Macklemore has gained 750,000 Instagram followers in the past two days, whereas Sheeran lost 150,000 followers. But he can console himself with having made at least one new fan, after Israeli-funded anti-migrant ‘activist’ Tommy Robinson offered his “support”.

An objection raised by the IAC, Pink, and Sheeran himself is that a pop concert is 'not the place' for political statements. In an interview with BBC Radio 4 in the UK, AIC Chief Executive Elan Carr called “Free Palestine” an “antisemitic comment” and claimed that “freedom of speech” did not give Macklemore “the right to hijack a concert.”

This is utterly ludicrous. Musical artists have always promoted political causes during their shows, and Macklemore was already well-known for his pro-Palestine views. Besides, nobody complained when Eurovision, the biggest live pop music concert in the world, was used as a platform to trumpet pro-Ukraine War propaganda for six nauseating hours in 2022. Paul McCartney displayed a Ukraine flag at his Glastonbury performance that same year.

So apparently it is not politics as such but the ‘wrong’ politics that should be kept out of pop concerts; in this case, any mention of one of the worst injustices of our age.

Moreover, all the main political parties in the West have backed Israel’s genocidal war, as do all the major news outlets. With nobody offering the masses a voice, it has fallen to a small handful of artists like Macklemore, Bob Vylan and Kneecap to vent public indignation at Israel’s actions. All have suffered professional and legal consequences for doing so, with Bob Vylan being dropped by their talent agency and the UK government taking Kneecap to court (and losing).

There are no two sides in genocide. Here is a short clip of my bit on LBC this morning. You can watch the full thing on YouTube. pic.twitter.com/kkmFcuubTS

Despite this professional and legal pillorying, the capitalists cannot turn the tide of public opinion. On the contrary, their efforts at censorship are having the opposite effect.

Macklemore has gone a step further than his fellow artists. Rather than simply using his art and platform to ‘raise awareness’ about the horrors perpetrated in Palestine, he has shown the world how the establishment seeks to control what people are allowed to say, hear and think.

This whole episode has struck a chord with millions of workers and youth who are sick, not only by the butchery in the Middle East, but by the arrogant entitlement of Israel and its powerful supporters abroad, who constantly defend genocide and then play the victim.

The reason that Israel enjoys such impunity and leverage is because it is a pillar of imperialist power in the Middle East, which our ruling classes feel they must defend to the hilt.

At the same time that Macklemore was being pulled from Sheeran’s tour, Donald Trump was approving a $2.8 billion shipment of heavy munitions to Israel, funded by the US taxpayer. Meanwhile, working Americans are facing ballooning costs at the gas pump and grocery store.

Little wonder that, in an historic reversal, more Americans have a negative view of Israel than not. The sentiment sharpens for under-30s. The same trend of increasing sympathy for the Palestinians can be seen in one imperialist country after another, including Britain and throughout Europe.

Accidental incidents, like the McCarthyite silencing of Macklemore, are giving millions of people – and young people in particular – an important lesson in the limits of free speech and artistic expression under the present capitalist system. Israel’s crimes and witch-hunting tactics will contribute to the radicalisation of an entire generation.