Tom Morello: namm protest!

Rage's Tom Morello leads protest at NAMM Show:

Morello and System Of A Down frontman Serg Tankian (both partners in the Axis Of Justice) are joining representatives of Korean guitar workers in a protest against Cort Guitars, whom they say fired all of its Korean workers and closed all of its Korean plants to "avoid paying proper taxes" and to fix "deplorable working conditions" in 2007.

Cort has been the Korean equipment manufacturer of popular American companies like Gibson, Fender and Ibanez.

"Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation," says Morello. "I fully support the Korean workers' demands for justice in the workplace. All American guitar manufacturers and the people that play them should hold Cort accountable for the awful way they have treated their workers. Without us, they go out of business. Simple as that. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights."

"Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights" Tom Morello
Serj Tankian adds: "As musicians, our axes are not immune to the global race to the bottom techniques incorporated by multi-nationals escaping responsibility to workers and the environment. As consumers and rockers we have to be very careful that everything we touch and use are created and handled with ethics and equity in practice."

Morello, both as The Nightwatchman and in a Street Sweeper Social Club acoustic performance, will headline a protest concert to be held tonight (13th January) at the Nanum Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

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