Protesters target Taylor Swift’s Cardiff show
Stephen Price
Campaigners have targeted Taylor Swift’s forthcoming Eras Tour concert in the Welsh capital to protest against the global pop superstar’s ties with companies that invest in arms used in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Projected to boost UK spending by £1bn, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is coming to Cardiff on Tuesday June 18 – bringing with it 74,500 fans and a projected £64 million boost to the Welsh economy.
“Genocide era”
In a post shared to the Instagram accounts of Black Lives Matter Cardiff and Cardiff Stop the War, campaigners claim that Swift is ‘in her genocide era’.
They write: “Join us this Tuesday, 18 June at 5PM outside Cardiff Central Train Station as we leaflet and inform the public on Taylor Swift’s complicity in the genocide of the Palestinians.
“Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is sponsored by Capital One, and is the highest grossing tour by a woman in history.
“Capital One bank invests $500 million into Elbit Systems, the arms company responsible providing approximately 85% of the drones and land based weapons they have used to slaughter 35,000 innocent Palestinians, including over 13,000 children.
“Swift makes an obscene $27 million per show on the Eras tour, yet cannot afford to stand against a genocide?”
One commenter wrote: “Enormous platform, enormous opportunity to help and she’s gone ‘nah’. The era of celeb worship must end. Free yourself. Free Palestine”
Silence
Taylor Swift has been noticeably silent on the subject of Israel’s war on Palestine, with many former fans calling for a mass block of her account to show their dissatisfaction with her decision not to use her voice for peace and to condemn the killing of civilians.
Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel to date.
Israel’s eight-month military offensive against Hamas has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the UN reporting widespread hunger and hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine.
The international community has urged Israel to do more to ease the crunch and has said the ongoing fighting, including in Rafah, has complicated aid deliveries throughout the war.
From May 6 until June 6, the UN received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day, according to figures from the UN humanitarian office, known as Ocha. That was down from 168 a day in April and far below the 500 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed.
The flow of aid in southern Gaza declined just as the humanitarian need grew.
More than one million Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced, fled Rafah after the invasion, crowding into other parts of southern and central Gaza.
Most now languish in ramshackle tent camps, using trenches as latrines, with open sewage in the streets.
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Good luck with that. The protest is very legitimate in that these high earning “stars” are all linked to the globalist military-industrial complex via investments, sponsorships and other spicy commercial deals. Of course it will confuse a lot of the empty headed “socially aware” types who claim to support all sorts of causes and tune into any number of ishoos but put their minds and consciences into a kind of freeze frame for the duration of the sparkly lady’s show.
Another man chasing windmills…
‘I sold a mountain’ went down like a lead balloon, I had two years in Coleg Harlech and studied under Dr Evans so I know the score…
I note that Taylor Swift is also silent on Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and the Maghreb. Perhaps it’s because she’s a popular entertainer not a pundit on international affairs. What excuse do the protestors have for being so vocal about Palestine while remaining “noticeably silent” about other conflicts? (I can think of a few reasons, none of which show the protestors in a good light.)
Incidentally, the “£64m boost to the Welsh economy” figure suggests that the average attendee at one of Swift’s concerts will spend about £860, which seems rather a lot.
The only certainty is that these concerts are a massive boost to Taylor Swift’s already overfull coffers !
As most of it will be spent in chain bars/restaurants and hotels owned by major corporations very little of that £64m will actually stay in Wales.
If only there was a small levy on those £450 hotel rooms to help fund local priorities.
Why do these radical, authoritarian activists expect a pop star to act like a politician?
And why do they think everyone should think and act the way they want them to?
I’m dubious they even care that much about Palestine. It’s a rallying cry they can use to try and dominate and control other people.
Individual liberty and the freedom to speak or not speak on political matters is important. We will need to legislate against this kind of fascist behaviour if it continues.
Well done, brains. You pretend to care about freedom of speech in one sentence then deliberately contradict yourself in the other by wanting to legislate against people voicing their disagreement.
Incredibly biased article from Nation once again. Good article Neezo