Campaigns Co-ordinator for the Revolutionary Communists, Fiona Lali, has sparked on-air outrage after defending controversial Irish rap band Kneecap, claiming they are facing a "smear campaign" by the "out of touch media".The Belfast-based trio triggered calls for several of their upcoming gigs to be cancelled after being referred to the counter-terrorism police, based on resurfaced concert footage.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00I'm joined now by Campaigns Coordinator for the Revolutionary Communist Party, Fiona Lali.
00:04Fiona, good to see you.
00:05So, tell us what you make of this story.
00:08What's going on here?
00:10I say that this is actually about Palestine.
00:12I think what's happening right now is there's a smear campaign
00:15where you've got the whole of the British establishment and the media coming down on this group
00:20because they've used their platform to call for a free Palestine
00:23and to talk about how the West is complicit in the genocide that's taking place.
00:28And so they're trying to silence them.
00:30And I don't think it's going to work.
00:32And I think it's an example of how out of touch the media is,
00:35how out of touch Parliament is with how ordinary people think about Palestine.
00:40Well, the Palestine issue is sort of secondary in a way
00:43because the first bit of this story that came to the attention was this idea of
00:48a best Tory is a dead Tory, whatever it is.
00:50And Kemi Bade not waded in on this and said that they should be cancelled for saying that.
00:55So surely this is about whether they would have the freedom of speech
00:58to express those sorts of violent, aggressive, hateful views
01:02rather than the Palestine issue, which seems rather secondary.
01:06I don't think it's secondary because this has come about because they were at Coachella
01:10and they put behind themselves free Palestine and they got the crowd,
01:14they got everyone chanting free Palestine because that is what most people think
01:18and that's what they want.
01:19But they were also, can I just jump in, they were also saying pro-Hamas,
01:22making pro-Hamas statements and Hamas is a terrorist organisation
01:25that, as we know, was responsible for massacring many Israelis last October.
01:31Yeah, I mean, that's what the British government says about Hamas
01:33and that's for them to say if they want to.
01:34No, but they did massacre those people.
01:35The point is they support a free Palestine and I support a free Palestine
01:40and I would defend any oppressed people and their right to defend themselves.
01:45But can I just clarify this?
01:46You accept the massacre was carried out by Hamas?
01:49Something happened on October 7th, everyone knows that, everyone knows that.
01:53Why don't you tell me what you think?
01:55I am telling you what I think.
01:56I think that there's a lot of violence that takes place across the Middle East
01:59and I think Western imperialism is responsible for all of that.
02:02And I think, or rather, I know that the British government
02:06are active participants in that violence.
02:09Can I just say, the way that the media have covered this story...
02:14You haven't called it out.
02:15The way that the media covered this story is insane.
02:17Dear, oh dear.
02:18Considering the real violence, the real killing...
02:21Babies massacred.
02:22Babies, yeah, babies are being massacred in Gaza.
02:23And you didn't call it out.
02:25Do you know 100 children die every single day in Gaza, according to UNICEF?
02:29And I'm calling it out right now.
02:30Here's the thing, dear.
02:30And I'm calling out the British government who are trying to silence the very few...
02:34There's very few artists, there's very few people out there who will talk about Palestine
02:38because they get smeared like this, because they get cancelled like this.
02:42And that happens to musicians, that happens to politicians,
02:44and it happens to ordinary people in their workplaces as well.
02:47And that's a disgrace.
02:48What's the smear?
02:48What's the smear against this ban?
02:50Saying that kneecap are somehow responsible for violence.
02:53As if kneecap have killed anyone or done anything like that.
02:57What's interesting, though, Fioris...
02:58If we want to think about killers, let's go to number 10, let's go to White House,
03:02let's talk about the real terrorists that exist.
03:05Let's go to Netanyahu.
03:06Let's go to Israel.
03:07Hang on, you've come on here and you've presumed...
03:08These are the killers.
03:10I largely agree with you in terms of what's going on in Gaza.
03:15I think it's risible what's happening to people there and children in particular.
03:19I think it's inexcusable.
03:21However, you've come on here and we expected to have a free speech debate with you.
03:26And we want to...
03:27I can't speak for Andrew, but I personally think cancelling somebody that's using language in art,
03:32which others might find offensive, is ridiculous.
03:36But you've kind of come in here with the assumption that because we are part of the media,
03:40we're going to be like every other media.
03:43And that's your mistake.
03:44OK.
03:45I mean, it's good if you believe in free speech.
03:48I also believe in freedom of speech.
03:49I mean, I think that the way in which it is talked about in the media is incredibly hypocritical.
03:55And I think the fact that you started this by framing it as though Palestine is secondary is hypocritical.
04:00That's what I mean when I say you're part of the rest of the mainstream media.
04:03But the calls for the council...
04:04Because no-one is talking about what is actually happening, the real violence that is happening,
04:08not just language.
04:10And in a lot of these discussions, right, people say, hasn't the rhetoric gone too far?
04:15Isn't everything becoming a bit divisive?
04:16But the point is, real violence is taking place in Palestine and in this country.
04:21So let's go back to what the Labour government is doing.
04:24Well, most of us have never heard of kneecap.
04:26I hadn't seen the footage from Coachella.
04:27We didn't know that.
04:28They came on...
04:28Very popular now, I will say.
04:29They came on the radar.
04:30They came on the radar because of saying the best MP, a Tory MP is a dead Tory MP.
04:36Go and kill your MPs.
04:37That's where they came to our awareness.
04:40It was nothing to do with Palestine.
04:42Do you think they should be allowed to say that in their music?
04:46They can say whatever they like.
04:47I'm not a part of kneecap.
04:49They can use their words in whatever way they want.
04:52I think what's awful about how this has taken place is people are trying to equate their words
04:57with the violence of the bombs that the British government helps to send to Israel.
05:02The whole discussion has become about this rhetoric thing and cancellation.
05:09And I think ordinary people are disgusted by it.
05:12You know, normal people are disgusted by MPs.
05:15They're disgusted by Parliament.
05:17They're disgusted.
05:18And they don't care what they think.
05:19They don't care about their individual feelings or anything like this.
05:23And understandably so.
05:25And they're disgusted by it because real violence comes from Parliament.
05:30It comes, I would argue, from the capitalist system as a whole.
05:33There's systemic violence taking place every single day in the Middle East and in Britain.
05:38And I want to argue against that.
05:39You're accusing the government of murder, are you?
05:41Absolutely.
05:42On what level?
05:42On what level?
05:43Keir Starmer specifically, David Lammy specifically, for their role in Palestine and their role in austerity.
05:49The winter fuel allowance, for example, there will be excess deaths of about 4,000 people as a result of the winter fuel.
05:54100,000 people have already died as a result of austerity that started with the Tories.
05:59Obviously, they are here to defend themselves.
06:01And Keir Starmer would say, don't listen, we agree with you on the winter fuel payment.
06:05I think it's outrageous.
06:06But they would say, obviously, that bears no resemblance whatsoever to events of October the 7th in Israel.
06:15And to draw that comparison is, at best, crass.
06:19I think death is bad.
06:22Death is wrong, right?
06:23We can agree that we don't like death.
06:25So let's say who is responsible for death?
06:27That's what we're trying to get to the source.
06:28That's what we should be looking for here.
06:30Who is responsible for violence and death in society?
06:33And it comes from politicians who uphold a capitalist system which puts profit above need, right?
06:40That is what this all comes down to, in summary.
06:43A system that will do anything it needs to maintain its profits.
06:47That's what this is really about.
06:49And that causes genocide in Gaza.
06:51And it causes austerity in this country as well.
06:54Fiona, you're from the Revolutionary Communist Party.
06:56What do you want in 2025?
06:58What would you like to see happen to the global system?
07:00I would like to see a revolution against the billionaires.
07:03I would like to see a free Palestine.
07:05I would like to see an end to imperialism and an end to the capitalist system itself.
07:09And the best thing is, I think there's a growing mood for that already in society.
07:14You can see that in a small case in the support for kneecap,
07:17but in a broader sense, in the absolute disgust and anger that people have
07:21against parliament, against MPs, and against the capitalist system as a whole.