Newest Press Release

[Christian Bartolf <mkgandhi at snafu.de>]

PRESS RELEASE: 8 March 2006 (Sonny Ochs)

Sonny Ochs signed the “Manifesto against conscription and the military 
system” on 7 March 2006. For many years, Sonny Ochs has organized 
tribute concerts and song festivals to keep the memory of her brother 
Phil Ochs alive and encourage young US American folk song artists to 
dedicate their skills and energy for the causes of Peace, Righteousness 
and Justice. Throughout her life as a teacher, she wrote reviews for 
journals and magazines, held lectures and gave radio shows for the 
progressive folk music audience.

“It's always the old to lead us to the war / It's always the young to 
fall / Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun / Tell me is 
it worth at all?” (“I Ain't Marching Anymore”): Phil Ochs (9.12.1940 – 
9.4.1976), born in El Paso, Texas, was a “singing journalist”, a protest 
singer who had studied journalism at Ohio, went to New York, wrote and 
sang topical songs for Civil Rights, for workers in their Labor Struggle 
and against the US Vietnam war, the US military interventions and the 
repressive and destructive system of the military, the monetary and the 
manipulation by mass media.

Phil Ochs, who followed the folk song tradition of Woody Guthrie and 
Pete Seeger, had been one of the great young talents of the New York 
Greenwich Village artist scene during the Sixties. He contributed many 
of his songs for the famous Broadside Magazine, and his first three 
records “All the News That's Fit to Sing” (1964), “I Ain't Marching 
Anymore” (1965) and “Phil Ochs in Concert” (1966) created his reputation 
as one of the most energetic song poets of his time. He became worldwide 
famous for his great songs "There But For Fortune", "I Ain't Marching 
Anymore", "Draft Dodger Rag" and “Crucifixion" (with an outstanding 
orchestral version). During his extensive travels around the world, he 
was once strangled by those who attacked him. His voice was severely 
damaged, he suffered psychologically from depressions and ended his life 
- after more than 35 years - in 1976.

Phil Ochs's fire of protest had burnt brightly for many years, he had 
filled concert halls with solo concerts, he had publicly unmasked the 
war criminals, politicians, militarists and industrialists, and he had 
performed with dedication in order to strengthen the conscience, the 
courage, the dissent and the compassion of his young disobedient 
contemporaries. He supported the political opposition forces throughout 
America and bravely demonstrated freedom and independence of Thought, 
Speech and Song.

See the webpage with Phil Ochs' lyrics: 
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/%7Etrent/ochs/lyrics.html
See the webpage of Sonny Ochs: http://www.sonnyochs.com
---
Please have a look at the "Manifesto against conscription and the 
military system"
(with the updated complete list of signatories):
http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi/manifest.htm
Please have a look at the Gandhi Information Center's websites:
http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi
email: mkgandhi at snafu.de
http://www.themanifesto.info
email: sign at themanifesto.info

sgd. Christian Bartolf (Chair, Gandhi Information Center)