Caught in the Web: Sing Out!

Labor activists have, of course, always used musical performance to raise consciousness about workplace abuses, but YouTube makes the potential audience much bigger, and has been inspiring considerable creativity. Anyone needing ideas about how a protest can be fun for bystanders and participants alike—and, better yet, how it can go viral—should immediately check out "Bad Hotel," a video of a protest of the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco, where workers have called for a boycott over unaffordable health care and other issues. The video begins with two women inquiring about the rates, when one suddenly says loudly, "Honey, we can't stay here. This is a bad hotel." Her companion bursts into song at top volume: "Oh, noo-ooo-ooo, don't get caught in a bad hotel," a takeoff on Lady Gaga's catchy hit, "Bad Romance." A band emerges from the shadows, playing full instrumentals, and about twenty dancers come forward, all singing along: "I want to party, and do it in drag, but not in a bad hotel/I love San Francisco and I want your gay ass/But not in a bad hotel." The text at the end of the clip explains that the action was taken as part of Sleep with the Right People! That's a coalition of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and UNITE HERE, boycotting Hyatt and other hotel chains that refuse to bargain in good faith with their workers. (Here's the full list of hotels to boycott: http://www.hotel-workersrising.org/HotelGuide/boycott_list.php.) The video has been widely forwarded, and the hotels in question do seem to be losing business as a result. A tactic—disruptive protest in a hotel lobby—that might once have raised the awareness of about fifteen bystanders can now easily go global, if the video is engaging enough. Check it out, but be warned: You'll be humming "Bad Hotel" for days, and will eventually be compelled to forward the video to your friends—or at least post it on your Facebook page.

Web video and music can also be used to call attention to exploitation of workers in the global South. Thanks to the ease of making and distributing video on the web, Westerners can hear an all-girl Cambodian band called The Messenger, comprised entirely of former garment factory workers. Formed in 2005, The Messenger, whose style is traditional Cambodian folk music, travels around the countryside playing songs about the plight of rural women who come to the city to be garment workers. About 20 percent of Cambodians rely on the wages of a garment worker for their survival, yet the work is stigmatized and the women of the factories (who number around three hundred thousand) are often shunned, partly because of the cultural taboo against women working, a problem the band highlights in a song called "Don't Look Down on the Garment Workers."

The best way to learn about the band—and hear its music—is through the work of Anne Elizabeth Moore, a Chicago-based blogger, artist, and journalist who has been traveling frequently to Cambodia. Her interview with The Messenger is on the Truthout site (http://www.truthout.org/i-dont-want-be-famous-i-want-our-people-get-enough-rice-the-messenger-band-interview57535). "Don't Shoot the Messenger," her short film about them—which includes visits with current garment workers in Cambodia—is on Camb(l)o(g)dia, Moore's blog (http://camblogdia.blogspot.com).

Fearful of discouraging U.S. investment with talk of sweatshops, the government has been trying hard to suppress criticism of the garment industry but some, like The Messenger Band, with the help of Western friends like Moore, still find ways to speak up.

While the "Bad Hotel" performers play with celebrity culture by impersonating one of its most accomplished practitioners, The Messenger Band rejects it outright. Says lead singer, Vun Em, "I don't want to be famous. I want our people to get enough rice."

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