REVIEW BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

Songwriters Peter Hicks and Geoff Francis justifiably believe their latest CD is their best effort yet. Our World is Not For Sale is a powerful musical tribune for social justice.

The CD can be placed in any ordinary CD player and provides more than an hour of full quality audio music. It can also be placed in a Windows-based computer to access an impressive multimedia e-book, with content that includes MP3 files, song lyrics, background materials, games and much more.

The e-book is remarkable and automatically draws attention both because it is so innovative (even mainstream music labels have not included this feature) and because it adds depth and context to the social justice issues that are at the heart of Hicks' and Francis' music.

However, this album is worth possessing for the audio tracks alone. The title track sets the tone. It is a testament to the burgeoning global justice movement. The advances made by this movement in recent years are reflected in the album, giving it a confident and inspiring feel.

In “Carlo Guiliani”, a moving tribute the protester murdered by Italian police in July 2001 at the Genoa demonstrations against the G8 group of wealthy countries, Francis/Hicks write: “Each day [the corporations] face, they face new desperations/ And each day become more afraid/... The lessons of history are there to be seen, if you'll only open your eyes/ The tide of humanity's steadily turning and there's a future there to be prised/ It's a world without poverty, slavery, exploitation or greed/ A world of respect and of co-operation/ A world without warring of pitiful nations/ A world that's been rescued from disintegration/ Where equality stands as our creed.”

The same confidence is exhibited in songs such as “We are Everywhere” and, at a more personal level, “There is Hope” (a song dedicated to one activist's struggle against cancer).

Another feature of the CD is the show of solidarity with refugees locked up in Australia's prison camps, expressed through songs such as “Ordinary People” and “The Knock on the Door in the Night”. The former has been sung at a number of protests against the federal government's refugee policy and includes the lyrics: “They won't let you see us in case you find out that we're ordinary people like you”.

Like Peter Hicks' recent solo CDs, this album also includes some humourous songs, such as “Them Dirty Robbin' Banks” and “The Vegetables from Hell” (about genetic engineering).

As well as all of the lyrics, the e-book includes audio-visual presentations to supplement nine of the songs. In addition, every song is accompanied by background material and additional articles.

The background notes will be appreciated by people like me who get frustrated by albums that include intriguing songs but fail to properly explain their meaning. The articles include some written specifically for the e-book, in many cases directly inspired by the song to which they are linked.

In other cases, articles are drawn from a range of progressive publications or web sites and add to the songs or use them as starting points to take the listener on new journeys. The publications and web sites include Green Left Weekly, New Internationalist, Indymedia and Counterpunch.

Organisations profiled include the Socialist Alliance and several of its affiliates, the Wilderness Society and the US-based International Action Centre, which is organising against the impending war against Iraq.

The e-book is illustrated with hundreds of pictures. It includes MP3 versions of all the songs on the audio album (plus several others from previous Hicks' albums) and games (notably “Refugee Breakout”). One section deals with “heroes and villains” — the people that have inspired Francis and Hicks in their endeavours or who are the targets of our protests.

The e-book itself would take hours to thoroughly explore, even without visiting the many web links included. Veteran campaigners, experienced singers and those newly attracted to progressive folk music will all find something of interest in the e-book.

Several songs from the album are available in MP3 format from Peter Hicks' web site.

From Green Left Weekly, January 15, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. 

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