Do you think there’s no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. Every month, I listen to it all, then select the best that relates to that month’s political news. Here’s the round-up for August.
1. DAVID ROVICS - THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Pro-Palestine protesters from Magan-djin/Brisbane rallied with activists from New South Wales' Northern Rivers at the Queensland border on August 1. They did so to highlight six words - "from the river to the sea" - that are legal in NSW but banned in Queensland. The same day, US protest singer David Rovics released his new album with Magan-djin-based musician - and long-time Green Left contributor - Kamala Emmanuel. It contains a song that, Rovics noted, is illegal in Queensland. On "From The River", they sing: "At the turn of the 20th century, it became a penitentiary, and at home or far away, you can hear them say, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Two days later, British band Massive Attack were banned from Singapore for flying a Palestine flag on stage. Meanwhile, Rovics continued to release AI-generated protest albums as Ai Tsuno, his artificial intelligence alter ago. LISTEN>>>
2. THE CARP - TANGLED UP WITH THE TWO TAILED RAT
On the same day Rovics released his latest Ai Tsuno album, the Socialist Alliance released a statement opposing the rapid expansion of AI data centres. A week later, the New York Times said a new Amazon data centre was stoking fears it "would be the most polluting power plant in the US". A fortnight after that, The Washington Post said Republicans had even started attacking Democrats for "being too soft on data centres". Addressing the data centre disgust is the new album from US punks The Carp, released on August 14. On its opening track, they yell: "They're going to put a data centre in your town! They're buying up the farmland in your town!" A week later, investigative journalists revealed the identities of the men behind viral, white, racist AI rapper Danny Bones. British-Jamaican rapper Lava La Rue noted “the irony of giving him a British-Jamaican rapping voice over a Black hip-hop beat". LISTEN>>>
3. MIKE AND THE MOLOTOVS - BOOT LICKIN' BOOGIE
Country-punk musicians Mike And The Molotovs liken people's fear of AI to the horror colonised people have been suffering for centuries at the hands of their invaders. On their new EP, released on August 15, they sing: "How will it feel to be colonised? When the robots come, they won't apologise. How will it feel to be swept away? We're going to find out some day." Just 10 days later, media outlet Quartz reported that US bank JPMorgan was expecting robot demand to surge. "At under $US10 per hour to operate, a humanoid robot undercuts the roughly $US30 hourly cost of a warehouse worker by a significant margin." Meanwhile, a new study estimated the earnings of people who are paying as little as $US10 a month to use music-generating AI platforms trained on humans' stolen work. Topping the list was remixer Cherry 葵 Nightcore, "bringing in an apparent $US2 million" from 941 million YouTube views. LISTEN>>>
4. MISS KANINNA - BLACKPRINT
Someone who already knows full well how it feels to be colonised, Indigenous rapper Miss Kaninna, released her radical new record on August 21. The groundbreaking Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali musician was raised by her mother Ruth Langford, who was recently hauled before court for taking part in an anti-logging protest, and grandmother Rosalind Langford, the co-founder of the Aboriginal Information Service, which became the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. Discussing the album, Miss Kaninna noted she was about to play Mparntwe/Alice Springs, where "you have a complete fuckstorm of white people trying to control Aboriginal people's lives, right down to what we fucking put in our mouths". Two days before the LP's release, Mparntwe town camp resident Eileen Hoosan noted life expectancy became far longer when the Aboriginal community took control of health services from whites. LISTEN>>>
5. KAYPS - BUNUBA BABY
The life expectancy of Aboriginal people in Western Australia is 68.9 years. But the state government defines priority applicants for its Stolen Generations compensation payments as anyone over the age of 85. That means dozens of applicants who were taken from their parents as children are dying before they receive any compensation, The Australian reported on August 27. A fortnight earlier, West Australian Aboriginal rapper Kayps released his debut album, which rails against such injustices. "World sing to the stories of our people before they killed us and poisoned the rest," he raps on "Crocodiles". "State of living, our mission is a testament to why our mob caring for what's left. Stolen wages and generations must led to what says a rabbit-proof fence." The LP came a week after a white, West Australian bishop was found guilty of sexually abusing young Aboriginal men. LISTEN>>>
6. PAUL HEATON - JENIUS
The same day the bishop was found guilty on August 13, students across Australia walked out of class to protest against racist politician Pauline Hanson getting widespread media coverage and setting the nation's political agenda. The next day in Britain, Hanson's political ally Nigel Farage was re-elected. A week later, chart-topping British socialist pop star Paul Heaton released his latest album, which slams the rise of such politics. "The way that we're all acting, we're either privileged or thick," he sings on "One Eye Open". And on "Send In The Clowns", he sneers: "Send in the clowns, the elephants too, this once peaceful place, into circus or zoo. Send in the clowns, think they're already there, heard the honk of their horn, saw the bright orange hair. They brought us despair in a pair of oversized shoes, turned a green and pleasant land into home of the blues." The LP went straight to No.1. LISTEN>>>
7. CHEEKFACE - PODIUM
In the US on August 26, president Donald Trump's administration said it planned to revoke up to 200,000 visas from asylum seekers in what it called the largest mass revocation in US history. A fortnight earlier, its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it was spending $US20 million on electric shock gloves for its agents. The same day, US indie rockers Cheekface slammed ICE while discussing their new album. Describing how they dropped out of a TV ad audition once they learnt it was for AT&T, they said: "It doesn’t comport with our values at all because AT&T is one of the largest ICE contractors. It seemed obvious to us not to take the ICE blood money from AT&T.” On single “Black Site” the band slam CIA facilities for weaponising music, such as in Guantanamo Bay, where it was used a form of psychological torture during interrogations of prisoners taken mostly from Afghanistan. LISTEN>>>
8. KEFAYA - OUR FREEDOMS MUST BE WON
Afghanistan war crimes whistleblower David McBride was released from jail on August 13 after serving time for leaking classified documents. A week later, former Australian Defence Forces chief Angus Campbell quietly disowned his controversial Distinguished Service Cross after his appointment as ambassador to the European Union and NATO. Shortly before his move, Afghani feminist Elaha Soroor, who had to flee Afghanistan for London after she was targeted by the Taliban, released her latest protest album with Kefaya. “I believe that all art is political, regardless of whether the artists intend it to be or not," she said. "Choosing to say nothing is still a choice. But in a climate where so much seems regressive and openly hostile towards the people we would remain silent about, that is not a choice we want to make. Speaking out has never been more necessary than it is right now.” LISTEN>>>
9. WHAT SO NOT - I SAW A TRAP DJ AND IT CHANGED MY BIO CHEMISTRY
In Soroor's adopted home of London on August 11, Nick Blair said he was seeking funding for his new defence technology start-up, despite his father, former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair, having been accused of committing war crimes. Meanwhile, the war crimes continued. On August 16, a far-right Israeli minister advocated killing "30 to 40" Gazans each night. The next day, Trump threatened to "bomb the shit" out of Oman. He had won approval to use British bases for his war from new PM Andy Burnham, who went viral on August 25 in a video showing jamming on guitar with a Ukraine soldier. Documenting the grim reality of the war on Ukraine is the new EP from Australian musician What So Not, made in Kyiv with local musicians as a "call for strength and unity in troubling times". "It's quite hard to put into words what it was like being there and seeing a country at war first-hand," he said on August 14. LISTEN>>>
10. EAST OF ZERO - FIELD SOLUTIONS
After speaking with Burnham, Trump said opening new oil and gas fields would help solve Britain’s "energy problem" and make it "pretty rich". But Burnham delayed a decision to do so amid concern about the “optics” of approving such projects during a summer of heatwaves. As fires continued to rage, media analysts Media Lens noted on August 24 that a report predicting at least 4 billion deaths from global warming "made barely a dent in news headlines". Days earlier, Britain/Australia-based act East of Zero released their new EP, which adapts a lyric recorded 18 years earlier by long-time Green Left contributor Zane Alcorn and his group Dhopec. "Stop the war on women, the war on children, the war on the poor," say East Of Zero. "Begin the war on climate change." It came as Bloomberg said deadly floods in Nepal showed the world's highest mountains, made mostly of ice, are "ticking time bombs". LISTEN>>>
[Mat Ward has been writing for Green Left since 2009. He also wrote the book Real Talk: Aboriginal Rappers Talk About Their Music And Country and makes political music. This year, Mat Ward released his latest album, Dissident Ditties.]
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Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2026” playlist on the evil green platform, Spotify or transfer it to a streaming service of your choice. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.