Logo

Making Punk A Threat Again!

  • The long awaited debut LP from NYC’s FLOWER “Hardly A Dream” is finally set to arrive.

    FLOWER’s tedious approach to writing/creating/drawing their debut LP was carefully thought out and the result is a monumental anarcho punk /crust record. 

    “Hardly A Dream” Takes us on a bleak journey through the dark side of society. As soon as you drop the needle a dark atmosphere is immediately created with a slow intro featuring arpeggio guitar work that builds into pummeling d-beat crust. The albums vocals then leave you with a feeling of being crushed by the ever-present weight of living through our modern world of late stage capitalism that was built on the falsehoods of the so called American dream, religious hypocrisy’s, nationalism, and the greed of humankind. 

    FLOWER take many cues from predecessors and are most often (and rightfully so) compared to NAUSEA but they also take a heavy influence from ANTISECT, SACRILEGE & other greats. The artwork has a very RUDIMENTARY PENI feel and the record comes with an amazing 24.5 X 34.75 CRASS style poster jacket. All art work was meticulously hand drawn and overseen by the guitarist Willow in true DIY style and spirit. Willow was also cool enough to draw up a special shirt for the record release featuring an alternative PROFANE EXISTENCE backprint!

    CLICK HERE TO PRE ORDER LP

    CLICK HERE TO PRE ORDER LP WITH SHIRT

    CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW THE ALBUM IN ITS ENTIRETY AT THE PROFANE EXISTENCE BANDCAMP

    FLOWER will be on tour from January 2nd to the 13th

    2nd New Brunswick

    3rd Asheville

    4th Greenville

    5th Birmingham

    6th New Orleans

    7th Hattiesburg

    9th Gainesville

    10th Atlanta

    11th Durham

    12th Richmond

    13th Philadelphia 

    PO BOX 7903 PITTSBURGH PA 15216

    Crust Hardcore profane existence Punk
  • Finally, the third LP from AGNOSY has arrived! 

    AGNOSY-cover

    Dark, heavy, galloping crust from the streets of London. AGNOSY is back to present us with a ferocious beast of an album that can only be forged by the anger and frustration of living in today’s world. “When Daylight Reveals The Torture” aggressively attacks evils such the current rise of fascism and animal abuse. It intelligently and passionately touches on the Afrin invasion and the revolution in Rojava and shows nothing but utter disgust toward the arrogance of humankind’s lust for greed and power that will inevitably lead us down paths of war and environmental devastation.

    AGNOSY – Live at SCUMFEST in London. 2011

    While lyrically AGNOSY are much more politicly straight forward this time around than on previous releases, musically they have expanded on their sound to create a dark and moody atmosphere while at the same time staying crust as fuck. To say they know what they are doing would be an understatement from this band of vets whose members have played in HIATUS, HEALTH HAZARD, and BEGINNING OF THE END.

    Long galloping intros are followed up by traditional d-beat, fierce solo’s are then meet with vicious vocals and pulverizing bass in a brilliant recording captured by Lewis Johns at The Ranch Production House and was mastered by Brad Boatright at Portland’s legendary Audiosiege. We then pressed on deluxe heavyweight 150-gram vinyl,  printed on reverse board jackets, and included an 11in x 22in gatefold insert to bring you a high quality and truly epic record.  

    Click this link to buy AGNOSY “When Daylight Reveals the Torture” Vinyl

    Click this link Stream or Download from our BANDCAMP page

    PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711 – UNITED STATES
  • The legendary crust classic is now available once again!

    Authorized and released in cooperation with MISERY, S.D.S., & MCR Japan & Remastered by Jack Butcher at Enormous Door Studio we are beyond proud to make one one the most rare and sought after crust records available  once again.

    Fuck the scavengers charging punks exuberant amounts of cash on ebay and discogs. We worked meticulously with both bands and with Jack at Enormous door to bring you an updated version that kicks major audio ass while maintaining the original authenticity. 

    Released on deluxe 150 gram vinyl. With an 11×11 inner sleeve. Black Paper Jacket. Reverse Board Jacket.

    Feel free to Stream or Download at our Bandcamp page – HERE

    Buy a physical copy of the Vinyl from our webstore – HERE

    Check out Terminal Sound Nuisance for an outstanding review of the original LP. The review gives insight on not only the music but the records long lasting impact on crust music and why it remains so important to this day. – http://terminalsoundnuisance.blogspot.com/2013/06/misery-sds-pain-in-suffering-future.html
    S.D.S.
    MISERY

    Earlier this year we re-issued this legendary LP and sold over 950 copies in just 4 short months. For this second pressing we pressed 490 copies on Krystal Clear & 485 on Grey Vinyl with Black Mist.

    Crystal Clear (Bullet belt no included)
    Grey With Black Mist (Bullet belt no included)
    PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711
    UNITED STATES
  • Stench crust the way it was meant to be played!

    The UK crust scene of the 1980’s inspired band after band but no other band has ever reincarnated the sound of that time as well as SWORDWIELDER. Quite simply if you like crust, then this the album you have waited decades for.

    Package includes- 
    LP pressed on deluxe 150-gram vinyl. 
    Reverse board jacket 
    Printed inner sleeve 
    11×17 poster

    Stream album for free or download for a small fee here – https://profaneexistence.bandcamp.com/album/swordwielder-system-overlord-lp

    Buy Vinyl here – https://profaneexistence.bandcamp.com/album/swordwielder-system-overlord-lp

    Review by Craig Hayes from “Your Last Rites”… 
    Swordwielder – System Overlord 
    Heavyweight punk fanatics take note: System Overlord is a fucking triumph. The long-awaited sophomore album from Gothenburg stenchcore band Swordwielder is a brooding behemoth, constructed from the filthiest and heftiest strains of punk and metal. System Overlord shimmers with apocalyptic visions, and it’s overflowing with all the grim atmospherics and intimidating intensity that defines consummate crushing crust.

    Too much hype? No way… And no apologies, either. Swordwielder deal in definitive stenchcore on System Overlord, and much like their full-length debut, 2013’s Grim Visions of Battle, the band’s latest release is a knockout. Swordwielder’s harsh, gruff and dark sound owes a significant debt to old school icons like Amebix, Axegrinder, Deviated Instinct, and Antisect, and they mix and mangle their influences and leave ’em to rot on the battlefield.

    Plenty of hammering rage drives System Overlord tracks like “Violent Revolution,” “Savage Execution” and “Cyborgs,” and thundering epics like “Corrupt Future” and “Northern Lights” exhibit subtler strengths, mixing guttural growls and clean vocals with crashing percussion and dirge-laden riffs. Connoisseurs of corpse-dragging crust will love the brute-force belligerence of “Absolute Fear,” “Nuclear Winter,” and “Second Attack,” which rain down like merciless mortar barrages. As a rule, all of System Overlord‘s mammoth tracks chug and churn with grinding muscle, while reeking of squalor and decay.

    Swordwielder exudes tightly coiled aggression from start to finish here—songs rise from the ashes of desolation, and resounding calls for action and resistance ring loud. If you’re a fan of heavy-hitters like Fatum, War//Plague, Carnage, Zygome, Cancer Spreading or (insert your favorite hefty crust crew here), System Overlord‘s trampling tempo and strapping sound are bound to appeal.

    Crust profane existence swordwielder
  •  We are happy to announce our next new release

    WILT – “Self Titled” 

    WILT combine old school metal and crust in a perfect hybrid that very few others have ever achieved. Prepare for a LP thats equal parts galloping d-beat crust reminiscent of bands like HELLSHOCK, and INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL, meets old school death metal in the vein of BOLT THROWER, MEMORIAM (old) SEPULTURA.

     

    Here is a track from the upcoming LP

    https://profanexistence.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/02-sermon-for-the-bootlickers.wav

     

    “Sermon for the Bootlickers”

    Despite the inculcation of helplessness within each there remains great power. Ill at ease with such makes us ill. Learn to see the hand that feeds for what it is. You’ve been fooled if you think you’ve got no power. Refuse to be reduced to a consumer you’re a human being. Define yourself by more than wealth. Define yourself as a human. You don’t need what you’re being sold. Bend your knee to no authority but your own mind. You have the power to avoid the gilded trap. Avarice is what you’re conditioned for. Break the mold discover what’s really valuable to you. 

    WILT will be on in Europe this July / August will ELECTROZOMBIES From Chile

    Wed, July 12 Hanover / Germany / Confirmed
    Thu, July 13 Bremen  
    Fri, July 14 Mulhem / Germany / Confirmed  
    Sat, July 15 Gent, Belgium / CrustPicnic / Confirmed
    Sun, July 16 Paris / France or Amsterdam / Nederland  
    July 18 North-East France or West Germany 
    July 19 Freiburg / Germany TBC 
    July 20 Winterthur / Switzerland 
    Fri, July 21 Zurich / Switzerland
    Sat, July 22 Biel / Switzerland 
    July 23 Lausanne or Geneva / Switzerland 
    July 24 Geneva / Switzerland or Grenoble france
    July 25 Treviso (or Milano or Bologna or Verona) / Italy
    July 26 Ljubljana Slovenia Confirmed
    July 27 No Sanctuary chilling day
    Fri, July 28 NoSanctuary Confirmed
    Sat, July 29 NoSanctuary Confirmed
    July 30 Ilirska Bistrica/Slovenia or Vienna/Austria or Budapest/Hungary.
    July 31 Wiena / Austrai or Budapest or / Slovakia
    August 1 Brno / Czech Republic.
    August 2 Prague / Czech Republic
    August 3 Finsterwalde / Germany TBC
    Fri, August 4 Leipzig / Germany TBC
    Sat, August 5 Berlin / Germany / confirmed
    August 6 Dresden
    August 7 Wroclaw / Poland
    August 8 Warsaw / Poland
    August 9 Poznan / Poland
    August 10 Szczecin/Poland TBC
    Fri, August 11 Rostock / confirmed
    Sat, August 12 Hamburg TBC
     

    For this in the Seattle or surrounding area you can catch WILT this Saturday April first at Highline Bar with NOOTHGRUSH from Oakland.

    Anarchist anarchist metal blackened crust Crust D-Beat death Grind Metal Punk Rock thrash wilt
  • Web Store
    • PROFANE EXISTENCE WEB STORE – Shop all (most recent items listed first)
    • PROFANE EXISTENCE 12in LP’s
    • PROFANE EXISTENCE 7in EP’s
    • PROFANE EXISTENCE CD’s
    • 12in LPs – (Other labels)
    • 7in EP’s – (Other labels)
    • 10 in Records (Other Labels)
    • CDs – (Other labels)
    • Cassette Tapes
    • Shirts
    • Patches / Pins / Koozies
    • Books and Zines
    • Store Specials (History)
  • PROFANE EXISTENCE Records
    • About PE Records
    • PE Records News
    • Disco IIII: 2013 – Present
    • Disco III: 2011-2013
    • Disco II: 2001-2010
    • Disco: 1989-2000
  • PROFANE EXISTENCE BANDCAMP
  • Profane Existence Artists
  • Features
    • Interviews
      • Chris Parry
      • Daniel Weiken
      • Sean Fitzgerald
      • Gord Hill
      • ANTISECT
      • Nesha
      • Walter Bond
      • Jake Conroy (SHAC 7)
      • DEADLY REIGN
      • Adam DeGross
      • DESPISE
      • Luk Haas
      • Gord Hill
      • KRUM BUMS
      • MISERY
      • NEUROSIS
      • PUTREFACTION
      • THE SHAME
      • SUFFERING LUNA
      • Vaudie Va-Boom
      • VARIX
      • WARTORN
      • Mike XvX
    • PDF Archives
    • Vegan Recipes!
    • Photos
    • Video
    • Reviews
  • Events
    • On Tour
    • Punk / Activist Events
  • Mailing List
  • About Us / Contact
    • General Contact Info
    • Store Contact Info

Visit the PE web store!


PROFANE EXISTENCE has a web store filled with records, shirts, zines, tapes, patches, pins, CD's and more. Check it often as we are constantly adding new items to the list and selling out of old ones.

Visit the PE web store at:
http://profaneexistence.storenvy.com

Fast Food Worker Strikes in a Southern Context

  • December 4, 2013
  • by Wingnut Anarchist Collective
  • · Columns · Uncategorized

by Mo Karnage in Richmond, Virginia

mo-karn1

The South isn’t known for our good labor practices – and that might be an understatement.

In the Southern context labor has always looked different. Exploitation of workers has often taken a grim tone, slavery and coal mines being just two examples. I’m not giving yall Yankees or Capitalism in general an out here, both perpetuate a classist society, exploit workers out of greed, and generally benefit from the extra exploitation workers in the South put up with. But anyone from the South will tell you, exploitation down here has a different feel.

In the South, we don’t have a living context for unions- instead we have the “right to work”. The “right to work” laws are actually just anti-union and anti-labor laws with a deceptive name. While historically all states had extremely exploitative labor practices and anti-union laws, currently, the spread of “right to work” policies holds almost the entire South back in terms of labor organizing. This is just one way in which Southern workers have it worse than workers else where.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.politicalruminations.com/images/charts-graphs/right_to_work_states.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.politicalruminations.com/map-of-right-to-work-states.html&h=612&w=792&sz=38&tbnid=nx1qy2FM7aJ4OM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=128&zoom=1&usg=__b3e2cJEiingiw82Sz6XSkHO32dw=&docid=vswsn-BbuQ7KBM&sa=X&ei=1JufUtfiFZHlsATz34HABA&ved=0CD0Q9QEwAQ

Unions have been so repressed that the work to build one is really complex. There is a lot of anti-union rhetoric out there, even to the point of being included in employee training videos by giant corporations. The economy has changed since the hey day of unions, and it is difficult to imagine what a union in the South would look like now.

Well, the Fast Food Worker’s are about to show everyone one way a union can look on Thursday,  December 5th.

fastfoodstrikebanner

I heard about these strikes several weeks ago, when an organizer came out to help cook for Food Not Bombs.The organizer had fliers from the strikes that happened in North Carolina, and spoke passionately about the folks who need solidarity to improve their economic position. He was trying to network with local political, religious and community organizations who might want to lend support and help promote the movement.

The two main themes of these fast food worker strikes across the country are a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage and the right to unionize without retaliation. If the minimum wage had been raised to keep up with inflation, it would currently sit at about $16 an hour. And while even in right to work states unions are legal and companies are not technically supposed to retaliate towards union members or organizers, any worker on the ground can tell you that this is still a very valid fear.

Fast Food Workers are incredibly undervalued in this economy. All the bullshit slogans about bootstraps and whatnot clearly do not apply here. The low amount that these workers are paid, combined with the refusal to provide enough hours or benefits, traps people in a cycle of poverty. Folks who work for just the top 10 fast food companies rely on around 7 billion dollars in government assistance each year just to scrape by ( http://business.time.com/2013/10/15/fast-food-workers-are-costing-the-u-s-7-billion-a-year-in-public-aid/).

Fast Food Workers have a lot to lose. Many of them are parents or caretakers of other family members. But they are taking a stand here, because they can’t keep carrying the burden of low wages. They are the new face of labor struggles and the struggle for a living wage. You or I might not work in fast food, but it isn’t hard to see why this fight is so important to all workers. Service industry jobs are a huge part of the economy these days. A rising tide lifts all boats, and though you might not work in fast food, you will be better off when fast food workers are better off.

Locally, different areas are developing demands beyond the two unifying ones. As campaigns develop, local organizers are able to hold more meetings, become more structured, and really get to work solving the problems specific to those areas. New York City has Fast Food Forward, and Chicago has Fight for 15.

The campaign was initiated nationally about a year ago, and there have been a variety of strikes and days of action around the country since then. December 5th will be the largest, with strikes planned in 100 cities. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) funds a lot of the organizing that is happening, which is not a secret. The SEIU has around 2 million members.

Being funded by SEIU means this movement isn’t entirely grassroots. My understanding is though that the funding comes with few or no strings attached. What I can see is that the passion of the people behind it are really pushing it forward. There is one organizing group for 6 southern cities in 3 states- Richmond, Raleigh, Durham,Greensboro, Charlotte, and Charleston. There isn’t a legitimate webpage yet for this movement- just one facebook page for all 6 cities- NC Raise Up. This is a movement with room to grow.

fastfoodstrikes

It is significant that the fast food worker movement is taking place in the South – and it seems like the organizers are well aware. I spoke with one organizer, Zaina from North Carolina, who said she “really believes in organizing the South”. Organizers are able to gain ground and honor the past by drawing the connections between this movement and the civil rights movement. In Durham, NC the fast food strike is happening near the site of the first Civil Rights Sit-in.

For Richmond, this marks our first fast food strike. I talked to Crystal a 28 year old local with 2 sons and a 3rd child on the way, who works at a local Burger King. Crystal heard about the strikes in other places last year, and started to get involved. When I asked her what the most important message of the strikes was, she said “Hope”.

Building a movement from scratch, unlike fast food,  is a complex project, requiring love and patience, like a good batch of biscuits and gravy. In some cities, the day of strike may end up being more of a flash action for the time being. In others, these strikes are the catalyst for growing movements expressing the increasing frustration of workers who work hard but still can’t make ends meet. From Richmond, Crystal says her message to other workers is, “If you don’t come together, how you ever gonna be heard, how you gonna make a difference?”. Her understanding of the process is that it takes time, and that this work is for the future, for her children, because something has to change.

There might be a strike in your city tomorrow- go out and talk to the workers to get a better understanding of their reasons and what they need to see changed. Maybe you’ll decide to help.

Around here, they call the campaign Virginia Rai$e Up. I’m going to the strike tomorrow, and bringing some Food Not Bombs food to share with the picketers. I hope to talk to more workers and get a feel for where this movement is headed in Richmond. The strikes in New York and Chicago and other areas might be bigger and better organized. But for me, the important battle is the uphill one we have right here in the South. It’s a Southern thing.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

civil rights classism fast food strike fast food workers fast food workers strike fastfoodstrikes food not bombs intersectionality labor labor rights minimum wage mo karnage mokarnage poverty wages richmond right to work laws rva seiu south southern southern thing the south wage
  • « Prev
  • Next »
Leave A Comment   ↓

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. Fast Food Worker Strikes in a Southern Context | Mo Karnage

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Profane Existence
    • Join 508 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Profane Existence
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: