Open Letter
“Our radical imagination is a tool for decolonization, for reclaiming our right to shape our lived reality.” – Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good
We are a collective of artists, DJs, producers, philosophers and other cultural workers coming together to articulate our solidarity with the Palestinian people, and do what we can in this fragile and urgent moment.
We are inspired by numerous recent anti-apartheid movements standing in solidarity with Palestine – Kiasma_strike, Ravers for Palestine, AATMA and DJs Against Apartheid, to name a few.
We chose action in front of the evidence we found about Flow Festival’s complicity in upholding the apartheid regime of Israel. We expect Flow Festival to match with actions its public statement of values “Flow Festival is committed to justice, equity, and equality. We expect our entire staff, as well as our associates and distributors, to adhere to the same values.”
Flow Festival started off as a small indie festival bringing together local and international music and people. Flow has been a festival loved by many people in our local communities. Now it is an accomplice in genocide, in deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and in perpetuating settler-colonial oppression of the state of Israel and its allies.
We find ourselves in a predicament, facing numerous struggles – wars, genocides and the consequences of capitalism, colonialism and the climate crisis. Yet, our communal needs are as they have always been – we need to come together, to listen to music, to dance, to rejoice. We wish to sustain these communal needs in alignment with our community values of equity, justice, grace and anti-apartheid politics.
It has been 10 months of genocide by the settler colonial apartheid state of Israel after brutally and violently occupying indigenous Palestinian land for 76 years, displacing millions of Palestinians from their homes, from their rights, access to food, water, electricity and shelter.
The United Nations International Court Of Justice recently declared the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as illegal. The time to act is now.
We have the power as artists and creators of culture to forge a new path for ourselves, a path rooted in ethical and communal values. Instead of being at the mercy of exploitative institutions, we can hold them accountable and create systems of artist to artist support. We do have collective power – now we can choose to gather together and use it.
“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political
"I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent.”
– Marwan Makhoul, Palestinian Poet
8.8.2024
In Helsinki and everywhere
The Flow Strike working group
