Recognized names in American media, music, politics and activism will assemble this Saturday, May 10, for the inaugural United We Stand Festival in the Pauley Pavilion Arena at University of California, Los Angeles – kicking off a 10-campus university bus tour that aims to educate and empower young people to assert a new electoral force in politics.
Organized by Christina Tobin and the Free & Equal Elections Foundation, the festival features TV host Larry King; former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich; author and congressional candidate Marianne Williamson; David Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps; Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s; former Green presidential candidate Jill Stein, and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
In Tobin's words, the unique brand of politics, activism and music brought together into a single festival is "designed to inspire America’s youth to educate themselves and exercise their civil liberties to become true advocates for change.”
Media makers from Russia Today's Abby Martin to Ben Swann, Lee Camp, David Swanson, Amber Lyon, Josh Tolley, Brad Friedman and Occupy.com's Michael Levitin will be speaking at the United We Stand festival. Music will include performances by Public Enemy, Immortal Technique, Wu-Tang Clan, Playing for Change, Cynic, Rooftop Revolutionaries, Sounds of Solidarity, The Siren, Luminaries and A-Alikes, among others.
A host of other activists at the festival will draw attention to hot button issues, from Tami Canal who helped launch the March Against Monsanto movement, to Dan Johnson, the founder of People Against the NDAA (P.A.N.D.A.); Public Banking Institute founder and author Ellen Brown; Kimberly and Foster Gamble, who created the viral movie Thrive, and many others. See the full list of invited guests here.
The driving force behind the festival is the call for open – that is, Free & Equal – elections moving beyond the two-party stranglehold on electoral politics and encouraging a new era of youth-driven public engagement in the political process.
With midterm elections approaching in November, United We Stand's effort to "Awake the Nation!" by igniting an alternative movement for political change will focus on topics ranging from Constitutional freedoms and drone policy to economic inequality, new energy initiatives, alternative economies, education reform, truth in media, banking crimes and the Federal Reserve, GMOs and organic agriculture, money in politics, NSA spying, tax reform and Internet freedom.
“I am appreciative of the leadership, integrity and understanding Free & Equal has of the flaws within the system and feel they’re ready to challenge those flaws and turn the system so it works with the people,” Dennis Kucinich said in a statement about the festival.
Larry King, who served as TV moderator for the Free & Equal Elections Foundation's open presidential debate featuring alternative candidates in 2012, said: “As a moderator and host for 55 years, I have always believe in Free Speech and the right for people to throw their hat into the ring, and for the right to be heard. I salute Free and Equal Elections for what they are doing to reform our electoral process."
Ben & Jerry’s have engaged in their own traveling national campaign, "Get the Dough Out of Politics," to clean the corrupt, corporate purchasing of legislators out of Washington – particularly in regards to mandatory GMO labeling, in which their home state of Vermont is about to pass the nation's first formal anti-GMO bill.
“There’s way too much money in American politics," said Ben & Jerry in a statement before the festival. "It’s drowning out people’s voices, especially since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision gave corporations the go-ahead to spend limitless sums of money to influence our elections."
Last fall, the festival's founder, Tobin, spoke with Carl Gibson in this interview published on Occupy.com, where she discussed her vision of young people taking back political power by running independent campaigns for local office in the coming election cycles.
Media can RSVP to attend and schedule interviews at the festival by writing to katemh@freeandequal.org. To purchase festival tickets at the revolutionary price of $17.76, go here.
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