Roger Waters at the Newport Folk Festival 2015. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0

Fame and fortune are often corrupting forces, ones that beget power and comfort. To stand with the afflicted requires sacrificing this privilege and few embody that sacrifice more profoundly than the legendary musician of Pink Floyd Roger Waters.

For years, through his music and political action, Waters has amplified the voices of the oppressed. He has championed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, defended attorney Steven Donziger, demanded the closure of Guantánamo Bay, has long stood against the apartheid state of Israel and now unwaveringly against the genocide of Palestinians.

Waters joins Chris Hedges to discuss his political activism, including his support for Palestine Action, a group criminalized by the British government for their protest against Israel.

The pair discuss how Waters’ art has documented his moral devotion against oppression over the years while also examining the political decay — fueled by greed and corruption — of the United States, the United Kingdom and other world powers.

Chris Hedges

There are very few artists or musicians who have stood as doggedly on the side of the oppressed as Roger Waters, the co-founder, bassist, singer, and songwriter for Pink Floyd. He has been an outspoken defender of Palestinian rights and critic of the apartheid state of Israel long before the genocide. He was one of the principal signers of an open letter called, “Artists Against Apartheid” and supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement denouncing musicians who perform in Israel.

He called out the fabrications disseminated by Israel that Hamas carried out systematic sexual assaults on October 7th. He attacked Labour leader Keir Starmer for his backing of the genocide and headlined a concert for Palestine with Cat Stevens and the rapper Lowkey.

He came to the defense of the British punk rap band, Bob Vylan, who, at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, led the chant of “Death, death to the IDF,” referring to the Israeli Defense Force. After the British government banned Palestine Action, labeling it a terrorist group in the UK under the Terrorism Act of 2000, and then arresting 100 people for expressing their support for the group, he posted a video to X in which he praised Palestine Action as “a great organization,” noting they were non-violent and “absolutely not terrorists in any way.”

Membership in or public support for the group is now classified as a criminal offense and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or a fine. In the video Roger can be seen making a sign from a piece of cardboard, “This says Roger Waters supports Palestine Action. Parliament has been corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power. Stand up and be counted. It’s now,” the musician read. “This is the moment I am Spartacus.”

Israel and its Zionist allies have mounted vicious and sustained assaults against him, producing slanderous documentaries, engaging in a stream of defamatory attacks and character assassination, blocking publicity for his “This Is Not a Drill” concerts, pressuring music companies to cancel publishing agreements, forcing concert venues to blacklist him, even denying him hotel rooms while on tour. But Roger has never wavered.

He helped launch the campaign called “Countdown to Close Guantánamo”. He stood fast with Julian Assange during his long persecution, once performing outside the UK Home Office just miles from Belmarsh Prison where........

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