Dave Marsh–rock critic, author of several books, and editor of Rock & Roll Confidential–has just published 50 Ways to Fight Censorship and Important Facts to Know About the Censors, a slim volume that moves from admonitions to register and vote through how-to advice on publishing newsletters to boycotting and suing the censorship bastards. It ends (way number 50) with the admonition to “make the real obscenities the real issues” (meaning things like “homelessness, unemployment, war and militarism, racism, sexism, AIDS, homophobia”). Along the way it’s packed with lists: of “50 great banned books” (courtesy of the American Library Association), of Marsh’s 20 great censored pieces of music and ten great anticensorship songs, of video-making resources. (“Make an Anti-Censorship Home Video Showing the Various Benefits of Free Speech in Your Community–and the Perils of Censorship” is way number 29.) There are names, addresses, and phone numbers of the major motion-picture companies, the networks and broadcasting-industry associations, the book, music, and video retail chains–all so you can make your protest directly.
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Marsh says he doesn’t have any illusions about our government. “I don’t think this is a good system. But I do think that there are two separate questions in political struggle generally in the United States. One is: Can we describe an orbit outside of the system in which we may function? And the other is: Can we function more effectively within the orbit of the system? Now there are some people who find it compromising to work within the system at all. That’s fine with me. But I don’t agree with it. And certainly my book’s premise is that one must do both and one can do both.”
