Emcee Lynx - Politics

Politics

Lynx's politics can be generally described as anarchist, but he also refers to himself as an autonomist, indigenist and feminist and describes his vision of an ideal future as a blend between anarcho-syndicalism and mutualism. He augments the traditional anarchist emphasis on class with a heavy emphasis on culture and history. According to interviews, his major political influences include Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Michael Collins, Lucy Parsons, and Mutualists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. He is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World supports their organizing and links to their website. He was formerly a member of the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA), a non-sectarian grouping of class-struggle oriented anarchists from across North America that includes Syndicalists, Libertarian Socialists, Especificists, and others.

Lynx's heavy emphasis on history and culture have led him to incorporate traditional Celtic music instruments and melodies into his music (his background is Scottish and Irish). He is an outspoken supporter of the rights of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, First Nations, and stateless nations "from Chiapas to Chechnya, Ireland to Tibet" and argues that those fighting for national liberation would be better off fighting for self-determination in an anarchist framework instead of trying to create new Nation-States.

He is vocal in his opposition to organized religion.

Lynx is also significant because he was an early advocate for File Sharing and was one of the most successful artists in the world in using the Internet as a medium to promote and distribute his work prior to the creation of sites like Myspace and iTunes that helped mainstream online music distribution. As imesh.com put it in August 2002:

Since the release of his first album (Soundtrack for Insurrection Volume I) in early 2001, Emcee Lynx has gained international recognition in Hip-Hop's Conscious underground as one of the most articulate and innovative of a rising tide of politically active artists - winning him grassroots distribution and a loyal fan base from California to the Czech Republic.