Pussy Riot on "Like a Red Prison" tour occupying oil objects in Russia
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We came to the essence of why our friends are in cages while Putin and his friends are not.
The "Like a Red Prison" performance was the first time when we escaped the borders of Moscow and went on tour occupying oil facilities all over our country.
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The last year's oil and gas fiscal revenue was around 200 billion dollars, but only Putin and a some of his friends saw these 200 billion. This is why we decided to inspect oil extraction industry ourselves and sing our new song about the red prison to the oil and gas workers.
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Some lines of the "Like a Red Prison" lyrics were written by Nadja Tolokno in the Mordovian prison, so you have to learn it by heart with special accuracy. However, we write our lyrics all together in our big band, so let police investigators not break their necks!
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Here is the "Like a Red Prison" lyrics (for group singing when capturing oil objects):
The country has hardly mastered
Mechanized labor.
More and more often when I'm working hard —
I am rude — don't know if it's appropriate.
Local activists flow down the pipeline,
Filling it with life and calling for destruction!
Federal Penitentiary Service, Interior Ministry, Emergency Situations Ministry, and Rosnano,
LUKoil, TNK, Rosneft, and Gazprom,
Gruel-Propaganda, Gruel-Propagandaaaa!
Evildoers at the oil towers,
Oil on the tables,
Sechin with crocodiles,
Like in a red prison.
Bathe the worker in the Norwegian fjord,
Cut off your penis like the Depardieu character,
You have a president like IranвАЩs ayatollah,
And your church is like it is in the U.A.E.
Evildoers at the oil towers,
Pumping till its dry,
A physics university teaches theology,
Epaulettes and oil wells,
Navalny in jail,
Hugo Chavez lives,
Like in a red prison.
Evil fucking sexist, leave the hole alone!
Homophobic vermin, out from history!
Don't fuck with her pussycat,
She spends oil on something else.
In the Mordovian days' quiet,
She makes salads and sometimes eats them.
Here's the video-documentary of selected moments during the scary "Like a Red Prison" oil tour:
In keeping with best traditions of feminist political punk, each occupation of an oil facility, like some oil pump in a distant region of Russia, started with a breakthrough.
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Before the breakthrough the Pussy Riot members carrying punk-feminist flags, musical instruments and equipment hid in the heath waiting until the security guard patrol (like the Rosneft one) went away far enough to allow for the successful occupation of the oil pump.
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After occupying the pump a special portrait was immediately put on it. For example, a portrait of the head of Investigation Committee of Russia, Colonel General Bastrykin, known to the Pussy Riot activists for his liking to sign orders of arrest for our friends dissatisfied with the fact that nobody besides Putin feels these 200 billion oil dollars.
After hanging out the portrait they put feminists flags waving above the pump: all friends of Mr. Putin as well as Mr. Putin himself are evil fucking sexists (as one of our song's lines says) who believe that the state and power is built upon oppression of women, LGBTQI communities, atheists and other social groups. Shortly after that they started playing punk rock.
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When some stupid pipe was on the way of a breakthrough, the bravest of us, Grelka, took her sledge-hammer and running in front of this feminists' breakthrough crushed the obstacle.
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After occupying the 14th oil pump in a third Russian region in a row we took some rest because we got an urgent telegram from the Mordovian prison #14. Tolokno was writing to us!
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"The absence of belief in the value of creative and productive power of mankind is what comprises my current reality. And, by the way, yours as well. And this is exactly what turns reality into hell. In a female prison, as well as in the whole of Russia, creating new ideas and continuous search is not valuable. Not valuable, to put it lightly. In Russia, you will be punished for the commitment to principles of creativity, experimental approach and intellectual curiosity, the commitment that provides the cultural, economical and political wealth. They are now really close to setting a pre-industrial estate-hierarchical system where you can buy a title with your endless loyalty and unconditional submission, impeccable over-compromising and unthinking conformism. If you are ready to bend under the will of superiors, day and night, sleeping and awake, then perhaps you can expect to have a quiet life. Perhaps your business won't be taken away. May be you won't go to prison. But, frankly speaking, it's still limn on water. As people said at Stalin times, there are no irreplaceable people.
A person becomes irreplaceable in a different system of values. A system the triumph of which we still have to fight for. And here, in the red female prison that became for me an expressive and precise model of what the bitchy regime is leading Russia to, the need to fight for the values turns out even more obvious.
Irreplaceability of the person gets established where the individuality and singularity win over the fascist unification, where critics and development beats conservatism and stagnation."
N.Tolokno
Prison #14, Mordovia"
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Having read the Tolokno's telegram, we rushed to occupy even more important oil objects with increased power — as Marx taught us and as Tolokno wrote us, the fight for the values starts with fighting for the economical basis.
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Breakthroughs became harder and more dangerous: not surprising since the Pussy Riot activists always fight for best places for their actions.
And within this scary tour we had to sing "In a Red Prison" with more diligence than ever.
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On one occasion we stumbled upon a thick silver oil pipeline which carried the oil noisily.
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Sometimes during the tour we entered big cities and occupied the roofs of petrol stations always giving the preference to Rosneft’s ones. The workers were always excited by our performances.
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Station workers were shouting and asking us about the chant in the second verse:
Bathe the worker in the Norwegian fjord
And we told them that there is a northern country where workers live better than office clerks. And the government together with the police in this northern country are afraid of these workers, they are ashamed of stealing billions of money belonging to these workers and clerks. They are ashamed of putting these workers and clerks in prison for nothing.
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Workers also wanted to know what this chant means:
Cut off your penis like the Depardieu character
Activist Grelka, as she is familiar with cinematography, told them that there is a movie by Marco Ferreri called "La derniere femme" where the Depardieu character cuts off his penis as a matter of fight against his instincts that don't let him be free. “Depardieu is the man!” - exclaimed workers.
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Despite all the variety of oil objects occupied by us for performing the song about the red prison, the main point was the oil pumps we made posters of country leaders spin around.
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The main evildoer amongst the spinning portraits was Igor Sechin, vice-premier of the Russian government - so close confidant of Mr. Putin that he was exclusively put in charge of all Russian oil.
Mr. Sechin spent his early life in Africa where locals coined a saying that became part of our song:
Sechin with crocodiles
In Africa it means an extreme human anger, greed and readiness for predatory pursuing your opponents and destroying people who contest on your prey.
This man subdued all security forces in Russia in order to make sure that all 200 billion dollars of oil money will belong to Putin and only Putin.
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We already met Colonel-general Bastrykin, another evildoer arresting anyone who contests Putin’s right for 200 billion oil dollars during our “Like in red prison” tour and we will meet him again!
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Despite how many people are already thrown and will be thrown into Russian prisons, Pussy-Riot punk-feminists will keep on fighting until these two slogans from the end of our song loose their meaning:
Evil fucking sexist, leave the hole alone!
And another one:
Homophobic vermin, out from history!
P.S. You can contact Pussy Riot activists regarding everything happening around the "Like a Read Prison" tour at this e-mail address: pisyariotto@gmail.com.