"At Both Conventions, a Band Salutes Anarchy" is the attention grabbing headline the New York Times went with today, but that's not the only conclusion you could draw from the high profile role that Rage Against The Machine took in Denver and St. Paul. A longterm commitment to social justice is more the way I'd put it, although I see the false Anarchists! bugaboo is getting better traction in the mainstream press. On the bright side, at least the public demonstrations are finally getting some ink in newspapers outside of Minneapolis

Check out Rage guitarist Tom Morello, in this interview conducted a few months ago as we were just getting started here at GRITtv.

Morello was in the middle of his Axis of Justice tour, donating box office proceeds to local issues at every stop -- Road Recovery, Sweet Home New Orleans, Amnesty International, Iraq Veterans Against the War.

From mpetersonMN on YouTube, here's the Rage Against The Machine acapella performance outside the state capital building in Minnesota. The band was kept from the stage by law enforcement, so they waded into the sea of people in front of the stage and rocked the house through a megaphone. Things wind up with a rousing group chant of "f* you, I won't do what you tell me."

Then, most of the crowd merged with the Poor People's March; what happened next is reported here. Hint: lots of tear gas.