a continuation of my post about fender/gibson...

so i did a bit of research today (research meaning something along the lines of this) and i found out some more info about the whole tom morello/south korea/guitar factories thing thanks to this website. here's a quote from morello about the whole situation:

"Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation. I fully support the Korean workers' demands for justice in the workplace. All American guitar manufacturers and the people that play them should hold Cort accountable for the awful way they have treated their workers. Without us, they go out of business. Simple as that. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights."

serj tankian, of system of a down fame, is also getting behind these factory workers. here's what he had to say:

"As musicians, our axes are not immune to the global race to the bottom techniques incorporated by multi-nationals escaping responsibility to workers and the environment. As consumers and rockers we have to be very careful that everything we touch and use are created and handled with ethics and equity in practice."

it's kind of funny, though- i was reading some of the comments on the article, and many of the commenters are being mildly rude about the whole thing, saying that he should get behind a cause that actually matters, like the ongoing issues in haiti or the floods in australia (on a side note, check out these before/after aerial shots of the floods in brisbane. pretty crazy).

why can't a celebrity get behind something like this and not be criticized? sure, it's not really that big of an issue, but still. people are losing their jobs in an industry that mr. morello, as a guitarist, is obviously involved in. so yes, he cares about that industry and is protesting something that is completely unfair to these factory workers. what's the big deal? i'm on his side.