Cultures

This chapter traces the organizational history and creative output of Paredon Records, a US-based company created by two veteran Jewish activists with roots in the worlds of folk music and the Old Left, Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber. Founded in 1970, Paredon released fifty records generated by political movements across the world, including Palestine, Greece, El Salvador, Angola, the Dominican Republic, Northern Ireland, Haiti, Mexico, and the United States. Dane and Silber envisioned Paredon as raising awareness inside the United States about national liberation struggles taking place overseas, as well as providing an ongoing organizing role within societies abroad. In addition to the 1973 album A Grain of Sand, which became a key text of the Asian American movement, Paredon produced records covering struggles in Thailand, the Philippines, China, and Vietnam. This chapter explores these releases as an example of a musical tricontinental solidary in the face of American imperialism.