Tom Morello is no stranger on the front lines of organized labor: the Rage Against The Machine guitarist has a history of showing up to support workers on strike and using his guitar to boost morale on a wide range of picket lines, from mine workers to Hollywood actors and writers. Morello showed solidarity with a unique union on Thursday as he held the line at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in Los Angeles, the only unionized strip club in the United States.
Clips posted to social media show Morello playing protest songs including his own “Hold the Line” from 2021’s The Atlas Underground Fire and leading call-and-response chants like “When I say ‘union,’ you say ‘power!’”
Related: Even Tom Morello Doesn’t Know What’s Going On With Rage Against The Machine
“This is what solidarity looks like!!” Morello wrote on Instagram. “While the owners are still doing very shady things it was a night of radical unity and radical rump shaking!”
Workers from Star Garden began picketing over a year ago in mid-2022 after several employees petitioned the bar’s owners over the wrongful termination of two dancers and safety concerns about “a room which is regularly full of belligerently drunk men who push our boundaries.” The workers voted unanimously to unionize in May 2023, forming Equity Strippers Noho within the Actors’ Equity Association. While contract negotiations remain open, the union has made an interim agreement with management that will allow the club to reopen.
Watch Tom Morello hold the line with workers on strike at the only unionized strip club in the U.S. below.
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TONIGHT after over a year long battle on picket lines, at the NLRB, and beyond Star Garden reopens as a UNION STRIP CLUB and @tmorello is performing #SolidaritySummer pic.twitter.com/JULBhmaxCa
— Dripped Out Trade Unionists (@UnionDrip) August 25, 2023
LA’s hottest club is Star Garden. It has union strippers. It has farm workers. It has @tmorello. It has no ATM bc the manager is being weird. It’s in Noho. It has no photos allowed inside. It’s serving empowerment. It’s serving dignity. We all want to party with @EquityStripNoHo. pic.twitter.com/BmLE04mbqe
— Elizabeth Strater (@straterize) August 25, 2023
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