Tom Morello showed his solidarity with the only unionized strip club in the US by performing at the reopening of the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, Los Angeles on Thursday after a year-plus strike.
“This is what solidarity looks like!!” Morello shared via Instagram. “While the owners are still doing very shady things it was a night of radical unity and radical rump shaking!”
In clips shared from the impromptu appearance, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist can be heard playing his solo track “Hold the Line” from 2021’s The Atlas Underground Fire as well as leading a call-and-response that went “When I say ‘union,’ you say ‘power!’” Watch below.
Picketing began in mid-2022 after several employees petitioned the bar’s owners over the wrongful termination of two dancers while also raising safety concerns against “a room which is regularly full of belligerently drunk men who push our boundaries.” In May 2023, the workers voted unanimously to unionize as Equity Strippers Noho within the Actors’ Equity Association. Although their contract is still being negotiated, the union has been recognized by management and are returning to work under an interim agreement.
Elsewhere this summer, Morello has performed at a picket for the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes. He also became an honorary Italian citizen, and has collaborated with both Alice Cooper and BABYMETAL.
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