Peter, Paul and Mary Still Blowin’ In Wind

To Lead Living Wage Rally on Sunday

James Allardice
Mirror staff writer

   Legendary folk singers, Peter, Paul and Mary, will kick off the Yes on Measure JJ campaign on Sunday, September 22, with a concert at City Hall. The long-running folk music trio has thrown its support behind Santa Monica’s living wage, which will go to the voters in November.
   Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary said supporting the living wage is consistent with the group’s commitment to social activism. “As usual, the music will coincide with a political and ethical stance,” he said in an interview with the Mirror.
   Yarrow compared Santa Monica’s struggle for a living wage to Cesar Chavez’s effort to unionize farm workers in the 1960s. “We marched with Cesar Chavez 30-something years ago … and this is a similar thing. If you have workers working for an appropriate wage, it’s fair.”
   Yarrow said that without a living wage, taxpayers are carrying the burden that employers should be responsible for. “If people are making a fair wage, the tax payers don’t have to pay for as much,” he said. “The point is on a state level the taxpayers ultimately pay for food stamps and other programs. Essentially taxpayers are facing the burden rather than businesses and employees.
   “The workers have the right to have a living wage and the taxpayers have the right not to support the impropriety of business,” Yarrow said.
   “There is no justice without peace and there is no peace without justice. There can’t be economic justice without social justice,” he said.
   Much of Peter, Paul and Mary’s music is rooted in political and social issues. Yarrow said, “That is our joy. At the end of 42 years, that is one of the main reasons we are together. We have made an ongoing commitment to social, political and ethical issues.”
   He believes music was a unifying force in the Civil Rights movement. “I really don’t think much would have come from the Civil Rights movement without songs,” Yarrow said. “It brings people together in mutual strength. Why did we sing ‘We Shall Overcome?’
   “When people come together, hold hands and sing … all of a sudden they have more courage and a mutual understanding.”
   Yarrow said he spent a lot of time in Santa Monica before it became “hotsy-totsy.” “When I was there, Venice was hardly the place to go,” Yarrow said. “It certainly has changed a lot. Much of the change in Santa Monica over the past 25 years is rooted in the development of a tourism-based economy.” Yarrow said, “The economic prosperity of a town like Santa Monica has been built on the backs of the workers. These are the people who deserve a living wage.”
   Also at Sunday’s campaign kickoff will be State Senator Sheila Kuehl, Maria Elena Durazo, president of H.E.R.E. Local 11 and Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown. The free concert will begin at 11:30. Following the music and rally, campaign organizers hope to go door-to-door to garner support for Measure JJ.
   Peter, Paul and Mary are best known for their songs, “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “If I Had A Hammer,” “Leaving On A Jet Plane” and “Puff, The Magic Dragon.”