There’s a slogan in left-wing circles that goes, “Don’t mourn, organize!” Attributed to Joe Hill, the martyred American labor leader and songwriter of the early twentieth century, its meaning is simple: When powerful people do terrible things, it’s important to regather one’s strength and stand up for what is right without delay. Right now, 110 years after Hill’s execution in Utah on dubious charges, those words feel especially relevant. Donald Trump has spent the early days of his second administration on a barrage of cruel, destructive, and despotic actions intended to create “shock and awe” among the half of the country that does not support him. What are we going to do in response?
If you’re a musician, one answer is to sing a protest song. We recently looked at the history of this form in our new list of the 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time, including music in many styles, from many places, speaking out for many causes. There’s also lots of other protest music happening right now that, in time, might find a place on lists like this — much of it coming from radical punk bands like Lambrini Girls, from the U.K., and Ekko Astral, from Washington, D.C.
The Polish art-rock band Trupa Trupa might not always sound like they’re making protest music, but they’re part of this moment all the same. Their founder, Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, is a poet and activist who has devoted significant energy to documenting the history of the Holocaust in their country and to speaking out against fascist repression today. Once you know that, the noise they make takes on a different character. It starts to sound like a scream against the rising drone of right-wing authoritarian politics around the world.
Trupa Trupa’s new single, “Mourners,” is a swirling psychedelic dream, with a sly bass line that evokes 2000s Radiohead and a steadily mounting sense of tension behind the music. “Oh, let the mourners go,” guitarist Wojtek Juchniewicz sings and shouts. Kwiatkowski provides a counterpoint with his Beatlesque backing vocal: “Let the mourners come.” The production by British post-punk veteran Nick Launay helps this minimal song compel your attention as the band keeps playing.
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Is “Mourners” a protest song? Kwiatkowski thinks so. “Trupa Trupa — the name of the band means a band of dead men or a dead body, two dead bodies,” he wrote in a recent message to me (one of many interested journalists he corresponds with regularly). “It’s a bit like a band of gravediggers, isn’t it? … And isn’t it true that we’re like these funeral gravediggers? Commenting on the twilight of the West? A West where the richest man in the world throws a little Sieg Heil and gets away with it?”
People in Trupa Trupa’s part of the world know what it looks like when a fascist regime takes power. Hitler has been dead 80 years, but the memory of what he did isn’t gone yet, at least as long as people like Kwiatkowski are here to remind us. Maybe Trupa Trupa are mourning the failure of America’s democratic system; maybe they are mourning something in our moral character that used to keep people who do Nazi salutes far away from any position of power.
In another message, Kwiatkowski sounded a more optimistic note. “What we carry with us, as people from the city of Gdańsk, is hope,” he wrote. “Here, we believe in hope, in solidarity, in democracy, in the idea that even the greatest evil can be defeated. We know that it can be overcome — and not through violence, but through peaceful means.”
In other words: Don’t mourn, organize.
Trupa Trupa’s new EP, also called Mourners, is out Feb. 21 on Glitterbeat Records. That same week, the band will arrive in the U.S. for a short club tour. Find the dates for that tour below.
Trupa Trupa 2025 U.S. Tour Dates
Feb. 19 — San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
Feb. 21 — San Pedro, CA @ The Sardine
Feb. 22 — Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers
Feb. 25 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Feb. 27 — Washington, D.C. @ Quarry House
Feb. 28 — Philadelphia, PA @ Silk City
March 1 — New York, NY @ Heaven Can Wait
