There was a time not long ago when Propagandhi would have refused to talk to this newspaper -- and most others.

After all, the local punk trio -- guitarist-vocalist Chris Hannah, drummer Jord Samolesky and bassist Todd Kowalski -- have spent 16 years lobbing thrash-punk musical Molotov cocktails at political and social targets, including the mainstream media.

So why, after all these years, would they agree to sit down with the big, bad Sun to discuss their new CD Potemkin City Limits?

Simple: They have an ulterior motive.

"If even something as minimal as the words Canada get out of Haiti were to ever be printed in The Sun then it's all worth it," Samolesky says.

Consider it done. Hey, we're not so bad. We'll even add the website www.canadahaitiaction.ca for those who want more info on the situation in the Caribbean country.

Or you could just pick up the long-awaited Potemkin City Limits, in stores Tuesday. As usual, along with music it comes packed with information about causes the group supports.

"In my mind we're three people who can be active in different ways, and one of the ways we choose is to be active in this band and make songs," explains Hannah. "Part and parcel with this is to try and draw attention to people who are doing work that is far more important than what any band on earth is doing.

"You can't just say, 'Things have to change, let's wear shirts.' You have to connect them to things where people are actually making changes, like people who are agitating despite how embarrassing or tiring or how many diminishing returns there are."

The hardworking band have been practising what they preach since the beginning. Hannah and Samolesky, both 34, got hooked on punk and activism as teens in Portage. They put together a group and moved to Winnipeg, eventually hooking up with kindred spirit John K. Samson.

After opening for L.A.'s NOFX at the Royal Albert in the early 1990s, singer Fat Mike signed them to his Fat Wreck Chords label, which helped take their music to an international audience. Albums like 1994's How to Clean Everything, 1996's Less Talk, More Rock -- their last album with Samson before he left to form The Weakerthans -- and 2000's Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes have quietly sold hundreds of thousands of copies, earning them a global following and bankrolling their locally based record label G7 Welcoming Committee.

Those albums have also earned them a reputation as pissed-off, humanitarian, anti-fascist, feminist vegans who aren't just going to sit by as the world collapses around them.

"Regular lifestyle is preaching to a certain extent," says Samolesky. "I don't care if people ream on me for saying that. We have to change things now, we're in a critical spot in this world. I think the potential of people is vastly underestimated on purpose by the corporate press and people just have to give it. What else are you going to do? Play video games and watch TV until you die and think, 'Oh, that was a good life?' You have individual power."

The band put their power to use once again on the blistering Potemkin City Limits, a name inspired by Russian history, political chicanery and, apparently, Ike and Tina.

The blackly humourous lyrics, written by Hannah and Kowalski, lash out at everything from war and genocide to systemic racism and corporate punk.

But while they still believe music has the power to be a catalyst for change by exposing people to various viewpoints and providing them with options, they aren't egotistical or naive enough to believe their music on its own can make a difference. Nothing can happen without action, Hannah says.

"I think some people, especially in music, can get very self-important and diluted about how important it is for people to hear what they have to say or do and they forget that they're in this world we live in, and there is a very real chance of doing more damage to the ideas you're trying to get across as there is in actually helping what you're trying to say."

And even if they don't start an "entire global revolution and restructuring of the global political system, the allocation of resources and resurgent development for making a sustainable planet," as Samolesky hopes, at least they tried.

Says Hannah: "If we don't succeed in that, and I don't have a ton of confidence that what we do is going to change things, then what this is importantly for me personally, is registering complaints before I blow my head off and having them there on record for the world to see when everything tumbles. That's something."