Guns and lives were cheap in Colorado,
And coal was king in nineteen hundred ten,
And, in the deepest coal mine’s darkest shadow,
There was no justice for the working men.
Every day brought cave-ins and explosions,
Because the safety laws were not applied,
For profit mattered more than the lives of all the poor,
And every day another miner died.
And the coal was black, and the blood was red,
And miners that dared organize always wound up dead,
And in those days of anger, a man of peace arose,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
In Walsenburg, in Ludlow, and in Sopris,
And thirty other towns they joined the cause,
Louis brought them hope when all was hopeless,
And he said the owner must obey the laws.
The miners went on strike in 1913,
And shootings left both guards and workers dead,
Louis’ voice was heard, he told both sides these words,
“Lay down the guns and talk instead.”
And the snow was white, and the blood was red,
That the miners and their wives and their little children bled,
And the owner took their homes, so they lived in tents in rows,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
The winter passed and still the mines were striking,
And the shooting and the killing had not ceased,
Louis couldn’t keep them all from fighting,
So the National Guard was called to keep the peace.
The National Guard arrived with their machine guns,
And they cracked a rifle over Louis’ head,
And they shot him till he died, but they still weren’t satisfied,
Till they filled his lifeless body up with lead.
And the sky was blue, and the blood was red,
And the National Guard left Louis and two dozen others dead,
Now he’s on a hillside where the Purgatory flows,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
Mourn with me, my sisters and my brothers,
For a leader lying silent in the grave,
A man who lived his whole life saving others,
And, in the end, his life is what he gave.
Louis lived his whole life saving others,
And, in the end, his life is what he gave.
And coal was king in nineteen hundred ten,
And, in the deepest coal mine’s darkest shadow,
There was no justice for the working men.
Every day brought cave-ins and explosions,
Because the safety laws were not applied,
For profit mattered more than the lives of all the poor,
And every day another miner died.
And the coal was black, and the blood was red,
And miners that dared organize always wound up dead,
And in those days of anger, a man of peace arose,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
In Walsenburg, in Ludlow, and in Sopris,
And thirty other towns they joined the cause,
Louis brought them hope when all was hopeless,
And he said the owner must obey the laws.
The miners went on strike in 1913,
And shootings left both guards and workers dead,
Louis’ voice was heard, he told both sides these words,
“Lay down the guns and talk instead.”
And the snow was white, and the blood was red,
That the miners and their wives and their little children bled,
And the owner took their homes, so they lived in tents in rows,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
The winter passed and still the mines were striking,
And the shooting and the killing had not ceased,
Louis couldn’t keep them all from fighting,
So the National Guard was called to keep the peace.
The National Guard arrived with their machine guns,
And they cracked a rifle over Louis’ head,
And they shot him till he died, but they still weren’t satisfied,
Till they filled his lifeless body up with lead.
And the sky was blue, and the blood was red,
And the National Guard left Louis and two dozen others dead,
Now he’s on a hillside where the Purgatory flows,
And words were the weapons that Louis Tikas chose.
Mourn with me, my sisters and my brothers,
For a leader lying silent in the grave,
A man who lived his whole life saving others,
And, in the end, his life is what he gave.
Louis lived his whole life saving others,
And, in the end, his life is what he gave.
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2014/7/9 - 10:59
Il sito dedicato al film “Παλληκάρι - Ο Λούης Τίκας και η Σφαγή του Λάντλοου” (“Palikari - Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre”)
Bernart Bartleby - 2014/7/9 - 11:15
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Parole e musica di Frank Manning.
Nella colonna sonora del film documentario “Παλληκάρι - Ο Λούης Τίκας και η Σφαγή του Λάντλοου” (“Palikari - Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre”) di Lamprini Thoma / Λαμπρινή Χ. Θωμά e Nickos Ventouras / Νίκος Βεντούρας, Grecia 2014.
Vorrei ricordare che il 20 aprile di quest’anno è stato il centenario dal massacro di Ludlow (20 aprile 1914).
E lo rammento soprattutto all’Ελληνικό Τμήμα των ΑΠΤ (il “greek team” delle CCG/AWS) perché quella strage ebbe luogo durante la festa per la Pasqua greco-ortodossa e perché il leader di quello storico sciopero dei minatori di carbone del Colorado, finito nel sangue, fu un immigrato greco, Ηλίας Αναστασίου Σπαντιδάκης, meglio conosciuto come Louis Tikas, nato a Creta nel 1886.
Dirigente dell’United Mine Workers of America, nel 1910 Louis Tikas sfuggì ad un tentativo di assassinio ad opera degli sgherri della Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency ingaggiati da una compagnia mineraria. Non ebbe la stessa fortuna a Ludlow nel 1914: Louis Tikas fu tra le 19 persone uccise dalle guardie private al soldo dei proprietari della Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, i miliardari Rockefeller. Louis Tikas fu crivellato di colpi ed uno dei responsabili del massacro, un sottoufficiale della guardia nazionale del Colorado di nome Karl E. Linderfelt, infierì sul suo corpo con il calcio del fucile, con tale violenza da fracassarlo…
A Louis Tikas e al massacro di Ludlow è dedicato il film “Παλληκάρι - Ο Λούης Τίκας και η Σφαγή του Λάντλοου” (“Palikari - Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre”) realizzato proprio quest’anno dai cineasti greci Lamprini Thoma / Λαμπρινή Χ. Θωμά e Nickos Ventouras / Νίκος Βεντούρας.
Palikari - Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
Louis Tikas