20 abril 2014

E de repente...

... mestre Cartola
na voz de Beth de Carvalho


O Mundo é um Moinho

No "El País" de 18 de Abril

32 páginas sobre
Gabriel Garcia Marquez



Lembrando que nada começou ontem

Há 100 anos, o massacre
de Ludlow, Colorado, EUA




Comrade, after battle, rescuing
body of slain miner
Photo shows events relating to the Ludlow Massacre, during which a tent camp of striking miners at Ludlow Colorado was attacked by the Colorado National Guard on April 20, 1914. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2010)
«Après plusieurs mois de grève sur ce site du Colorado appartenant 
à Rockefeller, la garde nationale et des nervis payés par les patrons de 
la mine attaquent le camp retranché des mineurs. Une des plus violentes luttes entre les travailleurs et le capital dans l’histoire des États-Unis.
C’était un matin d’avril, un lendemain de Pâques, cette fête que célébraient nombre des immigrés grecs de Ludlow (Colorado). Trois membres de la garde nationale étaient venus ordonner la libération d’un homme prétendument retenu contre son gré. Louis Tikas, le responsable du camp, s’était alors rendu à la gare, distante d’un kilomètre, afin de rencontrer le commandant du détachement. Pendant leur rencontre, deux compagnies installèrent des canons sur une crête dominant le camp de mineurs. Tikas sentit le coup fourré et retourna auprès des siens. Le feu fut déclenché peu après.
La bataille dura toute la journée. Des gardes sans uniforme, payés par les patrons de la mine, vinrent renforcer les miliciens du lieutenant Karl Linderfelt. Alors que le soleil se couchait, le passage d’un train permit à un certain nombre de mineurs de prendre la fuite. Quelques minutes plus tard, la soldatesque s’empara du camp. Louis Tikas fut arrêté en compagnie de deux autres mineurs. Son corps fut retrouvé le long de la ligne de chemin de fer. Il avait été abattu dans le dos. Sa dépouille resta trois jours de suite à la vue de tous, passagers des trains qui circulaient et résidents. Il fallait faire un exemple. Avec le leader syndicaliste, deux femmes, douze enfants, cinq mineurs et syndicalistes et un garde furent tués ce 20 avril 1914 à Ludlow, terme, selon Howard Zinn, de l’une 
des « plus amères et violentes luttes entre les travailleurs et le capital dans l’histoire de ce pays ».
Ludlow Massacre
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
It was early springtime when the strike was on,
They drove us miners out of doors,
Out from the houses that the Company owned,
We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.

I was worried bad about my children,
Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge,
Every once in a while a bullet would fly,
Kick up gravel under my feet.

We were so afraid you would kill our children,
We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep,
Carried our young ones and pregnant women
Down inside the cave to sleep.

That very night your soldiers waited,
Until all us miners were asleep,
You snuck around our little tent town,
Soaked our tents with your kerosene.

You struck a match and in the blaze that started,
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns,
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me.
Thirteen children died from your guns.

I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner,
Watched the fire till the blaze died down,
I helped some people drag their belongings,
While your bullets killed us all around.

I never will forget the look on the faces
Of the men and women that awful day,
When we stood around to preach their funerals,
And lay the corpses of the dead away.

We told the Colorado Governor to call the President,
Tell him to call off his National Guard,
But the National Guard belonged to the Governor,
So he didn't try so very hard.

Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes,
Up to Walsenburg in a little cart,
They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back,
And they put a gun in every hand.

The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners,
They did not know we had these guns,
And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers,
You should have seen those poor boys run.

We took some cement and walled that cave up,
Where you killed these thirteen children inside,
I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union,"
And then I hung my head and cried
.

Links


19 abril 2014

Porque hoje é sábado (391)

Rodney Crowell


O destaque musical deste sábado
vai para o cantor country
norte-americano Rodney Crowell.










The Long Journey Home

Cabelo e barba em Caxias

Parece-me que aqui



À minha esquerda, Eugénio Ruivo e o saudoso Gorjão Duarte e, de camisola branca, talvez Álvaro Pato. Os que se lembram de mim quando fui preso, poderão reparar que os meus cabelos até aos ombros já tinham ido à vida. A foto não mostra mas entretanto conservava uma barba enorme agora desproporcionada em relação ao tamanho do cabelo. Quando chamei a atenção do barbeiro da cadeia para essa desproporção, respondeu-me secamente que estava ali «para cortar cabelos e não para aparar barbas». Os leitores não estranhem este dialógo prisional tão fútil sobre a minha imagem no sinistro ambiente de Caxias. Eu tinha sido preso acidentalmente, não estava denunciado como militante do PCP, não tinha sido torturado e estava quase certo de que seria libertado depois do 1º de Maio.

18 abril 2014

A 18 de Abril de 1974


Aqui no Expresso com curtos depoimentos em vídeo de Rosa Redondo, Fernando Penim Redondo, José Manuel Tengarrinha, Sérgio Ribeiro, Helena Neves e Fernando Correia.

(Outros presos em 18 de Abril de 1974: Albano Lima, Mário Ventura Henriques, Figueiredo Filipe, Vítor Mateus Branco,  Joaquim Gorjão Duarte,  Orlando Bernardino Gonçalves,  Mário Sena Lopes, António Manso Pinheiro [lista provavelmente incompleta]).

Para além da posterior circulação oral de informação sobre os nomes de quem tinha sido preso, recordo que os primeiros nomes que soube foi graças a um jovem guarda prisional que, em repetido "engano" me levava um saco de plástico (roupas ou alimentos enviados familiares) com um papel agrafado com o nome de um destes presos a 18 de Abril. Tive pena de, na confusão da libertação, nunca lhe ter podido agradecer.

Um longo combate desde 18 de Abril 1904

Os 110 anos de L´Humanité



 mais capas aqui