So I was coming home from working my usual bullshit graveyard shift the other day when I put my music on shuffle. A song came on I hadn’t heard before that really left an impact on me even now.
That song was ‘The Massacre of Ludlow’ by Woodie Guthrie.
I listened to the lyrics about how the Colorado government in 1914 sent militia groups to Ludlow to bust up a bunch of striking coal miners. Typical early American union busting stuff.
What shocked me was when he talks about how the miners had their families living in tents and were burnt alive by the militia using kerosene. They then started shooting at the workers with live rounds. And not just the workers – they killed 13 children and pregnant women also. Using them old school hand cranked Gatling guns.
The workers held out and eventually got guns themselves and shot at the militia (again, that the Colorado government sent), sending them fleeing.
Just…fuck