"You shall not kill. You shall love your neighbor as yourself
You shall not spend your days in piling pelf on pelf.
You cannot serve both God and Mammon, for you must
In one or yet the other put your heart and trust.
“Call no man master. To the truth be ever true.
The light within you, keep it burning, clear and pure!
He who denies the truth the truth to be,
Unpardonable in the Father's sight is he.
“As brothers work and live. All things in common hold.
Remember this: Love's spirit is not bought nor sold:
He who is without sin let him first cast the stone:
Not by your words but by your works shall you be known.”
And this was “blasphemy”, so they who heard him said,
And forth to Pilate they, the “rebel Wobbly”, led;
And he was hanged. The charges? Oh, the same: “Intent
To dethrone God and overthrow the government.”
You shall not spend your days in piling pelf on pelf.
You cannot serve both God and Mammon, for you must
In one or yet the other put your heart and trust.
“Call no man master. To the truth be ever true.
The light within you, keep it burning, clear and pure!
He who denies the truth the truth to be,
Unpardonable in the Father's sight is he.
“As brothers work and live. All things in common hold.
Remember this: Love's spirit is not bought nor sold:
He who is without sin let him first cast the stone:
Not by your words but by your works shall you be known.”
And this was “blasphemy”, so they who heard him said,
And forth to Pilate they, the “rebel Wobbly”, led;
And he was hanged. The charges? Oh, the same: “Intent
To dethrone God and overthrow the government.”
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2015/4/24 - 11:13
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Fu autore di una raccolta di canzoni intitolata “Songs of Love and Rebellion” pubblicata nel 1915, ma questa “Blasphemy” – dove il “wobbly” imprigionato e giustiziato è paragonato a Cristo – non vi è inclusa ed è sicuramente precedente, facendo parte della collezione del militante anarchico Jo Labadie, da lui conferita all’Università del Michigan nel 1911. La “Labadie Collection” è forse la più completa raccolta di materiale sulle lotte anarco-sindacali negli USA tra fine 800 ed inizio 900.
Testo trovato su “Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology”, a cura di Joyce L. Kornbluh, USA 1964.
Qual è la differenza tra Cristo e il militante sindacale? Nessuna: entrambi furono arrestati, torturati ed uccisi con l’accusa di aver voluto “detronizzare Dio e sovvertire l’ordine costituito”…