Panopticon - Black Soot and Red Blood lyrics

Tonight, the disharmonic symphony of the
Cicadas plague my ears
Drifting off to the mind numbing
Hum of grinding gears
Families starving in the eerie
Silence of the hills
Lie exposed to the elements so fierce
Hold out just one more day
Say the same tomorrow… say the same tomorrow
For the union, hold out, for a
Fair wage and a living, this sorrow
For a fair wage and a living, this sorrow
Living and dying union men
Living and dying union men
Meet them in the streets
Meet them in the hollers
Meet them in the hills and don't back down
Don't back down fight for what is right
For every working man to earn his keep
Fight for what is right till they
Meet your demands…in Bloody Harlan

Well at that time we were
Working 10 hours a day
And we were getting 6 and a fraction cents an
Hour well, we breaker boys
We'd have our feet in
The chute and we'd be picking the slate out
When the breaker boss would sneak up
Behind us, and if he'd see a
Piece of slate coming through
He'd pick up the scrape and
He'd hit you in the back with it
And he'd hit you hard! And then he'd say
"Pick that slate out!" well they
Used to abuse us, actually

Well, finally, we got to a
State where we figured, well
There was always a strike and that was
When I learned my first real
Political lesson
About what happens when you won't
Take a position against
The coal upgraders, against the capitalists
The first thing that happened
The union officials came to
Us and said that we had to go back to work
That we were violating the agreement we said
"To hell with the agreement, we're gonna
Stay out on strike until we get
Our demands!" well then the politicians
Began messing with us, and putting pressure
On us then of course, the priests

Well finally, the coal company did agree to
Meet with us and they
Agreed to raise the hourly pay from 6 and
A fraction cents to 8 cents a hour so we
Got big concessions today that
Wouldn't mean anything
But peanuts, but it meant a whole lot to
Us, and our paycheck at that period well
This was my first lesson, that if you
Stuck to your senses, stuck
To your organization, and stuck
Together, within solidarity
You could defeat them

Besides that, I learned that the politicians
Worked with the coal companies i found out
That the union officials
Were working with the
Coal companies i also found out
That the Catholic hierarchy was
Working with the coal
Companies here was a combination
Of the whole thing
You see? And you had to pump up, against the
Whole combination when the coal mine
Priests would find out
Who was trying to instigate a union well
They'd abuse them

Lives laid down for the union
Scarlet red around your neck
Black lungs and broken backs
In Bloody Harlan
In Bloody Harlan…in Bloody Harlan
The years go on and the mountains crumble
The right to live and work
Sacrificing body and land
From Kentucky to West Virginia
The workers rise and fall
While wringing hands profit off of it all

SHAME! (yelled continuously)
91 years old! You need to calm down sir
That's police brutality!
I'm ready to die, are you?