Matewan Page #3

thrown out of the mines.

Mines, hell! They got 'em in our

houses, they're setting at our

tables right now

and they're sleeping in our beds

while we're out living under a

piece of canvas at

the back of the hollar.

I been a union man my whole life.

I know the story with these coal

operators and their gun thugs.

The only thing they understand

is the bad end of a bullet.

If we show 'em, we just as soon

blow up their damn mines than

seen them worked by a bunch of

scabs and then they gonna listen.

- Someone is coming, it's Alex.

He got someone.

Where did you find him?

He come right up on the steps

They told me that C.E. Lively's

is where the union mens meet.

So?

I got business with the union.

That so?

What's your name, son?

They calls me "Few Clothes".

I didn't come here

looking for no trouble.

A mans got to eat.

- So why don't you go eat,

back where you come from?

They told me that they was jobs here.

- Go home n*gger.

- God damn scab.

You watch your mouth peckerwood!

I been called n*gger and I can't

help that's the way white folks is...

but I ain't never been called no scab!

And I ain't fixin' to start up now.

I'll go ton for ton loading coal

with any man here.

And when I do, I expects the

same dollar for the same work.

You get out of this hollar alive son,

you be doin' good for yourself.

Union men my ass.

You want to be treated like men?

You want to be treated fair?

You ain't men to that coal company.

You're equipment

like a shovel, a gondola car,

a hunk of wood brace.

They'll use you til you

wear out or you break down,

or your buried under a slate fall

and then they'll get a new one.

And they don't care what color

it is or where it comes from.

It doesn't matter how much

coal you can load

or how long your family

has lived on this land.

If you stand alone you just so

much sh*t to those people.

You think this man is your enemy?

Huh?

This is a worker.

Any union keeps this man out

ain't a union,

it's a god damn club.

Now they got you fighting white

against colored,

native against foreign,

hollar against hollar,

when you know there ain't but

two sides to this world...

them that work and them that don't.

You work,

they don't.

That's all you got to

know about the enemy.

You say you got guns.

Well I know that you all

are brave men

and I know you could shoot it

out with the company if you had to.

But the coal company

don't want this union

and the state government

don't want it.

The federal government

don't want it.

And they're all of them just

waiting for an excuse to come down

and crush us to nothin'.

Fellas, we're in a

hole full of coal gas here.

The tiniest spark at the wrong

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