Bruce Springsteen has composed a song in response to police killings in the United States that is reminiscent of the protest songs of the bloody final years of the Franco dictatorship.Streets of Minneapolisdialogues in time with What do those people want?, Death bells, Let's say no either In MargalidaTo name a few, because, unfortunately, more had to be written than we would have liked.
These are songs written and sung like a historical ballad, meant to nourish oral tradition and collective memory of crimes committed by the state during a dark period, including the names of both the executed and the perpetrators. At the same time, they are pieces of civic resistance, a call to general courage so that the words of life may triumph over the words of death used daily by Donald Trump and the regime's propagandists.
Springsteen's lyrics contain key lines: "They claim it was self-defense, sir, don't believe what your eyes have seen." This is the most vivid portrait of our times. Narrative versus reality. Lies versus truth. The regime dedicates enormous amounts of money and effort to making sure you don't believe what you've seen and that you don't draw your own conclusions. But in the age of cell phones, police brutality cannot be disguised, as was demonstrated on October 1st. That's why the song ends by reminding us that in Minneapolis they had a weapon "against the dirty lies of Miller [Stephen Miller, a high-ranking official trusted by Trump and Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security]: "Our whistles and our cell phones."
"We will remember the names of those who died in the streets of Minneapolis." "Murderers of reason, of lives, may they never find rest in any of their days, and may our memories haunt them in death."
