{"id":10440,"date":"2013-12-21T17:57:30","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T22:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=10440"},"modified":"2014-01-13T18:37:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T23:37:09","slug":"the-red-dagger-by-heathcote-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2013\/12\/the-red-dagger-by-heathcote-williams.html","title":{"rendered":"‘The Red Dagger’ by Heathcote Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

London’s symbol for the hub of global finance in the City
\n(Shown on the city’s flag to convey heraldic grandeur)
\nComes from a blood-soaked dagger that killed the rebel, Wat Tyler,
\nFor Tyler had challenged London on behalf of the poor.<\/p>\n

The dagger survives and is on display at Fishmonger’s Hall
\nIn the City’s secretive ministate within a state
\nAnd, like a trophy, its red silhouette is on the City’s coat-of-arms
\nAs if Tyler’s murder were something to celebrate.<\/p>\n

But the hundred thousand marching on London in 1381
\nWere serfs objecting to being kept as virtual slaves
\nBy the feudal equivalent of corporate power, whereby people
\nWere caught, and taxed to death just for being alive.<\/p>\n

A hundred thousand of those on whose exploitation
\nThe wealth of a feudal society depended:
\nFrom ploughmen, to carpenters, to cowmen, to sheepshearers
\nTrapped by a bondage that only death ended.<\/p>\n

So their spokesman, Wat Tyler, demanded equality,
\n‘All men should be free and of one condition.’
\n‘We will be free forever, our heirs and our lands.’
\nBut instead of sympathy he aroused suspicion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Part 1<\/center>