October 25, 2024 • 52 mins
Andy Piascik & Steve Thornton co-authored a collection of articles about the people's history of Connecticut, gathered in their book, Revolutionary Connecticut. Andy comes to the podcast studio to explore articles about Bridgeport; we talk about strikes, plays, HUAC hearings, Housatonic Community College, & more!
Get Radical Connecticut at: hardballpress.com, bookshop.org, amazon.com
Articles on Bridgeport: bportlibrary.org/hc/grassroots-historians/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of
Bridgeport Unmasked, theBridgeport Public Library
podcast concerning all thingsabout Bridgeport, connecticut.
Today, I have with me AndyPiasik, historian and co-author
of Radical Connecticut, acollection of essays about the
Constitution State and hasplenty about Park City, which is
(00:24):
, of course, bridgeport,connecticut.
We'll be talking about thosearticles today.
So, andy, thank you for bravingthe sweltering heat outside to
(00:45):
come here in this niceair-conditioned Beardsley Branch
library Looking forward totalking to you.
How you doing, andy, I'm verywell, thanks for having me.
Awesome, awesome.
Before we get into anythingthat's related to anything, I do
have to ask and I'll tell youwhy I have to ask in a moment
Are you a Little League guy, alittle league world series
(01:06):
baseball guy?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
um, a little bit, yeah, going back many years to
when I played little league oh,that's awesome, was it?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
was it for bridgeport , or?
Was it original little league,nice, nice, okay.
Well, that's actuallyincredibly appropriate.
The only reason I brought it upis because I read your article
about Bridgeport getting toWilliamsport getting to the
finals in 49 and 50, I believeand so I wondered if you had a
(01:37):
personal connection there.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, unfortunately, the little league that I played
in doesn't exist anymore.
We used to play in SeasideVillage.
It was a diamond, very nicesetup that lasted probably 25
years into the 70s.
I'm not sure exactly when itended, but yeah, that was a big
part of my youth.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh, certainly On to Radical Connecticut, which is a
book that you teamed up withSteve Thornton, another
historian and writer from I wantto say from the area Is he from
?
He's from Hartford.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I might just ask, because Steve Thornton also
writes articles for theBridgeport History Center as you
do.
Radical Connecticut, whichwe'll be talking about in just a
moment, is hardly your firstforay into writing history stuff
.
Do you want to just tell thefolks out there you know what
you've been doing as a historianand where they can find your
(02:36):
books, your works if they wantto read you?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
get your book or what have you?
Sure, local history is only onepart of the history that I
write.
I've written a book that wasabout the integration of pro
football.
It was a series of interviewswith black players who came into
the NFL in the 1940s, calledGridiron Gauntlet.
That book came out, I'm goingto say, 15 years ago or more,
(03:03):
and I write about historybasically around the country,
even international.
I had a long article publishedsome years ago about Latin
America.
So yeah, bridgeport andConnecticut are just two pieces
of some of the history that Iwrite and those two actually do,
you know, integrate with eachother.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Someone is writing about Mexicans moving to
Bridgeport, and so that's kindof an international and local
thing going on.
I'm not sure, absolutely, yeah,I'm not sure if your Latin
America article, you know was,was both, you know, foreign and
local, or if it was just aboutthose countries.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
No, it was just about developments in Bolivia,
venezuela and various countriesthat have been trying to
transform their societies towardmore justice.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So cool.
You've mentioned some otherthings you've written.
You mentioned some other thingsyou've written.
Where can people get RadicalConnecticut if they so desire to
get themselves a copy?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's available pretty much on any online bookseller.
They can order it directly fromthe publisher, hardballpresscom
.
It's a little publishing outletin Brooklyn, new York, and I
would think Amazon and prettymuch all the other ones have it.
I know it's probably moreprofitable for Hardball Press if
(04:34):
you buy it directly from them,but any way that people can get
their hands on it.
You know, I think it's wellworth reading and I hope people
do support the book.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh, I agree with that .
I got my copy from bookshoporg.
It is out there in a number ofplaces.
Yeah, it is on Amazon and BarnesNoble online, and also smaller
things like bookshoporg Well,cool.
Well, let's get into why.
You know we're saying this bookis worth reading today by
talking about what's in it.
(05:06):
Now, before we delve into thetopics, which we're going to do
very soon, I just want to telleverybody that Bridgeport Public
Library takes no positions onany of the subjects we're going
to talk about today.
Any opinions stated or impliedare only held by the person
talking about them.
That said, you know, it's notall fairy tale stories in this
(05:30):
book.
I'll put it.
That being said, not much inthe way of trigger warnings.
Unless you're a fan of SenatorMcCarthy and HUAC, then you
might have a problem with thisbook.
They do get brought up onoccasion throughout the book and
if you really are a diehard fanof theirs, I'd like to
(05:52):
recommend any of the otherpodcasts we have on this channel
.
Feel free to check those out,and if you have no idea who Joe
McCarthy and HUAC are, we willbe talking about them later,
because at least one of thearticles about Bridgeport
specifically, you need to knowwho they are to make sense of it
.
Cool.
So the things that we're goingto be focusing on today are the
(06:16):
articles that Andy wrote,specifically because, again,
andy and Steve Thornton teamedup to write this book, and those
that are about Bridgeport, andthere's a lot of other great
articles in here.
This is just a Bridgeportpodcast, so we're focusing on
those and I figure we wouldstart with the strikes.
(06:38):
We got some strikes inBridgeport that are particularly
unique and interesting, as wewill see in just a moment.
Andy, what are you thinkingabout us starting with the
teacher strike of 78?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, sure, that was a momentous event in Bridgeport
history, and recent enough sothat a lot of people who are
still around remember it well,it happened in September of 1978
, right at the beginning ofschool.
It had come a couple years, I'mgoing to say three years after.
Teachers felt like they gotstuck with a substandard
(07:15):
contract by the city ofBridgeport, and so for that
reason, I think some resentmentand anger had been developing.
So when negotiations hit aloggerhead leading up to
September of 1978, the teachersvoted to strike, and when
(07:36):
students showed up for the firstday of school that's when
people really discovered thatschools were closed the teachers
were out on the picket line,and it really soon escalated
into a very bitter kind ofshowdown with the law and order
judge I guess you could call him, who felt like the need to lay
(07:59):
down the line and start sendingboth union officials and
teachers to jail in very largenumbers.
Within a matter of days of thestrike starting, dozens of
teachers were arrested andshipped off to prisons that were
actually very far away fromBridgeport 50 miles, 60 miles.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
By the end of the total 60 miles by the year.
Yeah, because, as it still istoday, connecticut teachers are
by law not allowed to strike.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's right, it's illegal, yeah, yeah.
So teachers went into itknowing they were breaking the
law, figuring, as has happenedmany times in history we'll talk
about other instances whereasif you're united enough and you
have enough support from thecommunity which the teachers did
read correctly that they didhave that they would be able to
(08:55):
withstand the fact that it wasillegal for them to be on strike
.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, no, no, parents were involved.
Students were involved.
The PTA was involved.
Students were involved.
The PTA was involved, which ismy favorite bit, because my
experience is that PTA andteachers typically are at each
other's throats, but when thechips were down, they were
together school administrations.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I'm not so much sure that it's against teachers,
because parents understand aswell as anybody what kind of
conditions that teachers operatein.
It's not such a big issue nowat least I hope not but
oversized classrooms were a bigissue in the 1970s and one of
the main issues that theteachers were trying to get the
Board of Ed to address at thetime issues that the teachers
were trying to get the Board ofEd to address at the time.
(09:48):
So, yes, that's a veryimportant point that you raised,
that the parent-teachersassociations rallied to the
support of the teachers duringthe strike and prevented, I
guess you could say, any of thestudents from going to school by
keeping their children home.
And eventually, within just acouple of matter of days, all
(10:10):
the schools were closed becausethe number of teachers who
crossed the picket lineoriginally was very small and
then it dwindled basically tozero.
The total number, as I remember, of teachers who were jailed
was 274.
And the last batch that werearrested were sent by bus to a
(10:34):
National Guard armory 70 miles Idon't remember the name of the
town, but it was like 70 or 75miles away from Bridgeport, but
it was like 70 or 75 miles awayfrom Bridgeport.
So these were really gruelingkind of conditions that this
judge was putting the teachersthrough.
It wasn't like just going overto the prison in North Avenue
(10:54):
and registering and beingreleased.
These teachers stayed in theseprisons in this case a National
Guards barrack for days and days, some for as long as a week or
two, and they were outraged.
I think outrage was becomingdirected more and more at the
city.
I note in the article thatthere was a series of teacher
(11:18):
strikes in the country at thesame time.
All of them were settled, butwhile the Bridgeport strike was
still going on and so more andmore national attention was
being focused on Bridgeport andthe fact that this judge was
insisting that hundreds, almost300 teachers had to be arrested
and put behind bars, yeah, andthat's how it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I mean they also went through.
I don't know what the technicalterm is, but showers to get rid
of lice.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You know, just to give you an idea of what these
teachers were put through.
And yeah, no, but it was analmost universal thing, I think.
The first day of school, 3% ofteachers punched in and then it
got less than 3%.
So, yeah, no, this really is anear-unanimous situation.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, and that may have partly been because it was
very last minute, I mean, peoplewere preparing for the start of
school.
Yeah, it sounds like maybe thedecision to strike was made very
late, just before, within a dayor less of the opening of
school.
So, yeah, I mean, it's typicalsometimes that you have some
(12:36):
workers or teachers in this casego to work, but as soon as I
think the word spread, like yousaid, pretty much everybody was
refusing to go to work afterthat right, uh, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The lines did not stop after the.
You know the, the, the 270 oddum arrests.
I think it was three weeks insomething like that that that
the board and the union finallycame to an agreement.
Yes, that's right, it was a kindof victory, if I remember Like
the teachers did get a lot ofthe things they wanted.
(13:15):
Then, though, interestinglyenough, bridgeport teachers are
still the least paid teachers inFairfield County.
And um, and if I I pardon me ifI didn't get this exactly
correct If the union and theboard of education have a
problem with a uh with with thecontract that they sign, the
(13:39):
management can, can like appeal,but the union can't, or
something to that degree.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, that's right.
This happened in a series oflegislative actions that were
taken in the wake of the strike,where, if the union and the
management are stalemated theway they were in the prelude to
this strike, the municipality inquestion has the right to
(14:07):
reject whatever the arbitratoris putting forward, but the
teachers do not.
That's very similar to the wayit was 46 years ago when this
strike took place, where ifteachers feel like they're
getting a bad proposal that theydon't like, they would be
(14:28):
risking their jobs andimprisonment if they were to go
on strike again.
So in that sense, I think therewere victories in terms of the
contract that was won in 1978,but in terms of the ability for
teachers anywhere in Connecticutor in Bridgeport, they would be
running the same risk that theyran in 1978.
(14:53):
And I mentioned in passing thatthere were other municipalities
in the last 10 or 15 years,specifically Chicago I've
mentioned, that were up againstthe same obstacles but who
elected a union leadership thatwas fairly aggressive and
determined to push back againstcuts and all the other problems
(15:14):
that the city of Chicago wasfacing, which I would say, on a
smaller scale, are similar.
In Bridgeport, you mentionedsalaries being lower.
There's constant turnover inBridgeport because salaries are
higher elsewhere and teachersare constantly leaving to take
higher paying positions in othertowns.
But I think Chicago example canbe one if there's ever such a
(15:39):
situation again, because they'veprevailed in getting improved
conditions and wages byviolating the law and going on
strike and enduring, because ifyou build up enough of a
solidarity network and supportsystem, you can prevail,
regardless of whether the thingthat you're doing may be against
(16:00):
the law.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yes, I think the takeaway idea is that it depends
upon having the support of thecommunity of the professionals
striking, and that's actually atheme repeated in your other
strike-based article in thisbook about the 1979 Handy and
Harmon precious metal factorystrike.
Again, the strike would havebeen unremarkable except for
(16:33):
Willie Matos, theSpanish-American coalition and
the community getting involved.
Andy, do you want to take thatand run with it?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, sure, that one I recall very well because I was
directly involved in it.
It was a factory just over thetown line in Fairfield, about
where Whole Foods and Home Depotnow are.
Interestingly, this factorystarted in Bridgeport and
(17:00):
eventually moved to thatlocation in Fairfield.
It had a long history forreasons I've never even been
able to pin down of having largenumbers of Portuguese-American
workers from the hollow sectionof Bridgeport employed there,
and that continued after therelocation to Fairfield.
Many of the workers continuedto live in and come from
(17:22):
Bridgeport.
When the workers went on strikein September of 1979, now this
is just a year after the teacherstrike we were just talking
about the company actively triedto recruit replacement workers,
which historically have beenknown as scabs workers which
(17:43):
historically have been known asscabs and they targeted
low-income sections ofBridgeport where there were high
unemployment, one of which wasthe area of State Street on the
west side, which happened to bejust basically around the corner
of the Spanish-AmericanCoalition's offices on Colorado
Avenue.
So several youths from theneighborhood who got these
flyers that the company washanding out to recruit workers
(18:07):
went into the SAC office andshowed the flyers to Willie
Matos and the others who were inthe office working there I'm
not sure if they had full-timestaff or not, but the response
was immediate.
You know, willie was a longtimelabor radical activist going
back to the 1960s, still inBridgeport, a great guy, and
(18:28):
immediately put out a call tofirst the community to ignore
and not follow up on trying toapply for a job at a place where
workers were on strike, andthen called together a coalition
from the neighborhood of clergy, other union members, workers
and eventually the Handy andHarmon folks union and workers
(18:52):
themselves got involved and soit became an ongoing project
that lasted pretty much thewhole autumn that year and was
highly successful in preventinganybody from trying to pursue
jobs as scabs at the factory,but then also began to mobilize
people to go to the picket lineand culminated with a fairly
(19:14):
large march and rally throughFairfield that ended up getting
the attention of the companyenough so that they settled the
strike.
That was terms that werefavorable to the workers.
I would say that based on mydirect experience, the way I
remember it, I don't think thattoo much of that would have
happened had it not been for theSpanish-American coalition
(19:37):
being as aggressive as they were, because the union was kind of
you know, sending workers to thepicket line hoping for the best
, negotiating at the same timethat the workers were out on the
picket line, and I think theefforts and the work that was
done by the support committeereally kind of pushed the issue
(19:59):
a little bit more, kicked theunion in the butt a little and
ended up with this march andrally that was at least 1,000
people, might have been a littlebit more on a Saturday
afternoon in November, a good 10weeks or so after the strike
had been going on, and thenwithin a very short time, I'm
going to say the very next week,the company agreed to the
(20:22):
demands that the union wasputting forward.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Willie Matto is a very interesting guy.
He makes multiple appearancesin your articles.
He wasn't just a union guy, healso helped other people through
the Young Lords Party that'sright which is an organization
of Puerto Ricans that maybe youcould give us a detail or two
about yeah, and then for manyyears after that he worked for
the state commission on humanrights, um, until he retired.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The last that I knew I spoke with him about three or
four years ago, he was stillliving on the east side of
bridgeport.
So, um, he's still around andstill probably plugging away
doing some kind of good work, Iwould have to imagine given what
I read about him.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, no, he organized free breakfast
programs and health clinics andthings like that.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah yeah, the Young Lords Party initially started in
Chicago.
The Young Lords Party initiallystarted in Chicago, had its
biggest and most active chapterin various sections of New York
(21:34):
City the Bronx East, harlem, theLower East Side, brooklyn and
1970, I believe it was a chapterwas formed in Bridgeport when
people from Bridgeport hadidentified with the Young Lords
and then when the kind ofleadership of the national body
decided that they were going toset up a chapter in Bridgeport,
it was a big step forwardbecause naturally Chicago,
(21:57):
philadelphia and New York areamong the largest cities in the
country.
Bridgeport, by comparison, is150,000, much smaller working
class.
So that was a big step forwardand the young lords recognized
it as such.
Just parenthetically, I willsay that, as small as Bridgeport
may be, its Puerto Ricanpopulation, both then, 55 years
(22:23):
ago, and now, is a higherpercentage of the city's
population than New York City,which is probably surprising to
people because we think of NewYork City as being kind of the
Puerto Rican capital of theUnited States.
But as a percentage Bridgeportis higher and as a percentage
Connecticut is the highest interms of its Puerto Rican
(22:43):
population as a percentage ofits population in the whole
country.
So yeah, the Young Lords werekind of inspired by, and often
worked in coalition with, theBlack Panther Party.
They also worked withorganizations of poor and
unemployed whites, asians,chicanos and other nationalities
(23:07):
as a kind of poor people'scampaign in order to put
pressure on government officialsat all levels to try to deal
with the needs of people, to tryto deal with the needs of
people.
They also, specifically, wereorganizing against police
brutality, which tends to behigher among Puerto Ricans than
(23:29):
any other ethnic group in thecountry, except for African
Americans, and was an ongoingproblem within Bridgeport itself
.
The first catalyst, as far as Icould determine, was a big rent
strike right here on East MainStreet, just down the road, a
ways going toward I-95.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
What was that strike around the time of the other
strikes?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
we were talking about it was 1970, so it was earlier.
The Young Lord's life wasactually fairly brief.
Nationally it started in 1969,and by 1976, the group had
disbanded.
The Bridgeport chapter wasactually one of the last that
was still hanging on, going into1976.
(24:12):
The catalyst for the work thatWillie and the rest of the young
(24:38):
lords in Bridgeport were doingwas there was a horrible fire on
Easter Sunday in 1969, maybejust about six months before the
group was formed, in which Ibelieve it was 11 people were
killed on the east side,primarily a Puerto Rican.
Puerto Ricans were primaryamong the casualties.
Yeah, so housing conditions andrents and putting pressure on
landlords, who were rightlyoften referred to as slumlords,
was a big part of the work thatthey were doing when they were
formed in Bridgeport and theyeventually branched out into
other things.
You mentioned the FreeBreakfast for Children program.
(25:00):
That was something that was setup to provide children with
breakfast before school.
They began providing those.
It ended up being like severalhundred students, as I remember
the research I was doing.
So it was very much a communityservice oriented organization
(25:20):
that was also trying to educatepeople about the conflicts that
they didn't really think wereresolvable unless there was
popular pressure put on thegovernment and powers that be in
order to bring about change.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, ok, so there's a lot of community activism
articles in Radical Connecticut.
In addition, there's a lot ofthe arts.
You know, andy, you wrote anumber of articles about arts
related to Bridgeport.
We have an article on theauthors of Between the Hills and
the Sea, which is a novel.
That's.
(25:57):
I'm not sure if you'd call it asatire, but it's about uh,
working conditions in bridgeport.
Uh, the comic strip pogo, whichI was not familiar with but
apparently was the uh comicstrip in the 50s, and um the
walter kelly, the, the writerand and artist, uh lived in
(26:17):
Bridgeport.
We had the all-black casting ofa version of Macbeth, and
Bridgeport papers were a hugepart of making sure that another
play waiting for Lefty didn'tget shut down in New Haven.
So yeah, there's a bunch there.
Andy, do you want to pick yourfavorite thread or two and
pursue those about arts inBridgeport?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah sure, what's become known over the last 80
years or so as Voodoo Macbethwas a monumental theater event
started in New York City.
But a first stop outside of NewYork City, when I went on the
road, was in Bridgeport.
I went on, the road was inBridgeport.
(27:02):
What it was was it was thevision of a very young Orson
Wells, whose name, I'm sure, isfamiliar to many of people
listening to this.
I believe he was 20 years oldat the time.
This is 1936.
He was working for a governmentprogram known as the Federal
Theater Project, which is animportant element of a number of
the chapters in the book.
It was designed to create jobsfor people working in theater
(27:28):
whose livelihoods had beenimpacted by the Great Depression
stagehands, actors, writers,set designers and it was, uh,
funded by the government toprovide people with work.
But a secondary and probablyequally important piece of it
was it was meant to bringtheater to places in the country
(27:54):
where there might not normallybe theater either, because it
wasn't a viable thing to sustainfinancially in a small town
somewhere.
So it gave people.
And remember this is 1936.
It's way before television.
Of course, many of these townshad movie theaters, but it might
be the first and maybe the lastopportunity that someone in a
(28:16):
small town might have to see alive theater presentation, and
some of them were serious dramas, some of them were comedies,
some of them were designed forchildren, some of them were
strictly entertainment for agood fun night out, but they did
try to.
I mean, many of the people intheater were left-wingers who
(28:36):
were trying to comment in oneway or another about the
problems of the Depression.
The Macbeth, a story that OrsonWelles came up with, was to
transport the story fromScotland and instead set it in
19th century Haiti.
So it took on an anti-colonialdimension within the story.
(28:59):
So he auditioned and eventuallyhired a large number of
African-American actorsAfrican-American actors.
Obviously, it was a very largecast and crew, because the
Macbeth story is many differentcharacters in it and you also
needed stagehands and setdesigners.
So it was a rousing success.
(29:20):
It opened in Harlem early in1936 and then set in for a long
run at a prominent theater inBrooklyn, and then, when it was
decided that it was going to goon the road I think it was to
eight or nine different cities,bridgeport was chosen as the
first stop, and so they did fiveperformances at what was called
(29:43):
the Park Theater, which used tobe on Main Street.
It's been long demolished.
If people know where theAquarian offices are, across
from the main headquarters ofthe M&T Bank, that's about where
the theater was.
So it was greeted veryenthusiastically both by
(30:03):
audiences here and by thecritics for what were two daily
newspapers in Bridgeport at thetime and I'd say probably close
to 100%, maybe 98% of thetickets were sold and, like I
said, letters to the editor inthe newspapers as well as the
reviews that were written inboth newspapers were wildly
(30:27):
enthusiastic.
People were very happy abouthaving such high-quality theater
come through Bridgeport.
Limited run though it may havebeen the whole experience of
Voodoo McVeck as it's becomeknown, because it ran for many
months in New York before itwent on the road and then, like
I said, I think it was ninecities.
(30:49):
The second stop afterBridgeport was Hartford, but it
became really a touchstonemoment in American theater in
the 1930s and when you readabout Orson Welles or you read
about the theater of the 1930s,invariably it'll come up because
it was such an innovative ideaand it was such a successful
(31:09):
thing.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And there's a lot of I have.
So I have seen throughBridgeport History Center's
database of videos they did have.
They do have online the finalscene where cover your ears if
you don't want me to spoilmcbeth for you mcbeth gets his
head cut off and raised, and allthat by mcduff and um uh, it's
(31:36):
let me, let me put it this way a, a millennial in 2024, watching
a grainy video of this fromalmost 100 years ago.
Um was impressed, like that'show impressed.
Like you know, you're correctabout the size of the cast.
It was astounding.
(31:57):
The amount of props used werealso pretty darn astounding.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'm not sure if you had anything else to say about
that.
Well, yeah, and they went allout.
I mean, it was tractor trailersfull of props and stagehands
and folks went on the road, cameto Bridgeport, stayed probably
in one of the local hotels anddid a five-day staging of this
great show.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So yeah, it was kind of a momentous theater event for
the city, right 1936, middle ofthe Depression, no one has a
television and this affordabletheater comes and is just an
astounding show.
It must have been.
If it was cool for me, it musthave been astounding for the
thousand people that werewatching that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And I'm glad that you used the word affordable,
because I left that out.
That was another one of thegoals of the Federal Theater
Project, with all the work theywere doing, understanding that
the audience that they weretrying to reach were not the
well-heeled type that go to saythe way we think of Broadway
today.
To say the way we think ofBroadway today that the goal was
(33:13):
to get working class people andpeople who otherwise wouldn't
go to see a play into thetheater.
So that was also subsidized.
Prices were very low becausethe government was picking up a
good part of the tab.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Absolutely.
And speaking of the government,I'm kind of forcing a segue I
think it's time we talked aboutHUAC's trip to Bridgeport.
So, for all the folks out therewho might not know, huac stands
for the House Un-AmericanActivities Committee and that
was created in 1938, so not longafter the play we were just
(33:50):
talking about and became the USgovernment's means of
suppressing communist activitiesand accusations of communism
and alleged attempts tooverthrow any part of the
government.
Careers and reputations werewrecked because they were, um,
because you know, being accusedof breaking the Smith act was
(34:32):
just about seen as just about asbad as um as actually breaking
it.
And the reason it seemed bad isbecause, uh, from here and
especially into the fifties, uh,america was very, very
concerned, uh concerned aboutcommunism.
There was a general panicagainst the spread of communism
(34:55):
and that was called the RedScare and that was provoked
largely, most famously, bySenator Joe McCarthy.
Andy, I will hand the wheelover to you, but I just want to
pull from.
I mentioned our cartoon, pogo,a few minutes ago and one of the
(35:20):
characters in Pogo, pogo wasn'toverly political but it had
some political series and one ofthe characters was a simple Jay
Malarkey, who was supposed tobe a take on Senator Joseph
McCarthy.
So yeah, andy, you would pleasetell us about CUAC.
(35:45):
You wrote an article in thebook book and there's one online
, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, it's interesting how so many of these
things kind of connect to eachother because, uh, the federal
theater project, which I justmentioned, which was the outfit
that put together the uh Macbethperformance, was really the
first group that came under firefrom HUAC.
Huac, as you said, started in1938.
(36:12):
And it was pushed back byreactionary and far-right
politicians and people whosupported them, who objected to
the fact that the federalgovernment was underwriting, you
could say, these plays andtheater projects that were
critical of capitalism, criticalof the direction that the
(36:34):
United States was going, etc.
And eventually it built upenough momentum so that the
Federal Theater Project wasended just a few years after the
Macbeth that we were talkingabout, parenthetically.
If people want to get a littlebit of a handle on some of that,
there's a terrific movie thatwas made by Tim Robbins called
(36:56):
Cradle Will Rock.
That came out about 25 yearsago.
It has an all-star cast.
There's multiple currents tothe story that sometimes make it
a little bit difficult tofollow, but a lot of it is about
the Federal Theater Project andthe politicians who attacked it
, the writers and theadministrator who came under
(37:18):
attack for some of the work theywere doing Susan Sarandon,
ruben Blades, john Turturro,john Cusack, vanessa Redgrave
and on and on.
Just a terrific movie with aterrific cast, anyway.
So the HUAC thing also relatesto the chapter of the book that
(37:40):
you mentioned, between the Hillsand the Sea, the novel that was
written by the Gildans, bertand Katja Gildan, who were
Bridgeport residents, not justwriters, but also before they
were able to make much money aswriters.
Also, bert was working infactories and was a union
activist.
(38:00):
Both were known to be membersof the Communist Party.
This is right after World WarII, I'm going to say around 1945
into the 1950s.
So all these things are kind ofrunning together.
The way that the investigationscommittees worked was, first and
foremost, they held hearings inWashington where they called on
(38:25):
the carpet people that theysuspected of being communists,
people they were pressuring toreveal information about the
work that the communists weredoing.
Primarily, it seems like theirmain goal was to get people to
reveal the names of other peoplewho they were working with.
That was always kind of the$64,000 question you know, who
(38:47):
else are you working with?
We want you to name names.
If you don't name names, thenyou're in contempt of Congress
and facing a possible jailsentence.
As the Red Scare went on, huackind of went on the road and
began setting up hearings indifferent parts of the country.
And in early 1956 is when theycame to Connecticut, they didn't
(39:12):
actually hold any hearings inBridgeport.
They held them in New Haven,but Bridgeport was kind of the
main area that they wereconcerned about because of the
many factories that were here.
And the United ElectricalWorkers Union, which is known
widely as the UE, was one of theunions where the communists
were here.
And the United ElectricalWorkers Union, which is known
widely as the UE, was one of theunions where the communists
were strongest.
(39:34):
Now I will say this it oftenbecomes difficult to distinguish
and HUAC and the investigatorsreally didn't care about this.
But you might have someone whowas an outspoken union member,
who was saying things that weresimilar to what the communists
were saying, who suddenly nowbecame suspicious precisely for
(39:55):
that reason.
It didn't matter what he wassaying or she was saying was
reasonable or fair or worthlistening to.
The fact that it kind ofcorresponded with what the
communists might be saying wasgrounds enough for people to
immediately be cast undersuspicion.
Now that's not to say that someof the people weren't
(40:15):
communists.
Some of them were, and usuallyHUAC knew who they were because
the FBI had done yeoman's workin terms of infiltrating
communist meetings, events thatthey were doing in different
places, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
So I think you say in the article that at the time
that HUAC came to Bridgeportthere were about 5,000 to 10,000
communists in the country,which, incidentally, is like 100
to 200 per state and that thegovernment knew all their names
and who they were.
(40:51):
So HUAC wasn't really findingmore information, it was other
stuff fueled by fear that a lotof people had.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
That's right and the notion I mean.
There was a period where theCommunist Party was somewhat
influential, primarily in thelabor movement.
I mentioned the UE.
There were a series of laborunions in the 1930s and 1940s
where the communists wereinfluential, and that would only
make sense because somecommunists were killed,
(41:24):
imprisoned and beaten in effortsto bring collective bargaining
rights to these differentfactories, not just in
Bridgeport.
You know, we're talking aboutPittsburgh, detroit, chicago,
the auto industry, the steelindustry, packing house and,
regardless of what anybody mightthink of the Communist Party or
communism in general, the workthat members were doing at that
(41:48):
level, which had nothingwhatsoever to do with espionage
or had nothing whatsoever to dowith cheerleading for whatever
the Soviet Union might be doingat any particular moment, they
were helping to advance thelivelihoods and the living
standards of everyday Americans,who often had tremendous
respect for them.
(42:09):
Anyway, so the point that I'mtrying to make is that 10 or 15
years before HUAC really pickedup its momentum, the Communist
Party was a bit of a forcewithin the society, particularly
, as I said, the labor movement.
By the time they got to NewHaven and began investigating
what was going on at the GEfactory with the UE local that
(42:32):
had been there and which by thistime had actually been thrown
out.
They were a pitiful force downfrom maybe close to 100,000
members.
At their peak there was 5% ofthat by the time that these
hearings are going on, 5% ofthat by the time that these
hearings are going on.
So there was a certain kind ofroutine that they were following
(42:52):
.
That I think was mainly designedto kind of intimidate dissent
and there were different peoplefrom Bridgeport who were called
to testify.
Some were from the labormovement Burt Gilden, who I
mentioned, who was the writer,along with his wife, of Between
the Hills and the Sea.
There was a woman by the nameof Josephine Willard who became
(43:17):
kind of an institution inBridgeport Years later.
She became a host of a radioshow on WPKN for many years
about health and well-being,lived a long life.
I think she was close to 90when she died.
So it was it was basically toyou know intimidate people.
I think it would tend to try tosuppress dissent.
(43:38):
Some of it was directeddirectly at communism, but I
think there was an overallmessage of this is what can
happen to you if you in any waykind of challenge the mainstream
of this society.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well, very much the whole notion of the Red Scare
right there, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
And that's why people when they think of the 1950s
they often think of it ascomplacent, superseded to some
extent by all the upheaval ofthe 1960s, but where people were
scared, people were afraid andpartly it was afraid of the
possibility of a nuclear warbetween the two superpowers.
(44:19):
But a lot of it was that peoplewere kind of looking over their
shoulders Is my neighbor one ofthese subversives, that kind of
thing?
So it definitely had its impactin Connecticut, specifically in
Bridgeport, a small kind ofpiece of that whole story.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
And I wanted to make sure we talked about that that
it isn't.
It's a tough nut to swallow.
That being said, I would liketo end on a more positive,
uplifting note.
So I saved my personal favoritearticle of yours for the end,
and that's the one aboutHousatonic Community College.
So Housatonic Community Collegeis part of the Connecticut
(45:03):
College system.
It is the Connecticut Collegethat's located in Bridgeport.
It's in downtown Bridgeport.
They offer 75 degrees andcertificates.
Most of those are associatedegrees and then various
certificates for professions,and they actually have a
(45:26):
fantastic art exhibit.
You brought that up and Iexhibit that.
You brought that up and I'lllet you talk about it.
I just want all the folks outthere to know for what it's
worth.
Housatonic Community College isnear and dear to me.
I hold my associate's degreefrom Housatonic.
I did my internship for mymaster's degree at the library
(45:49):
at Housatonic, and the librarythat I work in, the main
Bridgeport Public Library,burroughs-saden is literally
next door to Housatonic.
So when school's in session andtheir cafeteria is open, I tend
to pop in on lunches when I can, and you know, get myself a
sandwich or a wrap.
(46:11):
That being said, what do youhave to say there, andy, about
Hoosie?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I think the whole experiment with Hoosatonic
Community College and thecommunity college system that
was created in the state ofConnecticut it could extend to
other states too.
In the state of Connecticut itcould extend to other states too
Connecticut is the one that Ireally know about is coming
together of kind of visionarygovernment with popular demand.
(46:39):
Popular need because with thebaby boom, more and more young
people, a more wealthy society,more needs for technical jobs,
people with skills to help keepthe society growing.
There was a clear need for anexpansion of the education
(47:02):
system that went beyond thefour-year colleges that were
often beyond the affordabilityof many working class students.
Of course you had a robuststate college system, but
schools like Yale and Wesleyanand even more locally, fairfield
and Sacred Heart are often veryexpensive and beyond the reach
(47:23):
of a lot of students.
So the creation of thecommunity colleges in the 1960s
was a huge boost both forindustries and public sectors in
need of new kind of workerswith all kinds of different
skills, but also of students whowere able to do the work and
(47:44):
now were able to afford to go toschool and get the kind of
education they would need to dothese kind of jobs.
So Housatonic was one of anumber that was created in the
state of Connecticut.
It started over on ArcticStreet in what had been the
Singer Sewing Machine Factory.
It stayed there for a number ofyears.
(48:04):
I remember going there a numberof times.
To be honest, it was kind of ableak setting.
So I think the move that wasmade to downtown, to the campus
that Adam just referenced, was ahuge plus and probably has
resulted in a big increase inenrollment.
Beautiful campus right heredowntown and what can I say?
(48:24):
I think it's been a big plusfor the city.
It's been a big plus for thecity.
It's been a big plus forstudents and it's obviously not
just for people from Bridgeport,people from all over, I think,
fairfield County come to and goto school there.
And it's been a big plus forthe economy of the state.
Not to throw water on what isreally a great story with a lot
(48:47):
of things in the public sector,on what is really a great story
with a lot of things in thepublic sector, it's come under
attack.
I mentioned that in passing atthe end of the story and
obviously we're going to havefights to make in terms of
maintaining budgets, in terms ofmaintaining funding in terms of
why not expand?
You know, why not have moreprograms available?
(49:08):
Can more money be made, sincethis is a very successful school
that's producing lots ofstudents that are doing
productive work when they leave.
So that's a question thatremains and that we'll have to
answer as we go forward.
50 plus years that Housatonichas existed, I think you know.
(49:29):
The story you told about yourown experience is one that you
could multiply by tens ofthousands of young people who
have gone.
Like I said, maybe otherschools might have been out of
reach.
They would have had to makeother choices in terms of
careers or whatever, and becauseof this great community college
(49:50):
that we have available to us,you know, people were able to
make choices that were more intune with what they really
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Very much so.
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot ofstories like mine.
You know, you start atHoosatonic with an associate's
or what have you and then yourun.
So awesome, andy, I've had fun.
Good things must come to an end, though, but is there anything?
I glossed over topics.
I didn't hit on details.
(50:20):
You wanted to get out in my bigmouth over road or something.
Anything else you wanted tothrow at the wall before we
headed out for the day.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Anything else you wanted to throw at the wall
before we headed out for the day.
Well, I will say there's lotsmore.
I mean I've kind of lost trackof how many chapters there are,
but there are a lot of chaptersin here.
Steve and I have been writersfor a long, long time.
I will say that Steve Thornton,the co-author, has a website,
shoeleatherhistorycom.
(50:49):
Some of the material from thebook is available at that.
I, unfortunately, am still kindof more 20th century, so I
don't have a website, but mystuff is all over the Internet.
If you just Google my name,you'll find any number of
articles, some of which are inthe book, many of which are not.
You'll find any number ofarticles, some of which are in
(51:10):
the book, many of which are not,so you can get a taste for the
other things that I write about,as well as what's in Radical
Connecticut.
But no, I think you know it'san attempt at a contribution to
telling history from the pointof view of everyday people, from
working class people, peoplewho are usually marginalized,
(51:30):
and I think that's importantbecause history is under attack
People.
You know reactionary forces aretrying to retell history.
They want to take certainthings out of history books that
make them uncomfortable, and Ithink that's exactly the wrong
direction we need to go, andwhat we did with this book was
(51:51):
an attempt to kind of counterthat.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Absolutely, and see that in the book by Andy and
Steve, radical Connecticut, andalso see that in the articles
written by both Andy and Steveon the Bridgeport History
Center's Grassroots Historianpage, which I'll be giving a
(52:14):
link to in the description ofthis podcast and on that notion.
I hope you have all enjoyedthis episode of Bridgeport
Unmasked.
I'm Librarian Adam Cleary ofBridgeport Public Library and
this is Andy Piasik, regularcontributor to the Bridgeport
History Center's GrassrootsHistorians article and co-author
of Radical Connecticut.
(52:34):
You can get Radical Connecticutin the websites I will link in
the description below.
See the links and websites inthe notes.
Until then, stay happy, stayhealthy and stay interested in
all things Bridgeport.
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of
Bridgeport Unmasked, theBridgeport Public Library
podcast concerning all thingsabout Bridgeport, connecticut.
Today, I have with me AndyPiasik, historian and co-author
of Radical Connecticut, acollection of essays about the
Constitution State and hasplenty about Park City, which is
(00:24):
, of course, bridgeport,connecticut.
We'll be talking about thosearticles today.
So, andy, thank you for bravingthe sweltering heat outside to
(00:45):
come here in this niceair-conditioned Beardsley Branch
library Looking forward totalking to you.
How you doing, andy, I'm verywell, thanks for having me.
Awesome, awesome.
Before we get into anythingthat's related to anything, I do
have to ask and I'll tell youwhy I have to ask in a moment
Are you a Little League guy, alittle league world series
(01:06):
baseball guy?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
um, a little bit, yeah, going back many years to
when I played little league oh,that's awesome, was it?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
was it for bridgeport , or?
Was it original little league,nice, nice, okay.
Well, that's actuallyincredibly appropriate.
The only reason I brought it upis because I read your article
about Bridgeport getting toWilliamsport getting to the
finals in 49 and 50, I believeand so I wondered if you had a
(01:37):
personal connection there.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, unfortunately, the little league that I played
in doesn't exist anymore.
We used to play in SeasideVillage.
It was a diamond, very nicesetup that lasted probably 25
years into the 70s.
I'm not sure exactly when itended, but yeah, that was a big
part of my youth.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh, certainly On to Radical Connecticut, which is a
book that you teamed up withSteve Thornton, another
historian and writer from I wantto say from the area Is he from
?
He's from Hartford.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I might just ask, because Steve Thornton also
writes articles for theBridgeport History Center as you
do.
Radical Connecticut, whichwe'll be talking about in just a
moment, is hardly your firstforay into writing history stuff
.
Do you want to just tell thefolks out there you know what
you've been doing as a historianand where they can find your
(02:36):
books, your works if they wantto read you?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
get your book or what have you?
Sure, local history is only onepart of the history that I
write.
I've written a book that wasabout the integration of pro
football.
It was a series of interviewswith black players who came into
the NFL in the 1940s, calledGridiron Gauntlet.
That book came out, I'm goingto say, 15 years ago or more,
(03:03):
and I write about historybasically around the country,
even international.
I had a long article publishedsome years ago about Latin
America.
So yeah, bridgeport andConnecticut are just two pieces
of some of the history that Iwrite and those two actually do,
you know, integrate with eachother.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Someone is writing about Mexicans moving to
Bridgeport, and so that's kindof an international and local
thing going on.
I'm not sure, absolutely, yeah,I'm not sure if your Latin
America article, you know was,was both, you know, foreign and
local, or if it was just aboutthose countries.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
No, it was just about developments in Bolivia,
venezuela and various countriesthat have been trying to
transform their societies towardmore justice.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So cool.
You've mentioned some otherthings you've written.
You mentioned some other thingsyou've written.
Where can people get RadicalConnecticut if they so desire to
get themselves a copy?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's available pretty much on any online bookseller.
They can order it directly fromthe publisher, hardballpresscom
.
It's a little publishing outletin Brooklyn, new York, and I
would think Amazon and prettymuch all the other ones have it.
I know it's probably moreprofitable for Hardball Press if
(04:34):
you buy it directly from them,but any way that people can get
their hands on it.
You know, I think it's wellworth reading and I hope people
do support the book.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh, I agree with that .
I got my copy from bookshoporg.
It is out there in a number ofplaces.
Yeah, it is on Amazon and BarnesNoble online, and also smaller
things like bookshoporg Well,cool.
Well, let's get into why.
You know we're saying this bookis worth reading today by
talking about what's in it.
(05:06):
Now, before we delve into thetopics, which we're going to do
very soon, I just want to telleverybody that Bridgeport Public
Library takes no positions onany of the subjects we're going
to talk about today.
Any opinions stated or impliedare only held by the person
talking about them.
That said, you know, it's notall fairy tale stories in this
(05:30):
book.
I'll put it.
That being said, not much inthe way of trigger warnings.
Unless you're a fan of SenatorMcCarthy and HUAC, then you
might have a problem with thisbook.
They do get brought up onoccasion throughout the book and
if you really are a diehard fanof theirs, I'd like to
(05:52):
recommend any of the otherpodcasts we have on this channel
.
Feel free to check those out,and if you have no idea who Joe
McCarthy and HUAC are, we willbe talking about them later,
because at least one of thearticles about Bridgeport
specifically, you need to knowwho they are to make sense of it
.
Cool.
So the things that we're goingto be focusing on today are the
(06:16):
articles that Andy wrote,specifically because, again,
andy and Steve Thornton teamedup to write this book, and those
that are about Bridgeport, andthere's a lot of other great
articles in here.
This is just a Bridgeportpodcast, so we're focusing on
those and I figure we wouldstart with the strikes.
(06:38):
We got some strikes inBridgeport that are particularly
unique and interesting, as wewill see in just a moment.
Andy, what are you thinkingabout us starting with the
teacher strike of 78?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, sure, that was a momentous event in Bridgeport
history, and recent enough sothat a lot of people who are
still around remember it well,it happened in September of 1978
, right at the beginning ofschool.
It had come a couple years, I'mgoing to say three years after.
Teachers felt like they gotstuck with a substandard
(07:15):
contract by the city ofBridgeport, and so for that
reason, I think some resentmentand anger had been developing.
So when negotiations hit aloggerhead leading up to
September of 1978, the teachersvoted to strike, and when
(07:36):
students showed up for the firstday of school that's when
people really discovered thatschools were closed the teachers
were out on the picket line,and it really soon escalated
into a very bitter kind ofshowdown with the law and order
judge I guess you could call him, who felt like the need to lay
(07:59):
down the line and start sendingboth union officials and
teachers to jail in very largenumbers.
Within a matter of days of thestrike starting, dozens of
teachers were arrested andshipped off to prisons that were
actually very far away fromBridgeport 50 miles, 60 miles.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
By the end of the total 60 miles by the year.
Yeah, because, as it still istoday, connecticut teachers are
by law not allowed to strike.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's right, it's illegal, yeah, yeah.
So teachers went into itknowing they were breaking the
law, figuring, as has happenedmany times in history we'll talk
about other instances whereasif you're united enough and you
have enough support from thecommunity which the teachers did
read correctly that they didhave that they would be able to
(08:55):
withstand the fact that it wasillegal for them to be on strike
.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, no, no, parents were involved.
Students were involved.
The PTA was involved.
Students were involved.
The PTA was involved, which ismy favorite bit, because my
experience is that PTA andteachers typically are at each
other's throats, but when thechips were down, they were
together school administrations.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I'm not so much sure that it's against teachers,
because parents understand aswell as anybody what kind of
conditions that teachers operatein.
It's not such a big issue nowat least I hope not but
oversized classrooms were a bigissue in the 1970s and one of
the main issues that theteachers were trying to get the
Board of Ed to address at thetime issues that the teachers
were trying to get the Board ofEd to address at the time.
(09:48):
So, yes, that's a veryimportant point that you raised,
that the parent-teachersassociations rallied to the
support of the teachers duringthe strike and prevented, I
guess you could say, any of thestudents from going to school by
keeping their children home.
And eventually, within just acouple of matter of days, all
(10:10):
the schools were closed becausethe number of teachers who
crossed the picket lineoriginally was very small and
then it dwindled basically tozero.
The total number, as I remember, of teachers who were jailed
was 274.
And the last batch that werearrested were sent by bus to a
(10:34):
National Guard armory 70 miles Idon't remember the name of the
town, but it was like 70 or 75miles away from Bridgeport, but
it was like 70 or 75 miles awayfrom Bridgeport.
So these were really gruelingkind of conditions that this
judge was putting the teachersthrough.
It wasn't like just going overto the prison in North Avenue
(10:54):
and registering and beingreleased.
These teachers stayed in theseprisons in this case a National
Guards barrack for days and days, some for as long as a week or
two, and they were outraged.
I think outrage was becomingdirected more and more at the
city.
I note in the article thatthere was a series of teacher
(11:18):
strikes in the country at thesame time.
All of them were settled, butwhile the Bridgeport strike was
still going on and so more andmore national attention was
being focused on Bridgeport andthe fact that this judge was
insisting that hundreds, almost300 teachers had to be arrested
and put behind bars, yeah, andthat's how it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
I mean they also went through.
I don't know what the technicalterm is, but showers to get rid
of lice.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You know, just to give you an idea of what these
teachers were put through.
And yeah, no, but it was analmost universal thing, I think.
The first day of school, 3% ofteachers punched in and then it
got less than 3%.
So, yeah, no, this really is anear-unanimous situation.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, and that may have partly been because it was
very last minute, I mean, peoplewere preparing for the start of
school.
Yeah, it sounds like maybe thedecision to strike was made very
late, just before, within a dayor less of the opening of
school.
So, yeah, I mean, it's typicalsometimes that you have some
(12:36):
workers or teachers in this casego to work, but as soon as I
think the word spread, like yousaid, pretty much everybody was
refusing to go to work afterthat right, uh, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The lines did not stop after the.
You know the, the, the 270 oddum arrests.
I think it was three weeks insomething like that that that
the board and the union finallycame to an agreement.
Yes, that's right, it was a kindof victory, if I remember Like
the teachers did get a lot ofthe things they wanted.
(13:15):
Then, though, interestinglyenough, bridgeport teachers are
still the least paid teachers inFairfield County.
And um, and if I I pardon me ifI didn't get this exactly
correct If the union and theboard of education have a
problem with a uh with with thecontract that they sign, the
(13:39):
management can, can like appeal,but the union can't, or
something to that degree.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, that's right.
This happened in a series oflegislative actions that were
taken in the wake of the strike,where, if the union and the
management are stalemated theway they were in the prelude to
this strike, the municipality inquestion has the right to
(14:07):
reject whatever the arbitratoris putting forward, but the
teachers do not.
That's very similar to the wayit was 46 years ago when this
strike took place, where ifteachers feel like they're
getting a bad proposal that theydon't like, they would be
(14:28):
risking their jobs andimprisonment if they were to go
on strike again.
So in that sense, I think therewere victories in terms of the
contract that was won in 1978,but in terms of the ability for
teachers anywhere in Connecticutor in Bridgeport, they would be
running the same risk that theyran in 1978.
(14:53):
And I mentioned in passing thatthere were other municipalities
in the last 10 or 15 years,specifically Chicago I've
mentioned, that were up againstthe same obstacles but who
elected a union leadership thatwas fairly aggressive and
determined to push back againstcuts and all the other problems
(15:14):
that the city of Chicago wasfacing, which I would say, on a
smaller scale, are similar.
In Bridgeport, you mentionedsalaries being lower.
There's constant turnover inBridgeport because salaries are
higher elsewhere and teachersare constantly leaving to take
higher paying positions in othertowns.
But I think Chicago example canbe one if there's ever such a
(15:39):
situation again, because they'veprevailed in getting improved
conditions and wages byviolating the law and going on
strike and enduring, because ifyou build up enough of a
solidarity network and supportsystem, you can prevail,
regardless of whether the thingthat you're doing may be against
(16:00):
the law.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yes, I think the takeaway idea is that it depends
upon having the support of thecommunity of the professionals
striking, and that's actually atheme repeated in your other
strike-based article in thisbook about the 1979 Handy and
Harmon precious metal factorystrike.
Again, the strike would havebeen unremarkable except for
(16:33):
Willie Matos, theSpanish-American coalition and
the community getting involved.
Andy, do you want to take thatand run with it?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, sure, that one I recall very well because I was
directly involved in it.
It was a factory just over thetown line in Fairfield, about
where Whole Foods and Home Depotnow are.
Interestingly, this factorystarted in Bridgeport and
(17:00):
eventually moved to thatlocation in Fairfield.
It had a long history forreasons I've never even been
able to pin down of having largenumbers of Portuguese-American
workers from the hollow sectionof Bridgeport employed there,
and that continued after therelocation to Fairfield.
Many of the workers continuedto live in and come from
(17:22):
Bridgeport.
When the workers went on strikein September of 1979, now this
is just a year after the teacherstrike we were just talking
about the company actively triedto recruit replacement workers,
which historically have beenknown as scabs workers which
(17:43):
historically have been known asscabs and they targeted
low-income sections ofBridgeport where there were high
unemployment, one of which wasthe area of State Street on the
west side, which happened to bejust basically around the corner
of the Spanish-AmericanCoalition's offices on Colorado
Avenue.
So several youths from theneighborhood who got these
flyers that the company washanding out to recruit workers
(18:07):
went into the SAC office andshowed the flyers to Willie
Matos and the others who were inthe office working there I'm
not sure if they had full-timestaff or not, but the response
was immediate.
You know, willie was a longtimelabor radical activist going
back to the 1960s, still inBridgeport, a great guy, and
(18:28):
immediately put out a call tofirst the community to ignore
and not follow up on trying toapply for a job at a place where
workers were on strike, andthen called together a coalition
from the neighborhood of clergy, other union members, workers
and eventually the Handy andHarmon folks union and workers
(18:52):
themselves got involved and soit became an ongoing project
that lasted pretty much thewhole autumn that year and was
highly successful in preventinganybody from trying to pursue
jobs as scabs at the factory,but then also began to mobilize
people to go to the picket lineand culminated with a fairly
(19:14):
large march and rally throughFairfield that ended up getting
the attention of the companyenough so that they settled the
strike.
That was terms that werefavorable to the workers.
I would say that based on mydirect experience, the way I
remember it, I don't think thattoo much of that would have
happened had it not been for theSpanish-American coalition
(19:37):
being as aggressive as they were, because the union was kind of
you know, sending workers to thepicket line hoping for the best
, negotiating at the same timethat the workers were out on the
picket line, and I think theefforts and the work that was
done by the support committeereally kind of pushed the issue
(19:59):
a little bit more, kicked theunion in the butt a little and
ended up with this march andrally that was at least 1,000
people, might have been a littlebit more on a Saturday
afternoon in November, a good 10weeks or so after the strike
had been going on, and thenwithin a very short time, I'm
going to say the very next week,the company agreed to the
(20:22):
demands that the union wasputting forward.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Willie Matto is a very interesting guy.
He makes multiple appearancesin your articles.
He wasn't just a union guy, healso helped other people through
the Young Lords Party that'sright which is an organization
of Puerto Ricans that maybe youcould give us a detail or two
about yeah, and then for manyyears after that he worked for
the state commission on humanrights, um, until he retired.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The last that I knew I spoke with him about three or
four years ago, he was stillliving on the east side of
bridgeport.
So, um, he's still around andstill probably plugging away
doing some kind of good work, Iwould have to imagine given what
I read about him.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, no, he organized free breakfast
programs and health clinics andthings like that.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah yeah, the Young Lords Party initially started in
Chicago.
The Young Lords Party initiallystarted in Chicago, had its
biggest and most active chapterin various sections of New York
(21:34):
City the Bronx East, harlem, theLower East Side, brooklyn and
1970, I believe it was a chapterwas formed in Bridgeport when
people from Bridgeport hadidentified with the Young Lords
and then when the kind ofleadership of the national body
decided that they were going toset up a chapter in Bridgeport,
it was a big step forwardbecause naturally Chicago,
(21:57):
philadelphia and New York areamong the largest cities in the
country.
Bridgeport, by comparison, is150,000, much smaller working
class.
So that was a big step forwardand the young lords recognized
it as such.
Just parenthetically, I willsay that, as small as Bridgeport
may be, its Puerto Ricanpopulation, both then, 55 years
(22:23):
ago, and now, is a higherpercentage of the city's
population than New York City,which is probably surprising to
people because we think of NewYork City as being kind of the
Puerto Rican capital of theUnited States.
But as a percentage Bridgeportis higher and as a percentage
Connecticut is the highest interms of its Puerto Rican
(22:43):
population as a percentage ofits population in the whole
country.
So yeah, the Young Lords werekind of inspired by, and often
worked in coalition with, theBlack Panther Party.
They also worked withorganizations of poor and
unemployed whites, asians,chicanos and other nationalities
(23:07):
as a kind of poor people'scampaign in order to put
pressure on government officialsat all levels to try to deal
with the needs of people, to tryto deal with the needs of
people.
They also, specifically, wereorganizing against police
brutality, which tends to behigher among Puerto Ricans than
(23:29):
any other ethnic group in thecountry, except for African
Americans, and was an ongoingproblem within Bridgeport itself
.
The first catalyst, as far as Icould determine, was a big rent
strike right here on East MainStreet, just down the road, a
ways going toward I-95.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
What was that strike around the time of the other
strikes?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
we were talking about it was 1970, so it was earlier.
The Young Lord's life wasactually fairly brief.
Nationally it started in 1969,and by 1976, the group had
disbanded.
The Bridgeport chapter wasactually one of the last that
was still hanging on, going into1976.
(24:12):
The catalyst for the work thatWillie and the rest of the young
(24:38):
lords in Bridgeport were doingwas there was a horrible fire on
Easter Sunday in 1969, maybejust about six months before the
group was formed, in which Ibelieve it was 11 people were
killed on the east side,primarily a Puerto Rican.
Puerto Ricans were primaryamong the casualties.
Yeah, so housing conditions andrents and putting pressure on
landlords, who were rightlyoften referred to as slumlords,
was a big part of the work thatthey were doing when they were
formed in Bridgeport and theyeventually branched out into
other things.
You mentioned the FreeBreakfast for Children program.
(25:00):
That was something that was setup to provide children with
breakfast before school.
They began providing those.
It ended up being like severalhundred students, as I remember
the research I was doing.
So it was very much a communityservice oriented organization
(25:20):
that was also trying to educatepeople about the conflicts that
they didn't really think wereresolvable unless there was
popular pressure put on thegovernment and powers that be in
order to bring about change.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, ok, so there's a lot of community activism
articles in Radical Connecticut.
In addition, there's a lot ofthe arts.
You know, andy, you wrote anumber of articles about arts
related to Bridgeport.
We have an article on theauthors of Between the Hills and
the Sea, which is a novel.
That's.
(25:57):
I'm not sure if you'd call it asatire, but it's about uh,
working conditions in bridgeport.
Uh, the comic strip pogo, whichI was not familiar with but
apparently was the uh comicstrip in the 50s, and um the
walter kelly, the, the writerand and artist, uh lived in
(26:17):
Bridgeport.
We had the all-black casting ofa version of Macbeth, and
Bridgeport papers were a hugepart of making sure that another
play waiting for Lefty didn'tget shut down in New Haven.
So yeah, there's a bunch there.
Andy, do you want to pick yourfavorite thread or two and
pursue those about arts inBridgeport?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah sure, what's become known over the last 80
years or so as Voodoo Macbethwas a monumental theater event
started in New York City.
But a first stop outside of NewYork City, when I went on the
road, was in Bridgeport.
I went on, the road was inBridgeport.
(27:02):
What it was was it was thevision of a very young Orson
Wells, whose name, I'm sure, isfamiliar to many of people
listening to this.
I believe he was 20 years oldat the time.
This is 1936.
He was working for a governmentprogram known as the Federal
Theater Project, which is animportant element of a number of
the chapters in the book.
It was designed to create jobsfor people working in theater
(27:28):
whose livelihoods had beenimpacted by the Great Depression
stagehands, actors, writers,set designers and it was, uh,
funded by the government toprovide people with work.
But a secondary and probablyequally important piece of it
was it was meant to bringtheater to places in the country
(27:54):
where there might not normallybe theater either, because it
wasn't a viable thing to sustainfinancially in a small town
somewhere.
So it gave people.
And remember this is 1936.
It's way before television.
Of course, many of these townshad movie theaters, but it might
be the first and maybe the lastopportunity that someone in a
(28:16):
small town might have to see alive theater presentation, and
some of them were serious dramas, some of them were comedies,
some of them were designed forchildren, some of them were
strictly entertainment for agood fun night out, but they did
try to.
I mean, many of the people intheater were left-wingers who
(28:36):
were trying to comment in oneway or another about the
problems of the Depression.
The Macbeth, a story that OrsonWelles came up with, was to
transport the story fromScotland and instead set it in
19th century Haiti.
So it took on an anti-colonialdimension within the story.
(28:59):
So he auditioned and eventuallyhired a large number of
African-American actorsAfrican-American actors.
Obviously, it was a very largecast and crew, because the
Macbeth story is many differentcharacters in it and you also
needed stagehands and setdesigners.
So it was a rousing success.
(29:20):
It opened in Harlem early in1936 and then set in for a long
run at a prominent theater inBrooklyn, and then, when it was
decided that it was going to goon the road I think it was to
eight or nine different cities,bridgeport was chosen as the
first stop, and so they did fiveperformances at what was called
(29:43):
the Park Theater, which used tobe on Main Street.
It's been long demolished.
If people know where theAquarian offices are, across
from the main headquarters ofthe M&T Bank, that's about where
the theater was.
So it was greeted veryenthusiastically both by
(30:03):
audiences here and by thecritics for what were two daily
newspapers in Bridgeport at thetime and I'd say probably close
to 100%, maybe 98% of thetickets were sold and, like I
said, letters to the editor inthe newspapers as well as the
reviews that were written inboth newspapers were wildly
(30:27):
enthusiastic.
People were very happy abouthaving such high-quality theater
come through Bridgeport.
Limited run though it may havebeen the whole experience of
Voodoo McVeck as it's becomeknown, because it ran for many
months in New York before itwent on the road and then, like
I said, I think it was ninecities.
(30:49):
The second stop afterBridgeport was Hartford, but it
became really a touchstonemoment in American theater in
the 1930s and when you readabout Orson Welles or you read
about the theater of the 1930s,invariably it'll come up because
it was such an innovative ideaand it was such a successful
(31:09):
thing.
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And there's a lot of I have.
So I have seen throughBridgeport History Center's
database of videos they did have.
They do have online the finalscene where cover your ears if
you don't want me to spoilmcbeth for you mcbeth gets his
head cut off and raised, and allthat by mcduff and um uh, it's
(31:36):
let me, let me put it this way a, a millennial in 2024, watching
a grainy video of this fromalmost 100 years ago.
Um was impressed, like that'show impressed.
Like you know, you're correctabout the size of the cast.
It was astounding.
(31:57):
The amount of props used werealso pretty darn astounding.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'm not sure if you had anything else to say about
that.
Well, yeah, and they went allout.
I mean, it was tractor trailersfull of props and stagehands
and folks went on the road, cameto Bridgeport, stayed probably
in one of the local hotels anddid a five-day staging of this
great show.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So yeah, it was kind of a momentous theater event for
the city, right 1936, middle ofthe Depression, no one has a
television and this affordabletheater comes and is just an
astounding show.
It must have been.
If it was cool for me, it musthave been astounding for the
thousand people that werewatching that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And I'm glad that you used the word affordable,
because I left that out.
That was another one of thegoals of the Federal Theater
Project, with all the work theywere doing, understanding that
the audience that they weretrying to reach were not the
well-heeled type that go to saythe way we think of Broadway
today.
To say the way we think ofBroadway today that the goal was
(33:13):
to get working class people andpeople who otherwise wouldn't
go to see a play into thetheater.
So that was also subsidized.
Prices were very low becausethe government was picking up a
good part of the tab.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Absolutely.
And speaking of the government,I'm kind of forcing a segue I
think it's time we talked aboutHUAC's trip to Bridgeport.
So, for all the folks out therewho might not know, huac stands
for the House Un-AmericanActivities Committee and that
was created in 1938, so not longafter the play we were just
(33:50):
talking about and became the USgovernment's means of
suppressing communist activitiesand accusations of communism
and alleged attempts tooverthrow any part of the
government.
Careers and reputations werewrecked because they were, um,
because you know, being accusedof breaking the Smith act was
(34:32):
just about seen as just about asbad as um as actually breaking
it.
And the reason it seemed bad isbecause, uh, from here and
especially into the fifties, uh,america was very, very
concerned, uh concerned aboutcommunism.
There was a general panicagainst the spread of communism
(34:55):
and that was called the RedScare and that was provoked
largely, most famously, bySenator Joe McCarthy.
Andy, I will hand the wheelover to you, but I just want to
pull from.
I mentioned our cartoon, pogo,a few minutes ago and one of the
(35:20):
characters in Pogo, pogo wasn'toverly political but it had
some political series and one ofthe characters was a simple Jay
Malarkey, who was supposed tobe a take on Senator Joseph
McCarthy.
So yeah, andy, you would pleasetell us about CUAC.
(35:45):
You wrote an article in thebook book and there's one online
, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Well, it's interesting how so many of these
things kind of connect to eachother because, uh, the federal
theater project, which I justmentioned, which was the outfit
that put together the uh Macbethperformance, was really the
first group that came under firefrom HUAC.
Huac, as you said, started in1938.
(36:12):
And it was pushed back byreactionary and far-right
politicians and people whosupported them, who objected to
the fact that the federalgovernment was underwriting, you
could say, these plays andtheater projects that were
critical of capitalism, criticalof the direction that the
(36:34):
United States was going, etc.
And eventually it built upenough momentum so that the
Federal Theater Project wasended just a few years after the
Macbeth that we were talkingabout, parenthetically.
If people want to get a littlebit of a handle on some of that,
there's a terrific movie thatwas made by Tim Robbins called
(36:56):
Cradle Will Rock.
That came out about 25 yearsago.
It has an all-star cast.
There's multiple currents tothe story that sometimes make it
a little bit difficult tofollow, but a lot of it is about
the Federal Theater Project andthe politicians who attacked it
, the writers and theadministrator who came under
(37:18):
attack for some of the work theywere doing Susan Sarandon,
ruben Blades, john Turturro,john Cusack, vanessa Redgrave
and on and on.
Just a terrific movie with aterrific cast, anyway.
So the HUAC thing also relatesto the chapter of the book that
(37:40):
you mentioned, between the Hillsand the Sea, the novel that was
written by the Gildans, bertand Katja Gildan, who were
Bridgeport residents, not justwriters, but also before they
were able to make much money aswriters.
Also, bert was working infactories and was a union
activist.
(38:00):
Both were known to be membersof the Communist Party.
This is right after World WarII, I'm going to say around 1945
into the 1950s.
So all these things are kind ofrunning together.
The way that the investigationscommittees worked was, first and
foremost, they held hearings inWashington where they called on
(38:25):
the carpet people that theysuspected of being communists,
people they were pressuring toreveal information about the
work that the communists weredoing.
Primarily, it seems like theirmain goal was to get people to
reveal the names of other peoplewho they were working with.
That was always kind of the$64,000 question you know, who
(38:47):
else are you working with?
We want you to name names.
If you don't name names, thenyou're in contempt of Congress
and facing a possible jailsentence.
As the Red Scare went on, huackind of went on the road and
began setting up hearings indifferent parts of the country.
And in early 1956 is when theycame to Connecticut, they didn't
(39:12):
actually hold any hearings inBridgeport.
They held them in New Haven,but Bridgeport was kind of the
main area that they wereconcerned about because of the
many factories that were here.
And the United ElectricalWorkers Union, which is known
widely as the UE, was one of theunions where the communists
were here.
And the United ElectricalWorkers Union, which is known
widely as the UE, was one of theunions where the communists
were strongest.
(39:34):
Now I will say this it oftenbecomes difficult to distinguish
and HUAC and the investigatorsreally didn't care about this.
But you might have someone whowas an outspoken union member,
who was saying things that weresimilar to what the communists
were saying, who suddenly nowbecame suspicious precisely for
(39:55):
that reason.
It didn't matter what he wassaying or she was saying was
reasonable or fair or worthlistening to.
The fact that it kind ofcorresponded with what the
communists might be saying wasgrounds enough for people to
immediately be cast undersuspicion.
Now that's not to say that someof the people weren't
(40:15):
communists.
Some of them were, and usuallyHUAC knew who they were because
the FBI had done yeoman's workin terms of infiltrating
communist meetings, events thatthey were doing in different
places, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
So I think you say in the article that at the time
that HUAC came to Bridgeportthere were about 5,000 to 10,000
communists in the country,which, incidentally, is like 100
to 200 per state and that thegovernment knew all their names
and who they were.
(40:51):
So HUAC wasn't really findingmore information, it was other
stuff fueled by fear that a lotof people had.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
That's right and the notion I mean.
There was a period where theCommunist Party was somewhat
influential, primarily in thelabor movement.
I mentioned the UE.
There were a series of laborunions in the 1930s and 1940s
where the communists wereinfluential, and that would only
make sense because somecommunists were killed,
(41:24):
imprisoned and beaten in effortsto bring collective bargaining
rights to these differentfactories, not just in
Bridgeport.
You know, we're talking aboutPittsburgh, detroit, chicago,
the auto industry, the steelindustry, packing house and,
regardless of what anybody mightthink of the Communist Party or
communism in general, the workthat members were doing at that
(41:48):
level, which had nothingwhatsoever to do with espionage
or had nothing whatsoever to dowith cheerleading for whatever
the Soviet Union might be doingat any particular moment, they
were helping to advance thelivelihoods and the living
standards of everyday Americans,who often had tremendous
respect for them.
(42:09):
Anyway, so the point that I'mtrying to make is that 10 or 15
years before HUAC really pickedup its momentum, the Communist
Party was a bit of a forcewithin the society, particularly
, as I said, the labor movement.
By the time they got to NewHaven and began investigating
what was going on at the GEfactory with the UE local that
(42:32):
had been there and which by thistime had actually been thrown
out.
They were a pitiful force downfrom maybe close to 100,000
members.
At their peak there was 5% ofthat by the time that these
hearings are going on, 5% ofthat by the time that these
hearings are going on.
So there was a certain kind ofroutine that they were following
(42:52):
.
That I think was mainly designedto kind of intimidate dissent
and there were different peoplefrom Bridgeport who were called
to testify.
Some were from the labormovement Burt Gilden, who I
mentioned, who was the writer,along with his wife, of Between
the Hills and the Sea.
There was a woman by the nameof Josephine Willard who became
(43:17):
kind of an institution inBridgeport Years later.
She became a host of a radioshow on WPKN for many years
about health and well-being,lived a long life.
I think she was close to 90when she died.
So it was it was basically toyou know intimidate people.
I think it would tend to try tosuppress dissent.
(43:38):
Some of it was directeddirectly at communism, but I
think there was an overallmessage of this is what can
happen to you if you in any waykind of challenge the mainstream
of this society.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well, very much the whole notion of the Red Scare
right there, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
And that's why people when they think of the 1950s
they often think of it ascomplacent, superseded to some
extent by all the upheaval ofthe 1960s, but where people were
scared, people were afraid andpartly it was afraid of the
possibility of a nuclear warbetween the two superpowers.
(44:19):
But a lot of it was that peoplewere kind of looking over their
shoulders Is my neighbor one ofthese subversives, that kind of
thing?
So it definitely had its impactin Connecticut, specifically in
Bridgeport, a small kind ofpiece of that whole story.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
And I wanted to make sure we talked about that that
it isn't.
It's a tough nut to swallow.
That being said, I would liketo end on a more positive,
uplifting note.
So I saved my personal favoritearticle of yours for the end,
and that's the one aboutHousatonic Community College.
So Housatonic Community Collegeis part of the Connecticut
(45:03):
College system.
It is the Connecticut Collegethat's located in Bridgeport.
It's in downtown Bridgeport.
They offer 75 degrees andcertificates.
Most of those are associatedegrees and then various
certificates for professions,and they actually have a
(45:26):
fantastic art exhibit.
You brought that up and Iexhibit that.
You brought that up and I'lllet you talk about it.
I just want all the folks outthere to know for what it's
worth.
Housatonic Community College isnear and dear to me.
I hold my associate's degreefrom Housatonic.
I did my internship for mymaster's degree at the library
(45:49):
at Housatonic, and the librarythat I work in, the main
Bridgeport Public Library,burroughs-saden is literally
next door to Housatonic.
So when school's in session andtheir cafeteria is open, I tend
to pop in on lunches when I can, and you know, get myself a
sandwich or a wrap.
(46:11):
That being said, what do youhave to say there, andy, about
Hoosie?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I think the whole experiment with Hoosatonic
Community College and thecommunity college system that
was created in the state ofConnecticut it could extend to
other states too.
In the state of Connecticut itcould extend to other states too
Connecticut is the one that Ireally know about is coming
together of kind of visionarygovernment with popular demand.
(46:39):
Popular need because with thebaby boom, more and more young
people, a more wealthy society,more needs for technical jobs,
people with skills to help keepthe society growing.
There was a clear need for anexpansion of the education
(47:02):
system that went beyond thefour-year colleges that were
often beyond the affordabilityof many working class students.
Of course you had a robuststate college system, but
schools like Yale and Wesleyanand even more locally, fairfield
and Sacred Heart are often veryexpensive and beyond the reach
(47:23):
of a lot of students.
So the creation of thecommunity colleges in the 1960s
was a huge boost both forindustries and public sectors in
need of new kind of workerswith all kinds of different
skills, but also of students whowere able to do the work and
(47:44):
now were able to afford to go toschool and get the kind of
education they would need to dothese kind of jobs.
So Housatonic was one of anumber that was created in the
state of Connecticut.
It started over on ArcticStreet in what had been the
Singer Sewing Machine Factory.
It stayed there for a number ofyears.
(48:04):
I remember going there a numberof times.
To be honest, it was kind of ableak setting.
So I think the move that wasmade to downtown, to the campus
that Adam just referenced, was ahuge plus and probably has
resulted in a big increase inenrollment.
Beautiful campus right heredowntown and what can I say?
(48:24):
I think it's been a big plusfor the city.
It's been a big plus for thecity.
It's been a big plus forstudents and it's obviously not
just for people from Bridgeport,people from all over, I think,
fairfield County come to and goto school there.
And it's been a big plus forthe economy of the state.
Not to throw water on what isreally a great story with a lot
(48:47):
of things in the public sector,on what is really a great story
with a lot of things in thepublic sector, it's come under
attack.
I mentioned that in passing atthe end of the story and
obviously we're going to havefights to make in terms of
maintaining budgets, in terms ofmaintaining funding in terms of
why not expand?
You know, why not have moreprograms available?
(49:08):
Can more money be made, sincethis is a very successful school
that's producing lots ofstudents that are doing
productive work when they leave.
So that's a question thatremains and that we'll have to
answer as we go forward.
50 plus years that Housatonichas existed, I think you know.
(49:29):
The story you told about yourown experience is one that you
could multiply by tens ofthousands of young people who
have gone.
Like I said, maybe otherschools might have been out of
reach.
They would have had to makeother choices in terms of
careers or whatever, and becauseof this great community college
(49:50):
that we have available to us,you know, people were able to
make choices that were more intune with what they really
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Very much so.
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot ofstories like mine.
You know, you start atHoosatonic with an associate's
or what have you and then yourun.
So awesome, andy, I've had fun.
Good things must come to an end, though, but is there anything?
I glossed over topics.
I didn't hit on details.
(50:20):
You wanted to get out in my bigmouth over road or something.
Anything else you wanted tothrow at the wall before we
headed out for the day.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Anything else you wanted to throw at the wall
before we headed out for the day.
Well, I will say there's lotsmore.
I mean I've kind of lost trackof how many chapters there are,
but there are a lot of chaptersin here.
Steve and I have been writersfor a long, long time.
I will say that Steve Thornton,the co-author, has a website,
shoeleatherhistorycom.
(50:49):
Some of the material from thebook is available at that.
I, unfortunately, am still kindof more 20th century, so I
don't have a website, but mystuff is all over the Internet.
If you just Google my name,you'll find any number of
articles, some of which are inthe book, many of which are not.
You'll find any number ofarticles, some of which are in
(51:10):
the book, many of which are not,so you can get a taste for the
other things that I write about,as well as what's in Radical
Connecticut.
But no, I think you know it'san attempt at a contribution to
telling history from the pointof view of everyday people, from
working class people, peoplewho are usually marginalized,
(51:30):
and I think that's importantbecause history is under attack
People.
You know reactionary forces aretrying to retell history.
They want to take certainthings out of history books that
make them uncomfortable, and Ithink that's exactly the wrong
direction we need to go, andwhat we did with this book was
(51:51):
an attempt to kind of counterthat.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Absolutely, and see that in the book by Andy and
Steve, radical Connecticut, andalso see that in the articles
written by both Andy and Steveon the Bridgeport History
Center's Grassroots Historianpage, which I'll be giving a
(52:14):
link to in the description ofthis podcast and on that notion.
I hope you have all enjoyedthis episode of Bridgeport
Unmasked.
I'm Librarian Adam Cleary ofBridgeport Public Library and
this is Andy Piasik, regularcontributor to the Bridgeport
History Center's GrassrootsHistorians article and co-author
of Radical Connecticut.
(52:34):
You can get Radical Connecticutin the websites I will link in
the description below.
See the links and websites inthe notes.
Until then, stay happy, stayhealthy and stay interested in
all things Bridgeport.
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