There are people who appear in Hartford out of nowhere and try to reinvent the wheel; then, there are those who have been here for decades and value the history of place.

Steve Thornton has lived here since 1973. While we chat over coffee in the West End, he tells me he thinks he’s close to figuring out where Jack Kerouac lived when the writer spent time in Hartford. You aren’t alone in not knowing about this — Kerouac’s short stay here was considered insignificant by most historians, and consequently, not recorded well.

Documenting and remembering the people’s history is what Thornton has been doing, previously on days off from work, and now, more full time since he has retired. In October he opted for a book launch celebration in lieu of a retirement party.

Before he was a union activist, Thornton says he was a peace activist and had been since high school. Not having any long range goal, Thornton spent five years working as a childcare teacher, an experience he enjoyed but knew was not what he wanted to ultimately spend his life doing.

Upon moving to Hartford he became involved in Ray Adams’ fight to remain at 18 Congress Street; Adams stayed in the building for months after the City of Hartford shut off the heat during winter back in the 1970s as a way to get him to move out so the structure could be turned into luxury housing. This battle was not won, but it had a larger impact, urging developers to think twice about how they proceed.

Union Action

In time Thornton learned that “there was a small slice of the labor movement that spoke to my concerns.”

“I knew it was the old, white male establishment I was rebelling against and that’s what the labor movement was,” he said. But, “at the same time, Cesar Chavez was doing the grape labor boycott.”

Thornton began trying to build coalitions between movements. His first job, he said, just “dropped into my lap.” He was tasked with representing community college teachers and professionals.

From there, he moved into work with 1199 for eighteen years to make “sure workers had enough power so they could have good lives.”

Thornton said he couldn’t call himself an organizer, truly, until he has engaged in the most difficult work: a strike.

“There’s nothing more powerful than spending hours at night on a picket line,” he said.

During that time, those striking “end up talking about life, kids, the past, and workers’ aspirations. You learn they’ve been on the job for twenty, thirty years, could run the place, but have no power.”

“It’s fricken fun to do,” he said of spending a year and a half striking so workers could protect their pensions. Then, he went on to the fight to protect a hospital in Waterbury from being privatized.

“Those two events knocked the tuck out of me,” he said. Thornton maintains passion for this form of activism, but “not the physical energy.”

Beyond the Union

Beyond his union activism, Thornton was involved in anti-racist work when the Klan was asserting itself in East Windsor, Meriden, and Wallingford a few decades back. Thornton said, “the worst thing you can do is ignore it.”

He has been arrested more than once while on the job and serving as an activist. Thornton has given trainings in nonviolent direct action, including instructing activists how to engage in civil disobedience.

In recent years, he has led “shoeleather history” walking tours in the city during which he shares stories that most are unfamiliar with, like the labor issues involved in the construction of the Bulkeley Bridge.

Connecticut’s Stories

His book, A Shoeleather History of the Wobblies: Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Connecticut was published earlier this year. In it, readers can learn about union strikes on Capitol Avenue, jawboning at Parson’s Theater, the typesetters’ strike,  and the Park River’s impact on some children.

Thornton said he was reading a history book and found one line in it about Hartford activists being kept in a “hot box.” He explored this further, and though hired through a cultural group to do research, they ended up using none of it. In 2005, Thornton began doing research specific to the Wobblies in Connecticut.

“Nobody was doing this,” he said.

One article he found about a strike in Bridgeport claimed it was a failure; he kept searching and found another interpretation existed which a book’s author ignored.

The stories from the past have relevance now, he told me. “All the work being done with low wage workers now” is ideologically “inspired by the Wobblies.”

Next

Not slowing down, Thornton says he is also working on a book about fifty years of nonviolent direct action in Hartford, and another which will be a compilation of his “shoeleather history” stories.

The late Danny Perez, an organizer Thornton worked with, gave him advice that has stuck over the years: “Be fearless. People use excuses because they’re afraid.”

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