A Guide to the Stephen Thornton Papers

Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries

Summary Information

Repository:
Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries
Title:
A Guide to the Stephen Thornton Papers
ID:
2014.0073
Date [inclusive]:
undated, 1898-2014
Physical Description:
12.0 Linear feet
Language of the Material:
English
Abstract:
The papers of a labor activist and organizer of Hartford, Connecticut, including alternative press publications, union newsletters, strike and labor organizing literature, flyers and pamphlets.

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Biography/History

Stephen Thornton was born in 1951 in Port Chester, New York, and raised in Windsor, Connecticut; he graduated in 1973 from the University of Connecticut, where he organized students against the Vietnam War. His career includes a progression of positions as an organizer for various unions, including as Executive Vice President of the AFSCME Local 1716 when he worked as a daycare teacher in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (1980-1990), the International Ladies Garment Workers (1990-1994), and as Vice President of 1199/SEIU ( Service Employees International Union) from 1994 to his retirement in 2013.

Mr. Thornton has been involved in organizing and participating in many strikes in and around Hartford, as well as organizing protests focusing on housing rights, homeless rights and environmental justice, particularly concerning anti-nuclear issues.

Mr. Thornton was a part of strike support committee for workers at Colt's Manufacturing Company, raising funds, editing the support committee newsletter, and training the participants (known as the Colt 45) to do civil disobedience at the Colt factory gate. He also organized a group of prominent local peace activists to issue a statement in support of the strike.

In 1977 Mr. Thornton joined the Clamshell Alliance, a regional organization that was formed by residents of the New Hampshire sea coast who opposed the planned construction of a nuclear power plant in the town of Seabrook. The "Clam" was the first grassroots movement to expose the dangers of commercial nuclear power through education and direct action. In 1977, 1414 people were arrested at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant site after camping there to block construction. Mr. Thornton was among those arrested at this protest, as well as at one in 1978.

Other organizations for which he has been involved include the Rainbow Coalition, the Peoples Bicentennial Commission, People for Change, the Anti-Racist Coalition of Connecticut, and the Haymarket Peoples Fund.

Mr. Thornton was active in the 1980 Presidential campaign for Jesse Jackson. In 1985 he went to Nicaragua as part of the "Sandy Pollack Brigade" to support the successful Nicaraguan revolution which was fighting against the U.S.-backed rebel groups, or Contras. His focus has been on non-violent protest and methods of civil disobedience and he has educated other organizers in this practices.

In recent years Mr. Thornton has written about radical and labor history, particularly as it pertains to Hartford and Connecticut. He has compiled his essays on a website he maintains, The Shoeleather History Project, at http://shoeleatherhistoryproject.com/

Mr. Thornton is the author of the book A Shoeleather History of the Wobblies: Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Connecticut (Red Sun Press, 2013, Boston, Mass.). He frequently writes about labor and worker history for Connecticuthistory.org, an online encyclopedia of historical topics pertaining to the state.

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Scope and Content Note

The papers, collected or created by Stephen Thornton, consist of alternative newspapers, flyers, pamphlets, notes, correspondence, and campaign or political buttons. Topics among the materials are those that were of personal interest or were part of Mr. Thornton's labor organizing and social activist activities. These include the Peoples Bicentennial Commission (a populist alternative to the 1976 Bicentennial celebration), the Anti-Racist Coalition of Connecticut, anti-apartheid work (in particular the push to divest the pension funds of the city of Hartford from investing in South African corporations in the 1980s), anti-Ku Klux Klan rallies, training in non-violent protests, organizing against nuclear power, strikes in Connecticut including the Colt strike from 1985-1989, anti-racist publications, tenant issues in Hartford, and worker health and safety, among many other topics. The collection also includes local organizing buttons collected by Mr. Thornton during rallies and protests he organized or in which he participated.

The information about strikes represents support work Mr. Thornton and ad-hoc community committees performed on behalf of the strikers. Many of the flyers and leaflets found in the collection for the strikes were created by Mr. Thornton.

All information on Ku Klux Klan materials has been consolidated into box 1.

Of special interest are arrest citations Mr. Thornton received.

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Administrative Information

Publication Statement

Archives & Special Collections, University of Connecticut Libraries 2014 August

University of Connecticut Libraries405 Babbidge Road Unit 1205Storrs, Connecticut, 06269-1205860.486.2524archives@uconn.edu

Revision Description

Updated information on Ku Klux Klan materials, all consolidated into box 1. 7/31/2015

Access

The collection is open and available for research.

Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information

Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from both the University of Connecticut Libraries and the owner(s) of the copyright.

Provenance and Acquisition

The papers were donated by Stephen Thornton in May 2014.

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Controlled Access Headings

  • Thornton, Stephen
  • Buttons (information artifacts)
  • Correspondence
  • Ephemera
  • Hartford (Conn.)
  • Labor leaders
  • Labor unions--Organizing
  • Manuals (instructional materials)
  • Newspapers

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Collection Inventory

Series I: Inventory

Title/DescriptionInstances
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Meeting agendas, Posters, Photographs,, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Ku Klux Klan, Photographs of Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan of Shelton CT and Grand Wizard James Farrands rally at East Windsor on private property August 30, 1984, Anti-Klan Network, beginning of the end of racist violence, Anti-Racism Coalition of Connecticut, Ronald Reagan, Homefires,When Hate Groups Come to Town, People for Change, gay rights, Hartford Sentinal, Hartford Faience Company strike, Nelson Mandela, Hartford Advocate, Metroline, Hartford News, Apartheid in South Africa, Sojourners, arson, Substitute House Bill no. 5978, Unity, Protect and Expand Social Security, Crime-free Hartford, Hartford Peoples' Bicentennial Comission, Committee to Defend Democratic Liberties, sugar boycott, fruit (grape) boycott, Connecticut Committee Against Inflation and Unemployment, Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, 1716; iskra (a Windsor [Connecticut] High School alternative newspaper published by Mr. Thornton when he was a student), Intercourse, the Jacobin, Tabacco, Asociacion de Trabajadores Agricolas]

Box 2014.0073_1
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Win, Peace and Freedom Through Non-violent Action, Common Sense, the Guardian, Tomato strike, Nixon, map, Peoples Bicentennial Comission, Workers' Self-Management Group, democratizing the workplace, Other Voice, People's Press, Intercourse, GHCC, Wild Raspberry, Conntrast, Griffin, iskra, New Times, Park River Review, the Draft System, Indochina Chronicle, Rama, Time, Earth, Amex Canada, En Ironment, Citystar, Realist, Labor Today, InConcert with Cuba, Mother Jones, Southern Exposure, University Action Group, A Gay Manifesto, New Unity, Star, Banfield's Theories, the Struggle, Against the Grain, Birth Control, Philippines, Black Bart, Alive Magazine, Breakthrough, Vietnam, Osawatomie, Harrisburg 8, Harrisburg Conspiracy, Lightning, Storrs Street Fish Gazette, Solidarity, Students for a Democratic Society Constitution, NSA Report, Yanqui Dollar, Opium Trail, Fanshan, Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker movement founder]

Box 2014.0073_2
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Trade Unionists for Democratic Action, America - from Hitler to Reagan, films for peace, Winooski 44, Beyond Vietnam: Martin Luther King's Prophesy for the 80's, Central America, Nonviolent Activist, War Resisters League, Nicaragua Revolution, labor unions, Rural Southern Voice for Peace, Pacifeast's Kitchen, recipes, FTAA Protest Quebec City, minutes, examples of nonviolence in Europe, disarmament, El Salvador, Regional March to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners, Colt Strike, Peace Work with a Union Label, civil disobedience, handbook for nonviolent action, Women in Action, nonviolence training for trainers, Clamshell Alliance, Childcare Workers of Connecticut, American Friends Service Committee, National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Win, Jesse Jackson, court records, Bikes not Bombs, Peace and Freedom, Out Awards, Report from the First National Labor Conference for Safe Energy and Full Employment, No Nukes Left, Up Against the Wall Street Journal, Nucleus, Plowshare Press]

Box 2014.0073_3
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1898-2014

Proclamation

A proclamation from Governor Raymond E Baldwin. Proclaiming a day of mourning and prayer for the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Saturday, April 14, 1945. Has original signature.

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Dealing with Violence: a Guide for Gay and Lesbian People, Nonviolent Activist, Handbook for Nonviolent Action, National No Nukes Trial Handbook, Win, flyers nonviolence and peacekeeping, Up Against the Wall Street Journal, City Times, Clamshell Alliance News, Maine Nuclear Power Referendum flyer, People's Energy Movement, Unity on the Left Newsletters, Star, Nobody for [Hartford] Mayor Backyard Barbeque, The Daily Grind, Newsweek, Walking the Line, Yale, The Pen and Ink, Windsor High School, S. 4403, Thomas J. Dodd, Ecology, Homefront, City Dollars in South Africa, Iskra (an alternative newsletter published by students at the Windsor, Connecticut, high school), Haymarket People's Fund 1983-1984 Annual report, On the Homefront calendar, 99th Bummers, Red Balloon, a strike at the Greater Hartford campus of the University of Connecticut, Community-Labor Alliance, Connecticut Voices for Withdrawal, Mourn the Launch of the First Trident Protest flyer, Nixon resignation articles, Hot Work, Murder of Fred Hampton, Politics and Education, Labor Today, New Unity, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Democratic Socialists Hartford Local, The Wobblies flyer, Rally in Pope Park photographs, March on Washington 1983 posters, Labor and Community Unity Conference, Ronald Reagan, Ella Baker, New England Homestead, Locomotive Engineers Journal 1924, Workers Monthly 1926, the Outlook 1919, the Workers Monthly 1925, Raymond E. Baldwin, Free Jose Maria Sison pamphlet, Philippines, Why Cage Pigeons, Mila D. Aguilar, Domestic Workers: Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, William J. Sylvester, the Jacobin, Northeast Coalition for Reproductive Rights, 1973 Grape Strike]

New England Homestead 1896

is in brittle and poor condition

Box 2014.0073_4
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Unemployed? Know Your Rights flyer, The Daily Grind, Montage, abortion, Equal Times, 9 to 5, National Congress of Neighborhood Women, Office Workers News, Hartford TUPA (Trade Unionists for Progressive Action), Wayne Gilbert, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Hartford Peoples Bicentennial Comission, Bulletin of the July 4th Coalition, United States-Panama Relations, Bicentennial without Colonies, Puerto Rico, American Indians for Development Incorporated, Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee minutes, Marcos, Herbert Quinde, Public Eye, Donna McDonough, Clamshirt, National Caucus of Labor Committees, Bloc, Blue Hill News, Hartford Advocate, Biafra, Free Campus News, Red China, Citizens of Loyalty to Mankind, newspaper articles on local labor, unemployment, homosexuality, Full Employment Coalition, The Work Project, Communist Manifesto communist, stop S. 1, grand jury abuse, Unity on the Left, Neighborhood Women Against Rape, handbook of model community responses, Greyhound Strike, Colt Strike, runaway shops, Community Labor Alliance, steelworkers, Mary Johnson, J.P Stevens boycott, University of Bridgeport Strike, Patco Strike, Building Political Coalitions workshop, talks given by Stephen Thornton, Hotel Workers Strike, Fafnir Strike, Machinists' Strike, Steelworker Strike, Yale Workers, flyers from various protests]

Box 2014.0073_5
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Clamshell Alliance (a group to oppose the building of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire), New Hampshire Atom Protest, Seabrook, New Hampshire, newspaper articles, the "Clam", steelworkers union, farmers union, National Labor Conference for Safe Energy and Full Employment, Nicaraguan Crisis, Barricada Internacional, Brigadista Bulletin, Are the Democrats Different? pamphlet, Laos, Nicaragua, University of Hartford, Whole Earth Review, Hartford-Ocotal Sister City Project, Witness newsletter #25,31, Envio, CIA, Contra, Ronald Reagan, Connecticut Pledge of Resistance Handbook, United States Invasion of Central America, Central America briefing packet, Nicaragua Network News, Labor Caucus of the Sandy Pollack Brigade, Necan Notice, National Network in Solidarity with the Nicaraguan People, Hartford Area Brigade Organizing Committee, Tractor Project, El Salvador, Search for Peace in Central America, A Special report by the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador, Nicaragua Exchange, training manuals, Sandy Pollack newsletters, flyers, cartoons, United States Resolutions, participant lists, sign up sheets, Conozcamos a Sandino, Prisma, spanish language publications, Mi Voto Es FSLN Hat]

Box 2014.0073_6
Ephemera, Newspapers, Correspondence, Fliers, Posters, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Community Funding Board Conference Participants List, Haymarket People's Fund annual reports, Career Education for the Deaf Program, Connecticut Community Colleges, Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, protest of budget cuts to community colleges in 1990, Rally to save our services flyer, John Rowland, Congress Chronicles, Haymarket News, Resist Newsletter, Haymarket 1985, SPEAC Student Progressive Education, Home Fires, Anti-Apartheid, Funding Board manual, New American Movement flyer, Carry It On!, newsletter of the greater Hartford Coalition of Labor Union Women, South African-United States Nuclear Conspiracy flyer, Moving On, Buffalo Newsletter, Congress Watcher, Clamshell Alliance, Honiss Workers Strike, Big Business on Trial agenda, Metroline, gay community news, proposal for the Crime-Free Zone program, study of organized gang crime in elentary and middle schools in Hartford, state bills, 1st District pledge of resistance, Connecticut Committee Against Repression, the Force, Greater Hartford Community/ Labor Allaince, Hot Work, Hartford Coalition for Justice in Central America, Black Lake Times Newsletters]

Box 2014.0073_7
Newspapers, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Friday Magazine vol. 1 num. 36, UConn Free Press vol. 1 num.2, Cultural Worker, the Organizer, For the People, Real News, Black Africa, Public Employee, Guardian, Jewish Free Press, All Hands Abandon Ship, March on Washington to Bring All the Troops Home, Liberated Guardian, Deceiving the American People, Sedition, Hartford Advocate, El Observador, Peoples Bicentennial Comission, Students for a Democratic Society, Alert, Central America, the Black Panther, Lightning, Print Project America flyer, the Great Speckled Bird, Bilalian News, the Hartford Free School, Free Angela]

Box 2014.0073_8
Newspapers, 1937-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Delta Kappan, international education, poster for a meeting of Rising Up Angry on April 26 in Shippee Classroom, Social Justice April 1, 1940, World War II, Black Panther, Berkeley Tribe, Rat, anti-fascist, Small Sisterhood Issue, Springfield, Masschusetts, Proud Woman, gay rights, Life Magazine 1937-1938]

Box 2014.0073_9
Realia, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: Guillow's Flying Circus, biplane glider, balsa wood, airplane models, Mitsubishi Zero, framed women's suffrage poster, New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association, buttons, Brotherhood of Maintainance of Way Employees, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Order of Railway Expressmen, New York City Lines System Council, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Association of Machinists, Machinists Union, Laundry Workers Union, United Marine Division, Boiler Makers, Brooklyn Metal Trades Council, Milk Drivers and Dairy Employees Union, Bakery, Yeast, Tea and Coffee Drivers, Teamsters Local, Toll Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels, Truck Drivers, Chauffers, and Helpers, Telephone Union, Pratt and Whitney, Unity, Saratoga and Vicinity District Council of Carpenters, Retail Clerks Union, Don't Mourn Organize, Joe Hill Centennial, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, United Steelworkers of America, Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, Karen Silkwood, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, United Railroad Workers, Communications Workers of America, Order of United American Mechanics, Icemens's Welfare Association, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers, International Union Mine-Mill and Smelter Workers, American Federation of Labor, Taxicab Workers Union, International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, General Electric Strike, American Federation Employees, International Jai-Alai Players Association, Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, Brush Paint Makers, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, Westinghouse Industrial Union]

Box 2014.0073_10
Realia, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: buttons, Guild of Professional Technical and Office Employees, Service Employees International Union, National Writers Union, Martin Luther King Jr., District 1199, health care, Barack Obama, Bread and Roses Labor Day Festival, Pay Equity for Connecticut Women, Unidos, Labor Party founding convention, Irish Northern Aid Committee, New England Health Care Employees Union, Tunxis Community College, I have a dream, Connecticut Anti-Hunger Coalition, American Association of University Professors, National Organization for Women, Gordes, pro-choice, Operation budget Storm, Robert Mapplethorpe, Colt Strike, Connecticut Education Association, Citizens Lobby, Jesse Jackson, Ilia Castro, Citizens for Action in New Britain, Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, Geri Langlois, Pratt and Whitney, Unity, janitors, United Seniors in Action, John Flynn, Art Feltman, Susan Hyde, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Upper Albany Community Organization, AIDS Project, Central America, Gus Hall, Angela Davis, National Endowment for the Arts, Doreen DelBianco, Jesse Jackson, Fred Harris, Grape Strike, boycott, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Americans with Disabilities Act, Womens Convoy to Central America, Taborsak, Metropolitan Council on Housing, Indian Resistance, civil disobedience, Ronald Reagan, Coors Boycott, National Lawyers Guild, United States Labor Against the War, Nicaragua, el Salvador, Puerto Rico, Chile, United Mine Workers of America, United Dairy Farmers]

Box 2014.0073_11
Realia, 1968-2014

Scope and Content Note

[subjects include: War Resisters League, Steve Thornton nametag, New England Health Care Employees Union, Employee Free Choice Act, District 1199, orange whistle, Unite, Stand with Wisconsin, Barack Obama, healthcare4every1, Teamsters Union, health care, anti-nuclear, Bicentenario Sin Colonias, Partido Socialista Puertorriqueno, Puerto Rico, Independence for Australia, Mary Ann Handley, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Attica, pink triangle, Hartford Areas Rally Together, Boycott Farah Pants, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, Professional and Clerical Employee, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Union Machinist, United Construction Workers, General Electric Strike, Wagon Drivers and Helpers union, United Paper Makers and Paper Workers, Labor Party Constitutional Convention, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Sea Alliance, United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, Artists Call Against United States Intervention in Central America, Nicaragua, Contra, Al Gore, Connecticut Green Party, Unite Ireland, Sinn Fein, solar energy, March for a non-Nuclear World 1980, Clamshell Alliance, moratorium, John Flynn, People for Change, Pueblo Pro Cambio, Rudy Arnold, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, United Construction Workers, Mississippi Boycott, Student Unionization Movement, Pelican of Hartford, Truckers Against the Bomb]

Box 2014.0073_12

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