Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuello 2 9
Q. Would you say that the sccaling of the ballots triggered the
formation of the Progressives?
A. That tirggered it, but. there was among--let me say this. 1111-
nois was probably the most articulate, knowledgeable section of the
Uni.ted Mine Workers in affairs of uniontsm, of economic and politics.
The more radical element resided in Illinois, When,.the destruction
of the auronomy was taking place in Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana,
Canada, Pennsylvania and other coal producing states, we were raising
hell here in Illinois about what they were dohg to the other miners
and what the miners were permitting the United Mine Workers to do to
them. That too, brought about some kind of estrangement between the
outlying coal districts and the Illinois miner,
We were criticizing them for allowing John Lewis t6 tear up their
economy and the right to elect their own officials. This has been
a sacred right founded back in the beginning of the United Mine
Workers--the right: to elect your officers and the right of referendum
on scale matrers. This is sacrosanct with us, but the miners in the
outlying states didn't care; they took it lying down and when John
Lewis got to our borders--the last fortress you know--we just didn't
stand still Lor it,
Tn retrospect, I look back and say that the srcession of the Progrcssive
Miners from the United Minc Workers, was totally jus~ifiable and can
be defended better today than it could at the moment--totally justifiable.
We failed in our battle. We railed in winning the struggle,
but that's not to say it was not justified; it was totally and perhaps
belated maybe ten, fifteen or twenty years. We should have been
fighting John Lewis a long time before that' What we did know about
it--we couldn't win.
When we used to go to the conventions, the. United Mine Workers conventions,
the radical element from Illinois was forever in.ttroductng
resolutions for industrial unionism, which later became the CLO.
Convention after convention after convention, we were forever pestering
thc United Mine Workers and John Lewis to adopt a course of
industrial unionism--organizing the mass-producing industry. He was
forever gavelling us down, out of order. He called us Bohemians from
Illinois who had come over in a steerage boats, the. cattle boat, that
had to stop every time it blew its whistle. And we did not prevail,
that's all.
9, Well, what was he in favor of?
A. Well, to make it as short as possible, John had hallucinations
about being the wise Ring Solomon with complete control of the union
in the belief that the miners were too darned ignorant to handle
their own affairs. It had to be his concept. That's what he worked
on; that's what he developed in the United Mine Workers; that is the
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield