Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuello 3 6
in some cases, some small, some rases a little larger, but these
people, this element is thcre and how to move them out of that rut
1'1.1 never know. But at the height of our movement here in Illinois,
in organizational matters at least, we always had a certain numher
of citizens in the community, for one reason or another, that represent
the primitive idea; ,the obstinate idea of rernainiag in the rut
and refusing to move forward despite any ecchnological development,
despite the changes in the world. Primarily we found that it was
religious in basis.
The Father had told them too much about the Kingdom of God, you know,
and forgot to tell them about the social implicatfons of the moment--
the realittes of the moment. And they became immersed in this theology,
in this superstition, and they were wairiag for, I suppose, God
to rectify the social condirion and they remained the backward element
of their community--the obstacles for our social progress. Whenever
there was a strike, you heard their voices of lament. And if th.ey
were political1.y oriented, they believed of course that the electoral
process--either Humphrey or -Johnson--was going to save the world, or
Kennedy or somebody else. Now I'm being a little Sarcastic, but
th%s is my concept of it. And so you had the political schtsm, 'St
was the Democrats that said, "My Democratic. candidate is the best.
You elect him and you're going to resol-ve all your economic problems."
And the other side was just as vocif erous about voting for the Republicans.
That schismremainedand they forgot about their own destiny,
their own welfare, their own solutions for their own probl.ems,.
And so you had that element in your community, but what happened there
is if you gained the support of the majozity of the community in your
economic endeavors, or your political advocacies, they controlled
the town, so to speak. The reaction element became silent in the
face of that majority; they wouldn't cause you too much trouble if
you had that much control; they remained silent because of the fear
of the majority, you see. But where you didn't have that activist
group, that development, then the rational element actually controlled
in all sieuations. It di.dnlt make any difference what it was; if it
was a social rissue, amnesty, birth control or what have you. This
e1emen.t remainw in control and this i.s the direction in which this
community always flows.
Q. Are some cotrununities better than others? Could you name a few of
the so-called good ones?
A. Wcll now, Gi1S.espi.e always had a socialist element--good strong
socialist element. That socialist element showed up in all questions
of politics; all questions of socia.1 concern. You could expecr a
decent repsesenta,tion on any issue which came into that community.
Whether it was civic, political or economic, it always showed in
what took place. Benld, on the contrary, now this is an Italian and
I'm Italian by descent. Something happened there; they lost the
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield