Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuello 41
Here of late in contemporary times, the great number of laymen among
all denominations, including thc Catholics, have perceived the light
of social progress and do something about it in one way or another.
My father taught me some of this and he served as an acolyte in Ttaly--
that's an altar boy. And of course Catholicism dominated Italy and
every phase of Italian I.ife. When hc landed on the shores of America
and noticed that the religious climate was just a little bit different
here than it was in Italy, well, he excommunicated the Pope, Usually
the Pope excommunicates the layman.
Q. I noticed in your tape that you did with Nick, you said that
you'd been excommunicated from towns.
A. I have.
Q. I wondered if that had meant literally the chuch excommunication?
A. No.
Q. You rnran.1: being thrown out of town.
A. Politically and socially. Well, you see I represented philosophically
speaking, an extreme, extreme philosophy--extreme ideology.
Don't get me started talking about the present of our social order
and our social world. (laughs)
Q. ~et's go back again to the reaction of the local population to
your march.
A. Oh, it was magnificent. The women, I tell you the women really
were magnificent in our struggle. They formed the Progressive Miners
Auxiliary; they marched in Springfield; they marched on the picket
lines; they were gassed and bayonetted. When we had strikes, they
supported us with food and clothing and moral support. ~hey're great.
Women are great. In a struggle, women are great. Once you get a
woman marching, they're like a Kentucky people or the Tennessee
people. Once they're converted away from snake cultism to unionism
or to some other social crusade, damn, you can't have a better supporter.
And you know women are courageous--they're courageous. Damn,
I've seen them wouldn't back up from the militia being gassed, you
know. Blow it right in their faces and they'd laidin the grass and
bury their heads in that grass and clutch that grass and just lay
there; they wouldn'~ love. They're tough.
Q. Were there any women with you on the march?
A. Oh, yes, A few of them sneaked in; they weren't supposed to be
there, you know, because they're thc supp1.y lines, They had to keep
food--we were couriers and transported it.
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield