Labor Day Ceremony in Central Falls to unveil monument to victims of 1934 Saylesville Massacre

That's why they and other board members will conduct a memorial service in front of a new monument commemorating the tragedies at 10:30 a.m., Monday, Sept. 6 – most appropriately Labor Day – at the Moshassuck Cemetery, 978 Lonsdale Ave.

 

“We're having this ceremony to unveil the monument to the public – and memorialize the victims,” McIntyre indicated.

 

The cast bronze plaque on the rose-colored, granite monument, erected about a month ago by employees of M.F. Graham & Son Monuments, Inc. of Pawtucket, reads: “Saylesville Massacre, September 1934. In memory of those who were injured, wounded or gave their lives for the American Working Class during the General Textile Strike in Woonsocket and Saylesville. Let us not forget Charles Gorczynski, William Blackwood, Jude Courtemanche, Leo Rouette.”

Underneath, it states “Dedicated by the Rhode Island Labor History Society and Working Rhode Island, Labor Day 2010.”

 

“We did this to celebrate the story of the worker, and to preserve Rhode Island labor history,” said McIntyre, 26, who works as a substitute teacher for school districts throughout Blackstone Valley. “The big thing is that people forget, they forget their history. Labor's democratic impact on American history has been mostly invisible for most of mainstream history.”

 

Stated Palazzo, currently the president of Rhode Island Retirees/Chapter 94/AFSCME: “It's like the classic line, 'If you forget your past, you're doomed to repeat it.'”

How the monument came to be is a rather touching, engaging story. Last Labor Day, the society held a 75th anniversary remembrance of the Saylesville Massacre/General Textile Strike at the cemetery and Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket. After the one near the Central Falls/Lincoln line, a “70-something” man approached McIntyre. “I had been mingling with individuals in the crowd (of about 100) when a man told me he was a descendant of one of the workers; he also asked me why there wasn't something more permanent to honor those who died or were injured during that time,” McIntyre offered. “He explained his father had been a mill worker who took part in the dispute, but he hadn't been hurt. “I looked at him and said, 'You know, you raise a good point,'” he continued. “I promised him I would discuss it with our executive board at our next meeting, and – a few weeks later – everyone said it sounded like a great idea.”

 

Among those board members were RILHS President Cathy Collette and Secretary/Treasurer Scott Molloy, who also teaches labor history and other courses at the University of Rhode Island.

 

McIntyre called George Boardman, the Moshassuck Cemetery Corp. and Crematory, Inc. Superintendent, and asked permission to erect the marker at the site of the last memorial service – located about half way down the right-side roadway. Boardman loved the notion, due to the graveyard's historical significance.

Just 17 yards from a Jewish man's gravestone, which has two bullet holes in it, the plaque/monument sits. Behind it is a small birch tree, and surrounding it a ring of small, mostly white stones 24 yards in circumference. That's the site where McIntyre and other officials had placed the wreath for the 75th anniversary memorial.

“George told us this is an area where – from time to time – people will spread the cremated remains of their loved ones,” Palazzo said. “When we asked, there was no hestitation, so we had the ball rolling. He told us we'd have complete cooperation.”

 

McIntyre and Palazzo enlisted the help of Rich Rupp – a fellow executive board member who also works closely with “Unite,” a statewide textile workers' union – and he proved instrumental in researching the events of that late summer day in 1934. “Those two events were part of a nationwide movement within the textile industry, and it was spearheaded by the United Textile Workers (UTW),” McIntyre revealed. “Those laborers had called for fairer wages and working conditions throughout the industry. The leadership of that United States' organization came from Rhode Island. “In fact, Thomas McMahon was the UTW National President, and his vice president was Francis Gorman,” he added. “He was the chairman of the strike committee, so most of the regional and national leadership came from the Ocean State … The strikers, who were made up of non-union workers from the Saylesville Bleachery and union workers from other mills – including the rayon plant in Woonsocket – they came together to fight for fairer wages. “The employers tried to stonewall the workers and discourage unionization and participation, so employers, and former Gov. Theodore Francis Green (which the state airport in Warwick/Hillsgrove is named after), called in the National Guard.”

 

Stated Palazzo: “People – among them strikers, their wives and children – were running from the armed guardsmen and sought refuge in the cemetery, and the rest is history. One of the reasons the strikers chose the bleachery to strike at was because of its size. It was one of the largest in the state, and it employed close to 2,000 people. “The strikers had wanted to send a message to Rhode Island mills' managements that they were serious about their grievances, and then all hell broke loose.”

 

McIntyre, Palazzo and others contacted “Working Rhode Island,” made up of a group of labor and community organizations dedicated to social justice for all workers. They together decided to share the cost of the plaque/monument, estimated at $2,400. McIntyre described the $1,200 donated by Working Rhode Island officials as “most generous.” Employees at Healy Plaques of Manville created the 16- by 24-inch “nameplate,” and Graham & Son the eight-inch-high base and three-foot-tall, slanted granite marker. The plaque recognizes the four men killed – Blackwood and Gorczynski in the massacre, Rouette and Courtemanche in Woonsocket. McIntyre revealed Blackwood's death certificate, which stated the loam fixer perished on Oct. 8, 1934 of “a perforating bullet wound of the skull, laceration of brain tissue, hemorrhage (and) infection cerebral abscess.” Blackwood, born in Ireland on March 5, 1891, was only 43.

 

“I think this monument, and this ceremony, are terrific because they let the general public know something of significance took place here on this sacred, holy ground; it's also worth remembering those who lost their lives fighting for a better America,” McIntyre said. To Palazzo, it doubles as a representation of the “northern Rhode Island businesses who worked so hard to keep this remembrance at home. “It adds a sense of community,” he stated. “We're expecting at least 100 people, as we had about that number last year for the 75th anniversary. We (as the RILHS) hadn't had a memorial service of the Saylesville Massacre and the General Textile Strike since 1984, the 50th, so we had that, appropriately, last Labor Day.

 

“We're hoping for more people to come out and recognize and remember those workers, and the laborers we have now,” he added.