En Masse

In this special, bonus episode, I interview Professor Robert Ovetz, author of "Workers' Inquiry and Global Class Struggle." Prepare to have any preconceived notions of unions, power, and class conflict challenged and expanded! 

In Part Two, Dylan Kelley, friend of the pod and local journalist, and I dive into the hard history embodied in the story of John Henry while exploring the remains of Barre’s railyard. John Henry’s ghost still haunts us, calling us to acknowledge the violence of our past and fight for justice. The revolutionary history and spirit so clearly embodied in the version we feature as our theme song in Season 1 shows us how.

In Part 1, we hear a live performance of “John Henry” by Eric George, a Vermont-based songwriter, sound engineer, and performer of original music and poetry. Eric also shares his relationship to the song and the repertoire of folk music more generally. We also discuss the role of music and culture in shaping a personal narrative, social consciousness and social movements. Last, we get to hear Eric perform an original song off his album, “Songs of Resistance.”

Denise is one of the few women working in what remains of Barre’s granite industry. She worked as a sandblaster for many years. A lot of experienced workers like her are leaving the industry...and the younger generations are not coming in to take their place. Her workplace now has a CNC machine; it can carve a memorial all on its own. She manages paperwork now as an expediter, but she misses the sandblasting room. As president of her trade union, the Granite Cutters Association, she would like to see more people get into the good union jobs available in the granite industry and join the labor movement.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Denise Guilmette, Granite Expediter, former Sandblaster (2017, original)

Guest performer: Sharon (Skye) Forest

Randy has worked his way up from driving a milk truck to working for the City of Barre. He has worked in both the Water Department and the Cemetery Department. The Cemetery Department covers Hope Cemetery in Barre, which is home to some of Barre’s finest granite memorials. Despite Barre’s multicultural past, some tension arose in the Cemetery Department when the cemetery held a Muslim funeral. Randy’s back in the Water Department, nearing retirement, but, not all is fine and placid: Providing essential services and being a union leader is always hard work.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Randy Edmunds, Work Leader for City of Barre’s Water Department and President of AFSCME Council 93 (2017, original)

Guest performer: Carl Etnier

Christine is a true Vermonter in every way: she is part Abenaki, and her entire family has been here for generations. Growing up working-class in a working-class town, she knows what it feels like to be disregarded. When she finally gets the chance to go to college as a working mother, she is awakened to her own intelligence. She decides to teach history, focusing on the history of women and Native Americans. She believes history is very personal, and her students learn history by making it personal. She makes a decent living, but it is only because her union has fought hard for it -- and they have to keep on fighting for it.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Christine Smith, Librarian at Spaulding, former History Teacher at Spaulding HS (2017, original)

Narrator: Sb Sowbel

Many people did struggle during the Recession, and some never fully recovered. Paul dedicated his life to the liberal arts, helping students achieve their dreams, including a young poet with a speech impediment. When the cumulative effects of the 2008 crisis kicked in, however, Paul was laid off. He found work as a Retail Merchandiser, but it paid less than $15 an hour.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Paul Cook, former Retail Merchandiser and Academic Advisor (2017, original)

Guest performer: Reverend Earl Kooperkamp

Fast forward about 80 years to about a decade after America’s second-biggest economic contraction, the Great Recession. The granite industry is still dying, but it’s not wholly dead. The industry is also much safer than it used to be, thanks to workers fighting for better working conditions in the first half of the 20th century. For more highly skilled workers, there are still jobs. Gampo left the building trades to become a granite carver. He is one of about a half a dozen stone carvers left in Barre. He is an artist.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Gampo Wickenheiser, Stone Carver (2017, original)

Guest performer: George Brin

Outside of the sheds, work was still dangerous. Workers were crushed, injured, and combusted. Jack gives us a tour of the abandoned quarries, which he punctuates with bittersweet memories and reflections. He tells a joke about a trick laid-off workers used to get a meal. In the end, Jack just wants to be able to get by.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Jack Gills, Derrick Operator (1930s, Federal Writers’ Project interview)

Guest performer: Richard Gaiotti

If work couldn’t be found in the formal job market, people would find or make work for themselves in the informal market, which is often criminalized. During the heydays of the granite industry, widows of deceased workers supported themselves and their families by running boarding houses or making and selling food, wine, and spirits. Melicenda makes Italian dinners for the wealthier residents of Montpelier, but she does so at great risk. She lives in constant fear of the police raiding her home.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Melicenda Bartoletti, Cook and Caterer (1930s, Federal Writers’ Project interview)

Guest performer: Jenny Blair

Families wanted better, longer lives for their children than what the granite industry could offer. Palmira’s father was furious when she was dating a stone carver. Their family had endured a hard journey to America from Santander, Spain in search of better lives. And it did seem like they were moving up in the world when Palmira landed a job as a switchboard operator. But, Palmira had dreams of becoming a teacher. During the Depression, however, it was hard to see a future beyond being a switchboard operator.

Oral history transcript to be performed: Palmira Fernandes, Switchboard Operator (1930s, Federal Writers’ Project interview)

Guest performer: Weiwei Wang

Machines and automation have been putting people out of work for some time, and the Depression is no exception. But, not long ago, there was an industrial boom that required massive amounts of labor - which is why Donegal, a Scottish man, and his family came here. A man could move from job to job as he pleased. But the work wasn’t easy. Working in Barre's granite industry was dangerous. Many workers died before they reached their 40s. Granite carvers had it the worst. The best carvers, the “artists”, died faster than they could be replaced.

Pat used to live in a small Irish village run by one rich man. One day, this rich man stopped giving work to Pat’s father -- and told his rich friends to do the same -- in response to a false, salacious rumor. Without any prospects in their homeland, Pat's family came to the United States when Pat was seven. As a young man, he kept remembering a beautiful silk umbrella owned by the rich man’s wife in Ireland. He wanted to buy one for his own mother. After trying his luck in many different jobs, he ended up repairing umbrellas for a living.  But unlike the rich men, there is no umbrella that can protect Pat from the storms of misfortune.

Sarah has found work in Barre, but it’s not originally what she wanted to do with her life. As a diversion caseworker, she has seen people in Barre struggling with poverty, and how our systems and social safety net often fails them. Poverty here is particularly challenging and isolating because it is a rural state. We as a society have failed many individuals. People should not have to struggle and work so hard to survive.

Barre, VT was once called the “Granite Center of the World." Quarries wide and deep gave rise to an industry that promised to bear the task of immortality. Granite of exquisite quality augured not only exceptional monuments and memorials but exceptional lives for generations to come -- free from the privations of the old country -- or so it was thought. 

There are hundreds of years worth of granite left in Barre’s quarries, but now they only employ a few people. Today, some refer to the town as “Scary Barre” -- its history as a center of industry and radical labor politics overshadowed by its sinking economy and struggles with poverty.

Using performances of oral histories, we will witness how economic crises change a town, how those changes are still unfolding, and how they have affected us all.