Stephen Thornton Papers

Stephen Thornton was born in 1951 in Port Chester, New York, and raised in Windsor, Connecticut; he graduated in 1973 from the University of Connecticut, where he organized students against the Vietnam War. His career includes a progression of positions as an organizer for various unions, including as Executive Vice President of the AFSCME Local 1716 when he worked as a daycare teacher in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges (1980-1990), the International Ladies Garment Workers (1990-1994), and as Vice President of 1199/SEIU (Service Employees International Union) from 1994 to his retirement in 2013.

Mr. Thornton has been involved in organizing and participating in many strikes in and around Hartford, as well as organizing protests focusing on housing rights, homeless rights and environmental justice, particularly concerning anti-nuclear issues.

Mr. Thornton was a part of strike support committee for workers at Colt's Manufacturing Company, raising funds, editing the support committee newsletter, and training the participants (known as the Colt 45) to do civil disobedience at the Colt factory gate. He also organized a group of prominent local peace activists to issue a statement in support of the strike.

In 1977 Mr. Thornton joined the Clamshell Alliance, a regional organization that was formed by residents of the New Hampshire sea coast who opposed the planned construction of a nuclear power plant in the town of Seabrook. The "Clam" was the first grassroots movement to expose the dangers of commercial nuclear power through education and direct action. In 1977, 1414 people were arrested at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant site after camping there to block construction. Mr. Thornton was among those arrested at this protest, as well as at one in 1978.

Other organizations for which he has been involved include the Rainbow Coalition, the Peoples Bicentennial Commission, People for Change, the Anti-Racist Coalition of Connecticut, and the Haymarket Peoples Fund.

Mr. Thornton was active in the 1980 Presidential campaign for Jesse Jackson. In 1985 he went to Nicaragua as part of the "Sandy Pollack Brigade" to support the successful Nicaraguan revolution which was fighting against the U.S.-backed rebel groups, or Contras. His focus has been on non-violent protest and methods of civil disobedience and he has educated other organizers in this practices.

In recent years Mr. Thornton has written about radical and labor history, particularly as it pertains to Hartford and Connecticut. He has compiled his essays on a website he maintains, The Shoeleather History Project, at http://shoeleatherhistoryproject.com/

Mr. Thornton is the author of the book A Shoeleather History of the Wobblies: Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Connecticut (Red Sun Press, 2013, Boston, Mass.). He frequently writes about labor and worker history for Connecticuthistory.org, an online encyclopedia of historical topics pertaining to the state.