In honor of Labor Day, earlier this month, we re-aired on our podcast a New England Public Media special produced by Peabody-winning radio producer Ian Coss and hosted by local public historian Tom Goldscheider.
“This project is every historian’s dream,” said Goldscheider. “I stumbled onto a cache of union meeting records and newspaper clippings from the 1940s that allowed me to reassemble a piece of local history that had been completely forgotten. The story of what happened in Greenfield is really a window onto a much larger story that speaks to possibilities in our present day. Manufacturing and democratic labor unions are in the news again. I also see this as a cautionary tale about how unions can be divided and defeated, or not; and about what happens when the rule of law is subverted to a hyper-partisan political agenda. History matters!”
Listen to the radio special here.
