Special event will
honor Society’s founder, Scott Molloy
By Will Collette
On August 23rd, the Rhode Island Labor History
Society (RILHS) will celebrate an important milestone, its 25th
Anniversary. The Society has become the largest labor history society in the
United States and its annual induction ceremony for new members of the Rhode
Island Labor Hall of Fame is consistently sold out early.
Over its 25-year history, the Society has, somehow,
overlooked one labor leader of merit who, despite decades of dedication to the
rights of working people, has never been inducted. That person is none other
than RILHS’s founder, Scott Molloy.
I’ve known Scott for more than 40 years. I was first introduced
to him by Cathy – she and Scott go back even further when they were friends and
fellow student activists at Rhode Island College. When I met Scott, I was a
young, just-starting out community organizer, and Scott had begun driving a bus
for RIPTA where he became a union activist and President of the RIPTA bus
drivers union.
I can’t begin to count how many rallies and
picket lines I saw Scott on. Then there were the dinners and intense political
discussions well into the night at Ara Doustorian’s house. Can’t beat
rotisserie chicken and jugs of cheap white wine for stimulating discussion.
Scott went on to join the faculty at URI where he has become
a distinguished professor of history, labor history of course, and a
much-published scholar of lively histories of working men and women.
And he founded the Labor History Society, because
collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the struggles of working
people is a vital, indeed necessary, part of preserving our rights and freedoms.
Not to mention, it helps to know that things have been a lot worse in the past,
so there is hope for the future.
The 25th Anniversary event will be held at the beautiful and historic Roger Williams Park Casino in Providence. The August 23rd event is going to be great. The
ticket price is $25 which includes a great selection of finger foods – no
banquet because it takes too damned long.
The event is almost sold out, but hey, I know the President[1].
[1] That
just happens to be Cathy O’Reilly Collette who, as President of the RI Labor
History Society, will be one of the MC’s of the event.
