How the Nazis Made Worcester Library their Bunker Headquesters

The Worcester Library voted on September 7, 2011 to allow the Nazis group, NEWP,  to use the meeting rooms without any limits.The Nazi group, based in New Hampshire, has used the Library for organizational meetings. In effect Worcester Library will be their headquarters

As most people know organizational meetings are not a free speech issue. Monthly organizational meetings are meeting where plans are made and treasury reports are read. Associations or corporations have to find a private space for such meetings.  The Nazis have met several consecutive months and have sent to the Library requests for many more monthly reservations.

When Worcester based groups such as Worcester Area Rainbow Coalition wanted to have consecutive monthly meetings we were turned down by the Library saying that consecutive monthly meetings were organizational meetings and that such meeting would prevent other groups from getting an opportunity to use the meeting rooms.

The Library has opened a can of worms by allowing the Nazis to reserve rooms months in advance for organizational meetings. It has created a precedent for other groups to reserve rooms months in advance.  So let’s do the math.  Since there are only two meeting rooms and only five days the Library is open there are only at most 40 reservations per month. That means only 40 groups could usethe library meeting rooms. Limiting the Library meeting rooms to only 40 groups is not freedom of speech.  The late comers for reservations would be shut out for the distant future.

What is worse there is no Worcester preference for people who live and work in Worcester. That means groups from Maine and New York could shut out Worcester’s people from the use of our Library.

Worcester's Confused Head Librarian

Before the meeting of 8-24-11 on the Library's policy regarding the Nazis. One of the Library staff talked with a Nazi standing outside of the Library doors.  I was holding an anti Nazi sign on the sidewalk. The staffer then came over to me and told me I had to move across the street. I told him that it was a public sidewalk and that there were no rules or ordinances where I stood with my sign. I asked to see any document he had. He left and started  again to talk with the Nazi.

When my wife and I walked into the Library to go to the OPEN meeting of the Library Board, this same staffer with another library worker blocked the door. He said we could not go into the meeting with the signs. We agreed to leave the signs outside. He then said that we could not go into the meeting at all.

Some one inside heard the argument and opened the doors for us to come in. As we were going into the meeting one of the staffers jumped in front of my wife and me trying to physically stop us from going into an open meeting.  We walked around him and told him to stop his illegal behavior.

After the meeting I told the Head Librarian that staffers tried to intimidate us and prevent us from entering an open meeting. The Head Librarian said that the staffers were following his orders. He said that no one can hold a sign within 175 feet of the Library and that no signs were allowed in the event rooms. I later spoke to a Library Board member who said that there were no such rules. The Head Librarian was confused.

This is the second time someone tried to deny me entrance to an open or public meeting at the Library. The first time was when the Nazis kept me out by throwing chairs and the second was when the Head Librarian ordered his staff to deny me entrance.

A New Face in Worcester Politics Tim Beaudoin

Tim Beaudoin's fundraiser was  last night and it was my first time at Neo's Cafe on Milbury St. in Worcester.

Also a  first is Tim's political campaign and I was surprised at how well organized and polished his campaign has been. He is certainly getting his name out and it looks like he has a good chance to win one of the City Councillors slots after the Preliminary next month.

Tim's family has been in Worcester for four generations and he attended Worcester Public Schools. He is a special needs teacher and helping children.  While holding a sign with him I saw him patiently talk with a man for a long while without once cutting him off. There is a rumor that Tim got this patience from his training as Buddhist monk. His mother told me that Tim was always, even as a child, independent and somewhat stubborn. She said that these traits later became fair mindedness and principles.

 When I met Tim several years ago he was a socialist, but has since moderated his thinking. He now seek out the small businesses of Worcester with the idea that building the neighborhoods is more important than the large projects like Union Station that drain money from the City. However Tim
has not entirely abandoned the Left as he has made an alliance with the Green- Rainbow to help with his campaign.

So good luck to Tim.  You will be a new face on the City Council and hopefully replace the arrogance of the likes of Lukes,

Chapter 9 of My Book on Holy Cross' Radical Days

FAT LADY                                                                                                
                                                                                                                      Following the lead of the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast for Children Program, activists in Worcester initiated a similar breakfast program. There were two centers for breakfast. One in Main South, run by Anne Marie. The second center was run by my roommate, Ed who eventually won a Pulitzer Prize. Ed’s program was in the basement of Our Lady of Fatima Church. We called it Fat Lady, as did the children. The Church is closed today and it is likely to be demolished.


There have been some claims that Clarence ran the Free Breakfast for Children Program.I have no certain recollection of ever seeing Clarence at Fat Lady.

Every school morning for two semesters Ed organize a car load of students to get up between 5:30 and 6:00 AM and go to Fat Lady. We were mostly from the BSU, RSU, and other pro­gressive groups. I remember Mark, Bob, and John were regulars. Although not on a regular basis, scores of other students would help out. Ed’s net of recruitment went out fairly widely and it was sometimes a surprise who

would show up on any given day.

Fat Lady is three or four miles from Holy Cross and we took whatever transportation Ed could organize. Many times we drove the BSU van. Once in January I had to ride in the bed of Bob’s pickup truck. I learned a lot about wind chill during the ride. –

Another time when Ed complained that Holy Cross did not help enough with the program. We went to see Father Brooks, who recently became President of the College and demanded that he help. Father Brooks called to Kimball dining hall and told the staff to give us surplus fry pans. What amazes me even to this day is not that Father Brooks gave us fry pans, but that he knew Kimball had surplus fry pans.

There was a time when the Pastor of Fat Lady tried to throw us out of Fat Lady. The locks were changed on the doors. At that time I saw a whole different side of Ed. He was determined to have the program reopened. He went to talk to the Pastor and we were opened for breakfast the next day.

Among the children I remember one little girl. I don’t recall her name, but she used to give Ed a lot of grief. She complained about the food. She always wore red boots and she was very protective of her little brother. One time to get them to finish their food Ed told them that I would sing and dance. I waited for them to finish and then I said I had changed my mind. For some reason I could only remember “Drugstore Loving” and I thought that would not be an age appropriate song.

I talked to Ed recently. He remembers an older boy whom he felt was something of a trouble maker. Ed asked the kid to help him with the program, cleaning up and closing up. The kid’s attitude changed for the better.

In the Spring we got the word that the Public Schools would be serving breakfast before classes. This made our program re­dundant and it was discontinued in the Fall.

      When Ed returned to Holy Cross in 2005 we happened to go by Fat Lady and I could tell from his voice that he had fond memories of it, the kids, and all involved in the program.

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The End of Worcester PeaceWorks

The tenth anniversary  of Worcester PeaceWorks will be next month on September 11, 2011. It was formed in 2001 in response to the bombing of the World Trade Center. Its initial activities were to heal the wounds and make sense of the 9-11 attacks.  Later it opposed the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War II.

The group took the lead in fighting against hate when Nazis vandalism appeared in the City. It helped to create dialog between Muslims and Jews. It supported Justice for Palestinians and Peace for Israel.

Some members led the weekly vigils at Lincoln Square and seemingly innumberable rallies, as well as buses to Boston rallies.  The anti war conferences were attended by hundreds.

After a while Worcester Peace Works meetings attendance dropped from scores to handfuls.
Many people went back to their original groups or started new groups. The Non Violence Center is now doing the educational work that Worcester PeaceWorks had been involved in. Central Mass for Peace is doing Mid East work and so on.

One of the things that Worcester PeaceWork started was a free and open to the public Martin Luther King celebration. The last one was in 2011 and was essentially run by Dynamy and the Youth Center. I hope that it continues.

With the election of President Obama the anti -war movement ( anti Bush?) disapated.  It was ambivalent about holding a rally in front of Rep. McGovern's office supporting McGovern's call for withdrawal from Afghanistan and President Obama's half stepping on the issue.  The Green Rainbows and others had to sponsor the event.

As one member of Worcester Peace Works said in response to the inability of the group to act or even make decisions, " we don't want to be like the March of Dimes".   I suppose he meant that we had done so much it might be impossible to reinvent ourselves to the same level.

 I want ro give Kudos to the organization that for 10 years set the moral standard for the City and gave it leadership in difficult times.

Mr. ACLU of Central Massachusetts

As some of you might know already, Ron Madnick is now longer employed by the ACLU of Massachusetts. He has been and still is a member of the ACLUM  Worcester Chapter since the early '60s. I remember one time in the '70s the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR) planned a sit in at the School Committee meeting. Ron called us up and said he would be an observer for the ACLUM.


Ron has been the Executive Director for the Worcester Chapter sine the '70s. A letter from Ron would make many of the government bosses rethink their policies. He has fought to make the police accountable for their misconduct. He has led in many ways the efforts to make Worcester a better and welcoming place for all. 


Ron told me the story of how the editors of the Worcester Telegram would nash their teeth everytime he walked into their building. I am sure that the Manager, Police Chief, and Sheriff did the same.


In October 2011 at the Annual Worcester Chapter of ACLUM dinner. We will honor Ron for his lifetime of good work for civil liberties and social justice.  The event is free, but the dinner is not. So come and give Ron the shout out he deserves.

Ban the Nazis Worcester Library August 24, 2011

Nazism and its advocacy of racial genocide are illegal almost everywhere in the world. It has been a clear and present danger since the time of Adolph Hitler, even though many people did not think so. The economies of the world are unstable and many people will turn to a form of fascism as a salvation from the misery and degradation of capitalism.

Today's Great Recession is driving people into desperate ring wing thinking of racism. This is seen in the anti-immigrant thinking of the Tea Party and the Nazis.  Their economic ideas have only increased the misery of the Great Recession and their racism has prevented people from uniting for a better society.

On August 24, 2011  6 PM the Worcester Library will hold hearings on the policy for the use of meeting rooms. The Nazis should be banned from the meeting room for their hate speech and their clear and present danger that precipitated almost every industrialized country to make them illegal.

Holy Cross During its Radical Years

Holy Cross Class of '72 Ex-Man

Authored by Gordon T. Davis

List Price: $10.88

7" x 10" (17.78 x 25.4 cm) 
Black & White on White paper
96 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1460918623 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1460918622
BISAC: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

This is a firsthand account by Gordon T. Davis who as a Black teenager from Philadelphia experienced the transformative years of 1968 through 1973 at the College of the Holy Cross. He entered the College in the infamous Class of ’72 which still has the reputation as being the most radical class of the College. During his years there the world, nation, the City of Worcester, the College, and he changed profoundly. Gordon went from being a devout Catholic and a supporter of Hubert H. Humphrey to a Marxist-Leninist atheist.

The issues such as racism, affirmative action, imperialist war, and poverty motivated the Class of ’72 into action. The actions compelled the College to change. Gordon also became involved in the Black community in Worcester and took part in Worcester’s history that is little remembered today.

In those years which Gordon calls “a trip to heaven” he became friends with many people who are now famous such as Ted Wells (defense lawyer for Scooter Libby), Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court Justice), Edward P. Jones (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction), and Jay Carney (Defense Attorney for Whitey Bulger). He also made friends with people who are not public figures, Wizard, Tank, Cheez, and others. Gordon like many in the Class of ’72 became caught up in the creativity and turmoil of the time and never received a BA from which the term “Ex-Man” came.

Gordon was a romantic then. He chronicles his search for his true love. He speaksof the several girls he dated until he found the “prettiest girl in Fitchburg”.

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