Detroit
Young Detroit Radicals 1955-1965 - Dan Georgakas
Dan Georgakas's personal recollections of radicals in Detroit and the people who formed the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
Young Detroit Radicals 1955-1965 (1)
DRUM: vanguard of the black revolution
A short history of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, detailing their beginnings as well as their opposition to the United Auto Workers union.
(from an article by Luke Tripp which appeared in The South End, the student newspaper at Wayne state University, January 23, 1969)
DRUM is an organization of oppressed and exploited black workers.
The butcher shop: Hamtramck Hospital
Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement's attack on the racist practices of the hospital at the Hamtramck Chrysler factory.
(from DRUM Newsletter Number 21)
The carrot and the stick: December 11, 1968
DRUM's attack on the spectacle of the Chrysler Corporation's "milestone agreement" to "pour $1,000,000 into colored-owned banks in three US cities".
(from DRUM Newsletter Number 24)
1911-1970s: Unions and workers: limitations and possibilities, by Martin Glaberman
Detroit auto-worker Martin Glaberman analyses the bureaucratisation and decline of the US trade union movement. An interesting article interspersed with historical information and personal reminiscences
Consider these two units of time: 36 seconds, the rest of your life. The job that takes 36 seconds to do that you're going to do for the rest of your life. I don't know a better definition of alienation than that...
Detroit bus drivers on wildcat strike
All of Detroit's bus drivers walked out yesterday over concerns about safety and crime.
About 800 bus drivers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26 were involved in the stoppage.
Union president Henry Gaffney said that the strike grew from his members' frustration with the growing dangers on the unpatrolled buses - two drivers were assaulted in the last two days.
An account of car factory sabotage
A brief account of sabotage at a car manufacturers in Detroit by Eugene, a carburator assembler.
Ford times time on the loo
This article from the Detroit news shows petty measures introduced by Ford managers recently to raise productivity. The memo about toilet time is included below.
- Ford cracks down on rest room breaks
- Some workers spend more than 48 minutes away from the line at Wayne truck plant, slowing production of SUVs.
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
Too long in the loo?
1968-1971: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers - A.Muhammad Ahmad
A short history of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers - a radical union of black auto workers. The articles includes other information about the car industry, race and struggle from 1910 onwards.
THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARY BLACK WORKERS (A HISTORICAL STUDY)
(By A.Muhammad Ahmad)
INTRODUCTION
The workers have to deal with their own reality and that transforms them
Based on his experience in auto factories, Glaberman discusses the contradictions of the union's role.
