The Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries with Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-Fischman
About this episode
The episode discusses the historical context and oral histories surrounding the working-class revolutionaries in Detroit during the late 1960s.
In the late 1960s Detroit was ripe for revolution: a wave of urban insurrections had swept the country from coast to coast, and the 1967 Detroit rebellion was one of the largest and most consequential; Black auto workers who had experienced marginalization and discrimination in the industry as well as from their own union (UAW) were organizing grass roots resistance; and Detroit was a center of Black radical thought, notably fired by the presence of the Marxist leader CLR James, as well as James and Grace Lee Boggs. On May 2, 1968, 3000 workers at the massive Dodge Main plant participated in a wildcat strike, and soon the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) was born, and workers began organizing radical caucuses at other factories. There are several useful accounts—books, articles, films—about the life of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, its history and its impact, but with Motown and t he Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries Walda Katz-Fischman and Jerome Scott add a necessary and illuminating element: Oral History. The focus is meaning as it’s constructed by human beings—meaning made by actors in their particular situations—and this leads to story, to…
People in this episode
Host: Bill Ayers
Guests: Jerome Scott, Walda Katz-Fischman
Topics covered
- working-class revolution
- urban insurrections
- Black radical thought
- grassroots resistance
- oral history
- labor movements
Keywords
- Detroit
- 1967 rebellion
- wildcat strike
- Black auto workers
- grassroots organizing
- radical caucuses
- oral history
- labor history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: United Auto Workers, Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, League of Revolutionary Black Workers
Books & works: Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries
Places: Detroit
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