Two industrial workers, members of Detroit’s League of Revolutionary Black Workers, share experiences with political organizing and education.
Two industrial workers, members of Detroit’s League of Revolutionary Black Workers, share experiences with political organizing and education.
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
A look at the lives of influential black dissidents who changed the course of history.
From 1964 to 1972, at least 300 U.S. cities faced violent upheavals, the biggest led by the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, in Detroit.
This book, originally published in 1977, provides a historical account and case study of a little-publicised social movement, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. The League, a black Marxist-Leninist movement that developed among automobile workers in Detroit, appeared shortly after the 1967 Detroit urban disorders. It spread from the automobile industry to other industries, and from Detroit to other urban areas, before an internal split led to its demise in 1971. The author bases his study on interviews with members of the League and on a detailed analysis of the movement's literature. He carefully examines the development of different ideologies within the League and the resultant conflict over tactics. Although the League was unified in its advocacy of black revolt, one wing of the League's leadership emphasised class analysis and supported a strategy of collaboration with white workers and white radicals. Another wing stressed national liberation struggles and rejected such collaboration in favour of an exclusively black movement.
