Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution (Updated Edition)

Incredible promise that went unfulfilled. This is how I would summarize the history of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, which existed primarily in Detroit and its many auto plants around the late 60s-early 70s. This book is excellently written, bringing the reader into a high-point of movement activity that saw for example workers shooting their bosses and being acquitted because of unsafe working conditions, among other victories that seem astonishing in the rear-view mirror 40 years later. Things have changed, but this book does well to humanize and contextualize the organizing efforts of those involved in the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and affiliated organizations during that time. This isn't just a trip down nostalgia lane. Figures such as General Baker, Ken Cockrel, and Mike Hamlin are shown to be complete human beings, with flaws, but with remarkable talent as well, and the strategies they employed are discussed and elaborated to make for a compelling read. Another key to this book's brilliance is the explanation of the dynamic between the traditional bureaucratic, reformist (and somewhat racist) union, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the League with it's revolutionary black politics. It's partially a study in co-optation - at one point the UAW physically prevents a strike from taking place, and forces workers back to work! Amazing stuff. The book is not perfect - for example it contains a rather long commentary from a white worker/organizer at one of the plants which is not matched by commentaries from the black organizers who organized ELRUM at that plant. Another drawback is the seemingly sectarian approach the authors take towards certain movement actors, such as James Forman. Not that strategies should not be criticized, but they get a little personal here in my opinion. Regardless, it's a hell of a book, and more than anything it teaches you about the immense tragedy and lingering hope that was/is the city of Detroit. Leading up to the US Social Forum next June in that city, pick this up for some amazing history about the town.

This book is full of beautiful historical accounts of the Black workers and their struggles for justice in Detroit. You learn about trade union factions, the struggle to remove a racist police SWAT team called STRESS, a Communist Judge, and countless other stories that never made it into the formal history of the 1970s. Great! Excellent! Educational!

The League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, and the rest of the "RUM"s in the Detroit area are all examples of the radical, black, socialist organizations discussed in this book. If your looking for a book that uses straight language and personal stories to provide a glimpse into an often neglected apect of US labor history then start here. Also, the Updated Edition also has a nice introductory piece by Manning Marable as well as short reflective chapters written by members of the movements that the book concerns itself with. Another book worth reading on this era from a more academic perspective is "Class, Race, and Worker Insurgency:The League of Revolutionary Black Workers" by James A. Geschwender.

We often here about the 1960s as a time of radicalization for students and mystical urban heroes. Rarely is the working-class and trade union struggle ever revealed. Partly that is because working-class struggle was not at the heart of the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. But Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tells a different story; one of a core of revolutionaries in the industrial heart of America within a union with a radical past. These black revolutionaries take on the racism of the bosses, as well as the racism of the union beauracracy, in a daring and valliant attempt to bring about real social change. Some lessons for activists, trade unionists, and socialists today are included by the authors. Questions of organizing white workers; the need for a national party; wildcat strikes to take on both the company and the union beauracracy; and the need to have an international perspective. All of theses lessons are brought forth from the struggles of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and all of the Revolutionary Union Movements in the Detroit area. A must read for activists today.

This is simply the best book written on the radicalization of the Black (and white/arab/latino) industrial working class in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It is also rich in lessons for radical unionists and socialists today. With all the academic presses churning out tome after tome on "race relations" why doesn't one of them pick up this fascinating book