Detroit
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.
A Review of Walter Reuther, Social Unionist
A Review of Walter Reuther, Social Unionist by Martin Glaberman
Nelson Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor (New York: and Chicago: Basic Books, 1995), 575 pp., $35.00, cloth.
Black Cats, White Cats, Wildcats: Auto Workers in Detroit, 1969
Introductory article and account of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and its activity in a Detroit in the 1960s and 70s.
Levine, Philip, 1928-today
A short biography and information about the politics of American anarchist poet, Philip Levine.
Philip Levine was born in the industrial city of Detroit to parents of Russian Jewish origin in 1928. Detroit was the home of Father Coughlin, a notorious anti-Semitic Catholic priest who broadcast on the radio every Sunday. He spent most of his childhood and adolescence fighting people who wanted to beat him up because he was Jewish.
