"Our Thing is DRUM"
Black Power and the Black Labor Revolt of the 1960's

Socialism 2015

July 02, 2015
With Lee Sustar

The countless African Americans who participated in civil rights protests and street rebellions in the 1960s didn't leave their politics at the door when they entered the workplace. Black worker militancy that was central to the rank-and-file worker rebellion of the 1960s and 1970s, a movement that shook private industry and the public sector alike. From the wildcat strikes sparked by the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement that shut down key auto plants to the illegal wildcat postal strike of 1970 and beyond, African American worker militancy—shaped by the broader Black liberation struggle—was a critical factor in the biggest strike movement in decades. This talk will look at the dynamics of that struggle and its lessons for today.

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