Class, Race, and Worker Insurgency: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers

by James A. Geschwender

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521291910
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/30/1977
Series:	American Sociological Association Rose Monographs
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

List of tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. Sociology and the dialectics of class and race; Part I. Historical Context: 2. Black workers, the auto industry and the UAW; 3. Detroit: evolution of a black industrial city; Part II. The League of Revolutionary Black Workers: 4. The birth of the League; 5. Union electoral politics; 6. Ideology; 7. League organisational activities; 8. The League splits and dies; 9. Why was the League initially so successful?; 10. Why did the League die?; Part III. The Present and the Future: 11. Insurrectionary potential remains; 12. The meaning of it all; Notes; Index.