Class, Race, and Worker Insurgency

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.