Revolutionary Black Workers: The Revolutionary Union Movement

Black workers formed Revolutionary Union Movements within Detroit auto factories in the late 1960s as a means of organizing and protecting the black worker. At that time, black people were blue-collar workers, not skilled tradesman or white-collar workers, and often worked in factories as the “transformation of sweat and blood”. They realized that since they were overwhelmingly employed in these jobs, with upwards of 80-90% in some plants, they could cause a major disruption through work stoppages, causing plants to, “cease function”, and interrupting the, “money flow”. Working conditions were beyond subpar, since safety conditions failed to exist, “compulsory overtime”, where you were made to work overtime, and a system where the union

The League of revolutionary black workers came to support the revolutionary union movements, including DRUM (dodge revolutionary union movement), ford revolutionary movement. Essentially, the revolutionary union movements were a way for black workers to take back power and help fight against oppression; the unions such as the UAW (united automobile workers) did not look out for black workers. DRUM was a militant black workers organization, which helped the independent black labor struggle. There were many organizations in the plants, and workers were aware of the conditions, but the existing leadership failed to look out for workers. Moreover, black workers in hot zones were nearly 99% of the workforce, where white workers were often in other areas, such as inspection or stock. The unions and management began to hold unifying beliefs, and as such failed to truly look out

The movement of black workers was a class movement, an elimination of exploitation in the plants, and an elimination of racism. During the time period, there were a number of rebellions, with protests regarding the Vietnam War, strikes, and civil actions. The revolutionary union movements focused on the workers, the power of the people, and the power of the producer. In many ways, the revolutionary union movements were at the forefront of rank and file movements, since the black militant organizations were instruments for upheaval. They were leading the movement as the most oppressed group, against capitalist, racist, oppressive labor systems in the auto industry. However, the League was not an exclusive one, since they aimed to organize against these issues as a whole class, throughout the United States as well as globally where oppressive labor systems existed. In this regard, the revolutionary union movements helped organize and develop a resistance to the system. While other socialist groups had rank and file rebellions, the militant black worker organizations were especially primed to deal with the disconnect between the management, union bureaucratic leaders, and the workers. They exemplified the struggle of workers attempting to organize and gain fair workplace conditions in a system where they held all the production yet reaped