France, Alternative Libertaire AL #230 - Folder Black Revolution: DRUM: The Black-'re fighting on the workplace (fr)

DRUM ( Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement ) was an organization that was based on the 
working men and women-are black industry. Born in 1968 to a wildcat strike in Detroit, the 
importance of DRUM lies in the fact that the black movement has gone through her ??streets 
and communities to workplaces. ---- Originally the black auto workers complained of racial 
discrimination that prevailed in their factories and the inability or unwillingness of the 
powerful union of the car to fight. After several "wild" strikes condemned by the union, 
black workers began by creating their own organizations. DRUM considered, unlike the Black 
Panther Party (BPP), the workers are black-and not the unemployed are black-cities, had to 
be organized, because they're were a key social group and potentially more powerful: the 
working men and women are black-played a central role in the most important industries. 
DRUM drew the conclusion that they had a key role to play in social change.

The movement is also in black nationalism: Mike Hamlin stated that " ? white America does 
not act as proletarians, but as racist, that's why I think that black should continue to 
have independent organizations white ? " [ 1 ]. Other revolutionary trade union movement, 
the " ? Revolutionary Union Movement ? "(sera) were formed, Ford, General Motors ...

Coordinating organizations

DRUM wishing to coordinate these different organizations, the League of Revolutionary 
Black Workers was created. " Those who created (...) considered that the organization of 
workers was not based on some mythical idea of the nobility of the working condition, but 
on the belief that workers had real power. The workers are the heart of the means of 
production. When they start moving, everyone is affected. "[ 2 ]. The League took 
advantage of the wave of radicalization that swept across the country. The organization 
initially progressed in leaps and bounds as the Panthers , filling the huge void created 
by the torpor of unions and traditional black organizations who refused to take into 
account their interests and needs. The League fought against the rates and for safety. She 
stared objective worker control.

For a movement black worker

DRUM movement failed anyway. Apart from the split in 1971, the reasons are the same as for 
other organizations of the time: lack of funds, problems with people, as well as 
physical-offensive against the opponent who persecuted activists in DRUM exhaustion 
factories. The solidarity of the white proletariat did not happen either, both because of 
racism present in unions that strategy DRUM, less open than the BPP to the junction with 
the white working class.

In the late 1960s, the situation was this: the BPP was attempting to organize the 
unemployed and sub-urban proletariat from the ghetto, the DRUM, he tried to organize black 
es the place working. Unfortunately, the two movements worked together little while 
coordinated struggle of workers and sub-proletarians could go much further. Today, this 
convergence is difficult but it is even more crucial to lead the fight against racism 
together in neighborhoods and workplaces.

Nico Pasadena (commission racist)

Case summary:
The roots of racism: From slavery to the ghetto
labor movement: black or white, always proletarians
Malcolm X: a life in black and white
Malcolm X: Building a Black Power
The Black Panthers beyond the myth
The Black Feminism: at the intersection of oppressions
DRUM: The struggle of blacks in the workplace
black reformist movements: The pitfalls of bourgeois strategies
Harana Par? (historian): "This is the revolt that brought into existence the American Black"
A Black Revolution remains to be done

[ 1 ] Ahmed Shawki, Black and Red, black movement and the American Left 1850-2010 , 
Syllepse Editions, 2012.

[ 2 ] Ahmed Shawki, Black and Red, black movement and the American Left 1850-2010 , 
Syllepse Editions, 2012.