An inside look at how the experiences of Black workers created lifelong revolutionaries
Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries offers a fresh perspective on class, race, and revolution in the United States. Drawing on more than forty hours of interviews with former members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Scott and Katz-Fishman share the rich story of the League, including the women and students. That story includes the history of the automotive industry in Detroit, the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, and the wildcat strike that sparked the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM). The authors describe the rise of the League from 1968 to 1971. They explore the centrality of struggle and political education as the League split and a section of League comrades moved into revolutionary organizations and social movement spaces, many of which remain active today. League comrades share their analysis of the current moment and staying the course of revolutionary struggle.
Jerome Scott, a former labor organizer in the Detroit auto plants in the 1960s-70s and a founding member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, was the founding director of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide. He is a political educator in movement and labor organizations in the South and nationally, and a contributing author/co-author to political education toolkits and numerous articles on the capitalist crisis, the digital and AI technological revolution, and class, race, and the revolutionary process. He was co-recipient of the American Sociological Association 2004 Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology, is a board member of the General Baker Institute, and is a member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
Walda Katz-Fishman, a scholar activist and professor emerita of sociology at Howard University, was a founding member of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide. She facilitates political education in academic and movement spaces and is a contributing author/co-author and editor of popular education toolkits and numerous chapters and articles on the global capitalist crisis, the AI/digital revolution, class, race and gender, and revolutionary transformation. She was co-recipient of the American Sociological Association 2004 Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology and is active in academic and social justice organizations, including the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
