In one chapter, Melrod talks about his time organizing a multinational contingent of people to defend the Menominee Nation on their land in rural Gresham, Wisconsin, against racist violence. In addition to producing agitational flyers, Fight Back Caucus members silk-screened T-shirts that read “Fight Speed Up” in defiance of retaliatory threats from management. With limited resources, Melrod, along with his closest associates and comrades, became creative. While at the AMC plant in Milwaukee, he helped organize the militant, class-struggle Fight Back Caucus of UAW Local 75. During his tenure in Milwaukee, he worked alongside members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.Īs many young people are currently working hard to unionize places like Amazon, Starbucks and Apple, there are several lessons that can be learned from reading “Fighting Times.” Melrod was able to bring workers together under unique and challenging circumstances. A few years later he moved to Oakland, California, and became involved with a group of radical activists who, moved by People’s China, formed the Bay Area Revolutionary Union, which became a national organization, the Revolutionary Union.Īs an organizer with RU, Melrod ended up in Milwaukee and later Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he worked for American Motors (AMC, bought by Chrysler in 1986) and was a member of the United Auto Workers. invasion of Vietnam, fighting for independence and a socialist future. In 1968, Melrod joined Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and was involved in opposing the U.S. In return, he received a four-volume set of “Selected Works of Mao” in a package postmarked from Beijing. He joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as an ally in 1965 and participated in actions against former apartheid South Africa around the same time.Ĭurious about socialism in China after reading Edgar Snow’s classic “Red Star Over China ” in high school, Melrod wrote a personal letter to Mao Zedong. Melrod starts with his childhood in Washington, D.C., where he learned about the harsh reality of racism and national oppression when he saw shackled Black prisoners working on a country road in rural Virginia. The author, Jon Melrod, takes the reader on a journey back in time. If you are looking for a fun read based on real-life events and filled with historical lessons in union organizing, “Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War,” published by PM Press, is worth checking out.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |