Description: 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.
Brief description: WALDA KATZ-FISHMAN is a scholar activist and professor of sociology at Howard University. A founding member and former board chair of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide, she is a contributing author or editor of popular education toolkits and books, including The United States Social Forum: Perspectives of a Movement and The Roots of Terror, among others.
Review Quotes: Worthwhile books cause the reader to think, and this book does just that. Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries is a timely book about Black revolutionaries who have stayed the course, remained committed revolutionaries over the decades, and have lessons that we can learn and apply today. . . . I recommend this book to revolutionaries and activists who are searching for the next steps in building a movement against U.S. imperialism.--James Madigan "CounterPunch"