We often here about the 1960s as a time of radicalization for students and mystical urban heroes. Rarely is the working-class and trade union struggle ever revealed. Partly that is because working-class struggle was not at the heart of the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. But Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tells a different story; one of a core of revolutionaries in the industrial heart of America within a union with a radical past. These black revolutionaries take on the racism of the bosses, as well as the racism of the union beauracracy, in a daring and valliant attempt to bring about real social change. Some lessons for activists, trade unionists, and socialists today are included by the authors. Questions of organizing white workers; the need for a national party; wildcat strikes to take on both the company and the union beauracracy; and the need to have an international perspective. All of theses lessons are brought forth from the struggles of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and all of the Revolutionary Union Movements in the Detroit area. A must read for activists today.

This is simply the best book written on the radicalization of the Black (and white/arab/latino) industrial working class in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It is also rich in lessons for radical unionists and socialists today. With all the academic presses churning out tome after tome on "race relations" why doesn't one of them pick up this fascinating book