Michael Hamlin – A Black Revolutionary’s Life in Labor (signed)

A Black Revolutionary’s Life in Labor, subtitled Black Workers Power in Detroit by Michael Hamlin with Michele Gibbs is a personal narrative in which Hamlin (1935-2017) candidly talks about the horrors of growing up black in America from a Mississippi sharecropper’s plantation to Korean War soldier, and ultimately truck driver for the Detroit News and his increasing rage at the system. Hamlin, a key organizer of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and a leader of The League of Revolutionary Black Workers, describes his role in the 1960’s and early 1970’s when black assembly line workers shut down Chrysler Detroit’s Dodge Main and Eldon Road auto plants to protest racial discrimination, safety violations and poor working conditions. The actions spawned a national revolutionary union movement built on black workers power. In a documented conversation with political activist, artist and poet Michele Gibbs, Hamlin offers an inside look at the development of the League and its internal struggles, analyzes historic gains made and lessons learned as they apply to the continuing fight for racial equality by the working class. (Amazon)

This copy has been signed by Michael Hamlin and includes an introduction by George D. Colman, a Reader’s Study Guide, historic documents, artwork and photos from the period.