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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. 5 No. 3, 18 January 1941, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
DETROIT, Jan. 10 – In centers like Flint and Detroit one has the feeling of walking on volcanic ground. Everyone is certain that there will be an eruption in the struggle between the UAW and the automobile industry bosses, but no one knows when or how the eruption will take place.
The whole story of the struggle over the speed-up in the auto plants, the unadjusted grievances, etc., has been reported in the Appeal time and time again. What seemed to me unique and extremely encouraging was that only our party carries on mass propaganda work among the workers. Hundreds of Socialist Appeals are distributed weekly at factory gates in both Flint and Detroit; pamphlets are sold in house-to-house sales drives in the working class sections; open meetings are held; educational classes on Marxist theory and trade union problems are conducted. Besides this many of our comrades are active as stewards and officers in the various UAW locals.
Formerly, the Socialist Workers Party competed in these cities with the Lovestoneites, Stalinists and Norman Thomas Socialists. Now, I understand, none of these groups do any literature distribution or hold any open meetings. The small numbers of union officials, etc., whom the Stalinists and S.P.’ers still control are voluntarily far, far underground. And the field is clear for us!
The last open meeting which the Stalinists held here several months ago for James Ford, their vice-presidential candidate, brought out,only 25 people. The open meeting which I addressed in the headquarters of the Detroit Branch of the S.W.P. last night had 46 people in the audience, and this did not include the more than a dozen comrades and friends who came to a Wednesday noon meeting because they are night workers.
Perhaps the most encouraging features of all was that 12 of those attending this meeting were colored workers, most of them from UAW locals. Colored workers are the most exploited both in the shops as well as in the army and they received the proletarian military program for the abolition of Jim Crowism in an enthusiastic way.
One thing is certain, that the devotion, enthusiasm and self-sacrificing spirit of the Flint and Detroit comrades who are bringing the Marxist program to the mass production workers of these centers “will bring forth fruit a hundredfold.”
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Last updated: 14 November 2020