TU Black Power

Question 1

Negative View

Answer 1

• The movement was not particularly concerned with Trade Union rights
• The movement also emphasised the differences between blacks and whites, hence harmed worker solidarity
• The movement was about AA solidarity, not bi-racial solidarity
• Lack of economic progress, workplace discrimination, etc.

Question 2

Positive View + Quote

Answer 2

• The Black Power movement encouraged economic liberation for Blacks, helping their economic status, as well as exposing racism in unions and influencing some pro-union legislation
• Typical of Marxist historians
• Lee Sustar: “The strike activity demonstrated a united struggle of black and white workers against their employers was possible.” He claims in reference to national strike wave triggered by Black Power with both white and black workers involved

Question 3

Work of DRUM

Answer 3

• The most politically advanced of the Black union caucuses emerged in Detroit at the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)
  DRUM was not just a powerful network of militant Black autoworkers, but an explicitly revolutionary organization with the goal of workers’ power
• DRUM sees its goal as the complete transformation of society

Question 4

Black Power in local communities

Answer 4

• BP worked through local communities in Northern cities of Detroit, Michigan, etc. where the workforce was heavily unionised and worked against AAs
• This community work helped AAs to look after themselves and provided support for those in ghettos

Question 5

Importance of the Construction trade

Answer 5

• Construction trade was of vital importance as a battleground for AA rights as at this time it employed almost 10% of all Americans

Question 6

Advancement of Workers’ Rights in this period

Answer 6

• The movement may have partially inspired Nixon’s affirmative action policies or the 1964 Equal Opportunity Act - focus on poverty resonated with Johnson’s “War on Poverty” programme
• Practical help given for people living in ghettos
• 1968 Age Discrimination in Employment Act- Not allowed to discriminate between ages of 40 and 65.
• Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970)- Guaranteed safety of labour.
• UFW won the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975- Gave collective bargaining rights to farm worker.

Question 7

Strike activity in this period

Answer 7

• 1968 Hotpoint (a.k.a Washing Machine) factory in Chicago (galvanised several other factories within this)- sit down strike against racism directly linked to black nationalism - asking for anti-discrimination clauses in contracts
• Sustar of Socialist Worker argued that Black Power helped “to trigger a national strike wave that involved a significant minority of both black and white workers”
  1965: 1.5 million workers striking in 4,511 strikes
  1970: 2.5 million workers striking in 381 strikes
  1975: 965,000 workers striking in 235 strikes

Question 8

Work of Chavez and the UFW

Answer 8

• Work of Chavez- Formed in 1962 and renamed in 1965, the United Farm Workers (UFW) joined in the Delano Grape Strike of 1965-1970.
• In 1968, Chavez called for a boycott and 17 million Americans stopped buying grapes leading to the recognition of his union in 1972 and membership of 500,000 by 1975.
• UFW organised strikes and boycotts in the 1970s including the Salad Bowl Strike to protest for higher wages.

Question 9

Benefits to Unions themselves (Unity, class consciousness)

Answer 9

• The movement encouraged unions to abandon any former racist practices
• Some Marxists perceive the movement as having helped form a non-racial class consciousness which helped unite the union movement in later years

Question 10

Discrimination in the workplace?

Answer 10

• 1960s saw a marked decline in discrimination in the workplace

Question 11

AA involvement in the largest industrial unions

Answer 11

• During this period the largest industrial unions saw rapid AA involvement - 20% in AFL-CIO were AA by 1970, in particular in auto workers unions, (50% in Detroit were black in 1968, compared with 30% in 1963)

Question 12

Black Power and shop floor organisations

Answer 12

• Black workers developed shop floor organisations (Black Caucuses) in order to get their political voice heard. Led to much higher employment proportions

Question 13

Black Power and the UWSA

Answer 13

• Black Power increased the strength of representation of blacks in the UWSA (had over 1.2 million members)

Question 14

Black Power and the IEB

Answer 14

• In 1964, there was not a single Black International Executive Board (IEB) member; fewer than 24 of the 800 USWA staff members were Black. At the same time that barely 3% of the staff was Black, 16% of the union membership was Black. By 1975, 57 Blacks were on the International staff

Question 15

Black Power and Ad Hoc

Answer 15

• The Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Black Steel Workers was formed in 1964 by a group of Black steelworkers
• Ad Hoc gained a following of well over 1000 Black steelworkers who regularly attended local and district caucus meetings in Chicago, Gary, Youngstown, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Philadelphia in the mid-1960

Question 16

Problems for Labour rights in this period (esp. for AAs)

Answer 16

• Lack of concern for AA’s economic position as the main focus was on AA culture- the economic position of black Americans was one point on the ten-point programme
• Violence lost support for AA rights among whites and other AAs
• BP movement not that interested in labour rights, more so of police violence and social grassroots poverty

Question 17

Problems of divisions that arose from the movement

Answer 17

• The Black Power movement was militant and opposed any whites assisting, leading to little support among unions - undermined concepts of worker solidarity championed by figures such as Chavez
• Split unity of workers -consciously or inadvertently split workers into white and black (TU rely on worker’s unity)
• Create divisions in labour movement by emphasising differences

Question 18

Where did progress in this period more likely come from

Answer 18

Progress in this period came more from sympathetic Presidents such as Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon
Change more likely as a result of a wider changing attitudes to US society as opposed to Black Power militancy
BUT: Studies in the North do show that the Black Power movement served as the catalyst that pushed building trade struggles beyond their prior limits

Question 19

Overall

Answer 19

• Black Power movement did pressure employers and the US government to improve the position of AA workers by ending racism and assisting poor AA workers
• Lots of evidence to suggest progress of AA’s during the Black Power era but overall, Black Power was not focused on labour rights and there was little legislation or evidence of progression as opposed to change in this period.