Communists and community: Unionism and the rise and fall of community activism in Detroit, 1932--1968

Community organizing has been an important cornerstone for organized labor. Historically, grass-root organizing that took place in neighborhoods, on the street corners, fraternal clubs, saloons, theatres, and other centers of community activity fostered and nurtured social movements in America. Eugene V. Debs and John L. Lewis understood this and used community mobilization to garner the support necessary to conduct meaningful unionization drives. The great unionization campaigns that transformed the American political economy in the thirties and early forties were all supported by grassroots activism.;A fundamental shift began, however, during the late forties and has continued to this day. Bureaucratization and centralization within the labor movement and political pressures to accommodate to corporate needs convinced labor leaders to abandon the community based activism that had previously proved so effective. The long-term result of this shift has been devastating to the labor movement as it has enervated unions and left the American working class increasingly powerless.;To understand this story, it is essential to look at labor activism at the local level. This dissertation examines grassroots community activism in one of the most important industrial centers in the United States, Detroit, Michigan. I argue that Communist union members and officials, especially those in the United Automobile Workers (UAW), played a central role in uniting workers from a wide range of backgrounds. These organizers were the glue that brought together an exceptionally heterogeneous working class. Equally important, they tied labor organizing to grass roots community activities for the general betterment and uplift of the city's working class. Even before Saul Alinsky began his work in Chicago, Communists in Detroit were deeply engaged in community-based activism designed to promote unity, racial tolerance, and broad-based support for the issues affecting the lives of working class Detroiters. In the post-World War II period, however, as the Congress of Industrial Organizations purged the majority of its radical elements, Detroit's labor movement lost many of the organizers and unionists who understood the potential of organizing at the community level and recognized the importance of racial tolerance and equality in the American labor movement. American unions like the UAW turned away from community mobilization and concentrated on influencing national economic policy and pattern bargaining with the Big Three to secure "bread and butter" concessions from employers. Therefore, in the postwar period as organized labor came to understand itself more as a political interest group, community activism was sacrificed for a seat at the foreign and domestic policy table. By the mid to late 1960s these developments made the union far less responsive to divisions and concerns of workers on the local levels. The result was a deep division within Detroit's working class community and a union that was less able to resist the exploitative practices of employers and reactionary politicians.