We speak with long time activist, author and union organizer Jon Melrod about his new book, ‘Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War’. It chronicles an import 13 year period in Jon’s life where as a student in Madison, Wisconsin during the Civil Rights, Anti-War, Black Power Movement, he intersects and involves himself with the emerging Black Panther Party and local shops including the shop floor of American Motors.
Melrod faces all sorts of challenges including termination, dodges the FBI, outwits collaborators in the UAW, and becomes a central figure in a lawsuit against the rank-and-file newsletter Fighting Times, as he strives to build a class-conscious workers’ movement from the bottom up.
As described in his book, ‘A radical to the core, Melrod was a key part of campus insurrection at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He left campus for the factory in 1972, hired along with hundreds of youthful job seekers onto the mind-numbing assembly line. Fighting Times paints a portrait of these rebellious and alienated young hires, many of whom were Black Vietnam vets.‘
Containing dozens of archival photographs, Fighting Times captures the journey of a militant antiracist revolutionary who rose to the highest elected ranks of his UAW local without compromising his politics or his dedication to building a class-conscious workers’ movement. The book will arm and inspire a new generation of labor organizers with the skills and attitude to challenge the odds and fight the egregious abuses of the exploitative capitalist system.
Later in the show we speak with Rudy Corpuz Jr. of United Playaz in San Francisco about the challenge he and other peace organizers face in their attempts to curb violence, build community and provide a path for better tomorrows for those caught up. We also talk about their upcoming Gun Buy Back program.
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