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Siege: National Voice of the Black Workers Congress. Vol. 1 No. 1.
Detroit, [1971]. Folio (17” x 11.25”), self wrappers. 12 pp. CONDITION: Very good, old folds, occasional short tears to margins, occasional toning along folds. The strikingly illustrated first issue of “the official voice” of a Detroit coalition of “Black workers, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, native Americans, and Asians.” This inaugural issue of Siege was published shortly after the first meeting of the Black Workers Congress, held in Gary, Indiana on Labor Day weekend of 1971. The text notes that “the thrust of this conference was to pull together the efforts of Black and other Third World Workers in a unified struggle against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys.” The photo-illustration on the first page shows the State of Emergency Protest that was held in Detroit on September 23rd, 1971, at which “10,000 Black workers, students, housewives, professionals and others turned out…to protest the…slaughter of Black people…in plants, prisons, and our communities across the country.” Additional contents include a one-page graphic of “Attica!,” a piece on the formation of a “State of Emergency” coalition, an “Open Letter to the Vietnamese People and Black G.I.’s Overseas,” an article about the “Conditions Facing Black and Third World Workers,” excerpts from the Congress’s manifesto, and other news relevant to the coalition and America’s imperialistic endeavors. The Detroit Black Workers Congress was founded in December of 1970 to support and expand the League of Revolutionary Black Workers through the creation of Black caucuses, “Chicano and Puerto Rican revolutionary caucuses, Third World labor alliances, independent revolutionary union movements and other forms of revolutionary labor associations that seek to break the strangle-hold of the reactionary labor bureaucrats and the capitalistic class collaborators.” As a Black Workers Congress broadsheet outlines, the goal of the organization was to destroy the system through which African Americans “are systematically exploited, oppressed, and murdered – the system of imperialism.” It emphasized “the key role…Black Workers, must play in liberation…because of the tremendous power which Black Workers have in the factories, at the point of production. Black workers are at the foundation of the American Industrial Economy…black workers have power to stop this COUNTRY through the use of a united Black work stoppage.” Just two issues of Siege were published (the second in January 1972), and the Black Workers Congress disbanded in the winter of 1972 due to internal tensions. OCLC records 9 holdings.
Item #9001
Price: $575.00
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