WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.240 In the nineteen sixties, as US bombs rained down on Vietnam, Cambodia, 2 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:07.440 and Laos, an anti war movement developed at home and 3 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:10.800 amongst the troops, while workers began to ignore the calls 4 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:14.359 for patriotism and war production and instead fought for better 5 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.519 pay and conditions. Wildcat strikes broke out in key industries 6 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:24.039 like coal mining, truck driving, public transport, sanitation, and postal services, 7 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.280 while women struggled against the rising cost of living in 8 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:30.480 possibly the biggest protest movement to date in the United States. 9 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:32.960 This is working class. 10 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:49.359 History Alamatina Apenalsaa or the larger, their larger, their largil 11 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:52.640 child chow Alamatina. 12 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.920 Before we get started today, long term listeners may recall 13 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.759 hearing an episode about the Vietnam War era strike wave 14 00:00:59.799 --> 00:01:03.439 before four, and they would be right. Our podcast episode 15 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:07.640 eight was about this. However, like all of our earliest episodes, 16 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:11.200 it was basically just raw audio from our interview, so 17 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:14.480 the sound quality wasn't that great and there wasn't additional 18 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:18.560 narrative to fill in gaps, explain context, and pull the 19 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:22.640 story together into a cohesive whole. In addition to working 20 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.439 on new episodes, we're also going back over all of 21 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:28.400 our earliest episodes to re edit them and release them 22 00:01:28.439 --> 00:01:31.879 in this new, improved format we use for our later episodes. 23 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.959 So we hope you enjoy this improved and expanded double episode. 24 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:39.680 Just a quick reminder that our podcast is brought to 25 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:43.319 you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work 26 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.879 and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes 27 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:51.200 with our ads bonus episodes every month free in discounted 28 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:55.599 merchandise and other content. For example, our patrons can listen 29 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:58.959 to both parts of this double episode now as we 30 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.079 record this, we've got a bit under nine hundred patrons 31 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.120 at the moment. If we could get to twelve hundred patrons, 32 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:08.199 this would really help us cover our costs, make our 33 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:11.479 projects sustainable for the long term, and help us fun 34 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:15.000 production of additional episodes in the future. So if you can, 35 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.680 if you appreciate this podcast, please do join our community 36 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:22.240 and help keep our collective history of struggle alive. Learn 37 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.560 more and sign up at patreon dot com slash Working 38 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:29.520 Class History link in the show notes. This episode is 39 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:32.039 part of a series we've produced about the Vietnam War. 40 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.840 In our episode fourteen with Noam Chomsky, we talk about 41 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.280 the geopolitics of the conflict and its human cost. In 42 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:42.520 episodes ten to eleven, we talk about the gi resistance 43 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:45.280 to the war, and in episodes forty three to forty 44 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:47.439 six we look at the anti war movement in the 45 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.599 US itself. This episode is a little bit different because 46 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.400 we're looking at how US workers responded to the war 47 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:55.719 at their jobs. 48 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:03.479 The American labor movement, overwhelmed supported the Vietnam War in 49 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:07.800 the early stages the resolutions on the war, the statements 50 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:12.120 by the afl CIO were unanimous or close to the 51 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:14.439 unanimous in support of the war. 52 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:18.919 This is Jeremy Brecker, author of the Book's Strike, A 53 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:21.719 History of mass strikes in the US, and really one 54 00:03:21.719 --> 00:03:23.840 of the best texts we've ever read on working class 55 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:27.400 history in the US. We herghly recommend getting hold of 56 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.680 the book, and it's available in our online store link 57 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:34.319 in the show notes. The afl CIO he mentioned here 58 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.599 is the main trade union compederation in the United States. 59 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:42.520 There was a Democratic president who was regarded as fundamentally 60 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:47.520 pro labor, despite some quibbles, and they wanted to support 61 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:52.560 President Kennedy. But more than that, they shared the worldview 62 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:54.520 that the Vietnam War came out of. 63 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:56.479 People can argue about. 64 00:03:56.199 --> 00:04:00.360 The details, what the broad perception was that the struggle 65 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.800 against communism, with a struggle for freedom than any place 66 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.159 that communism was advancing, it was essential for the United 67 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.960 States to fight against it. Had no nuances about well, 68 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:15.479 isn't there a nationalist to mention to the Vietnamese fighting 69 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:19.040 from a liberation from colonialism. This was not part of 70 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:22.399 a picture that people in labor official THEOM as in 71 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:26.720 other important positions in American society wanted to hear. Or 72 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:30.199 they might say, yes, they're fighting French colonialism and we're 73 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:34.000 supporting them in their struggle against it. So this is 74 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:38.800 the general perception that the specific interests that war production 75 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:42.560 was very much perceived as good for jobs. 76 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:43.160 And good for labor. 77 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.879 And then I think you can say that the American 78 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.120 working class was very patriotic. 79 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:50.959 When World War two. 80 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:58.040 They had supported American democracy against fascism, and they felt 81 00:04:58.079 --> 00:04:59.920 that what the United States was doing in the world. 82 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:06.000 Probably there was some small opposition from traditionally left wing 83 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:12.360 unions like the West Coastline shoreman, the New York hospital 84 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:15.680 workers in a few other places, but very very little 85 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.680 and very isolated and not reaching beyond groups that had 86 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.959 long term critique of Americans role in the world. 87 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.759 Well, that was the situation for the official organizations tasked 88 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:32.199 with representing the working class. Different things were going on 89 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:34.199 for workers at a grassroots level. 90 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:40.959 The nineteen sixties are often remembered and thought of as 91 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.399 a period of revolt, but when nineteen sixties were started, 92 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.360 we didn't know that we were going into the nineteen 93 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:52.319 sixties and the early nineteen sixties both and there was 94 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:53.319 the labor picture, and. 95 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:57.120 More broadly seemed very much like a continuation of the 96 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.720 nineteen fifties, with the continuation of macr theism, of pressures 97 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:06.920 for cultural conformity, and a working class that had a 98 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:09.639 higher standard of living than it had ever had before, 99 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:13.639 especially those who were in the mainstream central industries. 100 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:18.560 McCarthyism, named after US Senator Joseph McCarthy, refers to the 101 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.240 wave of anti communist hysteria in the US in the 102 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:24.600 nineteen fifties, when large numbers of left wingers were brought 103 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:28.879 in front of Senate hearings and essentially purged from public life. 104 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.120 This situation of conformity and improving living standards had some 105 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.279 notable exceptions. 106 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:41.120 Obviously, many of these generalizations applied less to black workers, 107 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:45.600 to women workers, to workers in marginalized industries in rural areas. 108 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:50.079 But the general pattern, even for black workers who had 109 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:54.600 made it into the central industries, was that these were 110 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:57.120 good times, and that you could buy a house, which 111 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.800 you'd never been able to do. Maybe your kid wouldn't 112 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:01.600 have to work in the shop. Maybe your kid was 113 00:07:01.639 --> 00:07:03.040 going to be able to go to college and. 114 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:05.680 Have a nice white. 115 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:09.199 Collar job and could definitely take a vacation. 116 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:11.680 Maybe you could even buy a vacation cottage. 117 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:15.720 So well, though the discontents on the shop floor in 118 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:20.959 the workplace remained strong, the overall ambience was shaped by 119 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:25.079 the economic prosperity of the era and the continuation of 120 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:29.879 a generally construtive cultural trend. In that context, you began 121 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:34.240 getting what became to the student revolt or youth revolt. 122 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:39.680 It started with college students largely around a variety of issues, 123 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.879 and gradually spread to become not so college centered, but 124 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:50.519 really a generational polarization symbolized by many, many different things, 125 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:58.079 the hippie values, hair styles, drug use, and above all 126 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:04.680 a questioning of solid conservative cultural values that pre much 127 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:11.560 pervaded American society, and that gradually spread on a generational basis. 128 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:16.079 Of that, the slogan don't trust anyone over thirty really 129 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:19.680 encapsulated the attitude, and there was a converse attitude, also 130 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:23.600 very widespread, of essentially don't trust anyone under thirty. That 131 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:27.279 led to a generational polarization. There was a very important 132 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:29.920 feature right through to the end of the nineteen sixties. 133 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:37.000 The general conservatism and conformism of the nineteen fifties was 134 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:41.600 marked by a general absence of social movements of all kinds. 135 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:46.039 But you have the beginning of the Black freedom movement, 136 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.200 the civil rights movement in the Southern statesy of the 137 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:52.240 United States. You have what was known as Jim Crow 138 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:58.639 which was practically a form of serfdom. Jim Crow laws 139 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:03.960 segregated school and public buses, and all the other institutions 140 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.600 of the South. They shouldn't be considered that the black 141 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:11.960 resistance to oppression spran from nowhere in nineteen fifty four. 142 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.759 In nineteen fifty five, but what you have is a 143 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:19.480 sharp development of new forms, first through the Brown Versus 144 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:23.639 Board of Education decision, which declared that separate but equal 145 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:29.519 schools were inherently unequal and required that southern schools be integrated, 146 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:34.240 and then the Montgomery bus boycott, in which the entire 147 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:38.360 black population of Montgomery boycotted the public buses were over 148 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:43.000 a year, demanding an end to the segregation of the buses. 149 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:46.879 And so after a year you had a new sense 150 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:48.480 of ability to stand up. 151 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:49.919 To segregation in Jim Crow. 152 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:55.080 Following that, you have sit ins and then the freedom rides, 153 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.240 and then getting into the sixties, you have the great 154 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:02.919 civil disobedience campaigns, and so all of that became an 155 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:07.600 inspiration for all the social movements that are so often 156 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:09.759 referred to as the sixties. 157 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:14.240 This generalized feeling of rebellion, largely from the burgeoning civil 158 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:17.960 rights movement, started to spread to workers on the shop floor. 159 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:22.840 As part of the pattern of growing discontent that's illustrated 160 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:27.799 by the student movement and youth polarization the black movement. 161 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:32.279 It's not widely recognized, but there is very much a 162 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:37.720 parallel development among workers, especially among young workers, and it's 163 00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:41.919 manifested in a lot of different ways. Initially ones they 164 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.039 were not so obvious. So, for example, you started having 165 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.960 a lot of trade union leaderships being voted out of 166 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:57.120 office by opposition caucuses. You started finding an increase in 167 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:02.559 wildcat strikes over what were sometimes called local issues or 168 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.679 a grievances that trading in leadership was not interested in 169 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:09.399 trying to address. 170 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:13.879 Wildcat strikes are strikes which are organized and undertaken directly 171 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:18.039 by workers themselves, without the authorization of their unions. 172 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:22.039 And you can see quite amazing statistics about some of this. 173 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:25.600 In the later sixties, some statistics got out from the 174 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:29.240 General Motors that showed that there was something like five 175 00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:33.240 times as many hours lost to local issues and wildcat 176 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:39.000 strikes as to national strikes. The various forms of just 177 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:43.120 resistance to authority on the job, against specifically by young workers, 178 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:48.399 became more and more pervasive and began to be recognized. So, 179 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.080 for example, General Motors built a planet at Lords Sound 180 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:55.279 that was the modern state of the art plant, and 181 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:58.559 they had a young workforce, and workers would walk out 182 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:02.960 and they would retrieve order. Just became big news in 183 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.480 the New York Times and widely recognized as a phenomenon, 184 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:10.480 and it became increasingly the. 185 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:16.559 Case through the nineteen sixties across the US, as in Europe, 186 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:20.960 young workers had become increasingly unruly. In many cases, people 187 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.720 would just bunk off work regularly at general motors, their 188 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.120 absentee rate, meaning the percentage of workers not at their 189 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:32.399 posts each day, was two percent in nineteen sixty. By 190 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:36.000 nineteen seventy it had more than doubled. Five percent of 191 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.519 workers were absent with no explanation most days, with ten 192 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:43.759 percent absent every Monday and Friday at Lordstown, which we 193 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:47.360 referenced in our episode eighty three talking about general labor 194 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:50.879 in discipline, absentee hasn't reached twenty percent in summertime. 195 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:54.519 Friend of mine and I took a tour around the 196 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:59.000 United States interviewing young workers and wrote a book about it, 197 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:04.200 and in the stories we were told indicated a very 198 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:08.600 high level of resistance, of people organizing themselves to get 199 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:12.159 time off on the job, and quite an extensive use 200 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:18.440 of sabotage, not blowing things up type sabotage, but for example, 201 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.480 in one case, workers from fifty different parts of a plant, 202 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:26.559 an auto plant, drew lots about who would stop production 203 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:30.759 when your number came up, You did something in your 204 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:34.840 part that would stop work going forward where you were 205 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.879 and hopefully also stop it for the rest of the plant. 206 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:43.000 So this kind of formal resistance, which had of course 207 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:47.440 always been there in factory settings became much more pervasive. 208 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:50.879 A typical reason for such sabotage would be as a 209 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:53.919 protest against bosses trying to speed up the production line. 210 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.559 So at Lordstown, for example, when management tried to speed 211 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:00.399 up the production line, workers just decided to slow it 212 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:03.639 down by ignoring one car in ten or twenty when 213 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:06.919 it came past their station. Management complained to the press 214 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:10.360 about this, with one stating quote, We've had cases of 215 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.480 engine blocks passing forty men without them doing their work 216 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:17.159 end quote. All this was having an impact on the 217 00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:21.320 corporation's bottom lines. At GM, for example, their labor costs 218 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.799 went up from being twenty nine percent of total sales 219 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:26.919 income in nineteen sixty two to thirty three percent a 220 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:30.960 decade later. With the pressures of war, corporations were also 221 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.200 putting up prices. This is commonly referred to by governments 222 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:35.720 and the media as inflation. 223 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:41.240 So at the same time you have a period where 224 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:44.840 you have rising wages, but infletion rising at a much 225 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.679 faster level than wages, so you have a very hard 226 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:53.600 time of people keeping up with their bills, and that 227 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:58.240 again adds to the pressure cooker, and that is also 228 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:02.240 a result of very much as a Vietnam war. You know, 229 00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:05.399 there was a period when it was being blamed on 230 00:15:05.559 --> 00:15:10.440 the movement of the Anchovy and the Anchovs moved and 231 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:13.399 therefore the fish didn't have anything to eat, so the 232 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.080 price of fish went up. And that was the cause 233 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:17.279 of America's inflation. 234 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:18.399 I'm not kidding. 235 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:24.639 I saw it on television, but it gradually became clear 236 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:26.960 that it was the result of the war, and especially 237 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:30.799 because Lindon Johnson had decided that there was would not 238 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.759 have any kind of tax increase or welfare state cuts 239 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:37.720 while they were increasing war spending. And so the inflation 240 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:40.919 got higher and higher and reached a crescendo by the 241 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:43.679 end of the decade, and that put in normous economic 242 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:44.799 pressures on workers. 243 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:49.080 For the leaderships of the trade unions, these unruly young workers, 244 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.399 their wildcat strikes and their sabotage was a problem. 245 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:59.919 The official leadership of the labor movement was already quite seen. 246 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:04.600 There was very little effort to bring younger workers into 247 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:11.399 the structure of the labor movement, and there was growing 248 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:19.279 hostility by the established labor leadership to these young troublemakers. 249 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:21.600 And they were making trouble for them. For one thing, 250 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.759 they were undermining their fairly. 251 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:29.559 Cozy relationship with the employers, and this was all aggravated 252 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.360 by the generational conflict that pervaded the society. So they 253 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:37.840 were often regarded as just the youngsters with too much 254 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.960 prison vinegar and no desire to work. 255 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:43.399 And this became compounded. 256 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:48.840 By more directly political issues as workers, especially younger workers, 257 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:54.879 began turning against the Vietnam War, and as especially African 258 00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:58.080 American workers became a larger part of the workforce. 259 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:00.200 I remember interviewing young workers. 260 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:01.799 In Detroit and they said, well, we all work on 261 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:05.160 the night shift because they form and go home and 262 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.880 they'll bother us. I think that the idea was that 263 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:13.319 this was a poor workforce. They didn't have any pride 264 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:14.839 in their work, and they didn't have any pride in 265 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.200 their union. And the only saying problem was there wasn't 266 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:21.119 a lot you could do about it, because they needed 267 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:24.640 the workers. There was a labor shortage that was part 268 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:28.960 of the consequences and causes of the inflation, so they 269 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:30.319 needed the warm bodies. 270 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:33.160 We hear from a number of these workers in Detroit 271 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:36.559 in our podcast episode sixty one to sixty two about 272 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:40.240 the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. As the war progressed, 273 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.440 attitudes of many workers towards the war itself started to 274 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:48.079 change significantly, as especially early on, the strikes taking place 275 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.359 were not political strikes against the war as such. 276 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:56.480 Well initially they are definitely not anti war strikes, and 277 00:17:56.759 --> 00:18:01.079 the working class support for the war nineteen sixty three 278 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:07.079 nineteen sixty five is actually very widespread, and sometimes there 279 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:08.119 was militant. 280 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:08.720 Support for the war. 281 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:14.599 There were union led demonstrations occasional instances of violence against 282 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:18.960 anti war protesters by so called hard hats, a term 283 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:22.640 usually used for construction workers. This is not large scale 284 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.039 mass violence, but there definitely were physical attacks on anti 285 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:27.039 war demonstrators. 286 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:30.039 The most famous incidents of this was the so called 287 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:34.079 hard Hat Riot of nineteen seventy. Here, a violent attack 288 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:37.319 on anti war protesters was organized by the leader of 289 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:41.440 the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York, Peter J. Brennan, 290 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.480 a Democrat, in collaboration with the then Republican administration of 291 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:49.440 Richard Nixon. He coordinated an assault by two hundred construction 292 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:52.480 workers armed with clubs and steel toe capped boots on 293 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:56.319 young people in New York City. The workers chanted USA 294 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:00.960 Love It or Leave It, and raided pace universities, smashing windows, 295 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:04.640 beating up students, tearing down red cross and church flags. 296 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.839 They injured seventy people, most of whom were hospitalized while 297 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:12.559 police sat by and watched. Brennan was later rewarded by 298 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:14.799 Nixon by being made Secretary of Labor. 299 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:18.599 As the war went on, and as we get into 300 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:22.319 the nineteen sixty six and nineteen sixty seven nineteen sixty eight, 301 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:27.279 there is a de change in public attitudes about the 302 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.480 war and significant turning against the war, and a huge 303 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:34.400 increase in the scale of the anti war movement, so 304 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:37.759 that by nineteen seventy you're having demonstrations with so many 305 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.440 millions of people they couldn't even count them. Were so 306 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:45.680 called moratoriums, which were incidently originally conceived as general strikes, 307 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:49.279 although that was toned down a bit, but a lot 308 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:54.759 of what was called confrontation politics, with demonstrations that screwed 309 00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:59.480 the edge of violence and a steady turning of population 310 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:04.000 again the war. This started first of all with students 311 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:09.240 and then very rapidly with black mildern organizations like Student 312 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:12.079 Non Violent Coordinating Committee, which were one of the first 313 00:20:12.119 --> 00:20:15.119 to take a position against the war, and then that 314 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.640 spread very much through the rest of the Black community, 315 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:24.400 and the attitudes about the war were very much shaped 316 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:29.960 by the military manpower policies that were used by the 317 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.519 government and by the military, which were essentially in previous wars. 318 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:36.640 There was a strong sense. 319 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:40.599 Of pride that America's elite sent their sons to the war, 320 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.039 and that the working class went to war, but also 321 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:46.640 the elite went to war and shared the risks and 322 00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:51.960 the burdens. Vietnam was a very very different story, and 323 00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:56.240 primarily because of the student deferment policy of the draft. 324 00:20:57.079 --> 00:20:58.400 Students who were at. 325 00:20:58.279 --> 00:21:01.880 That time overwhelmingly people of middle class background and were 326 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:06.039 deferred they didn't have to go, whereas working class people 327 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:12.599 and especially poor and African American young people were drafted 328 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:18.319 in huge numbers, and this had multiple effects. Originally fed 329 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:22.200 into the patriotism traditions. Well, my sons in Vietnam and 330 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.920 I support the war, but over time this changed, first 331 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:28.759 and very much in the black community, and then with 332 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:31.720 other parts of the black leadership like Martin Luther King 333 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:34.240 coming out against the war and taking a leading role 334 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:39.920 and opposing it, and then general disillusionment by everybody, including 335 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.960 the white working class, especially after the Tet Offensive. 336 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:47.400 The Tet Offensive was a major offensive operation by Vietnamese 337 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.480 anti colonial forces in the Lunar New Year of nineteen 338 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:54.720 sixty eight. Tactically, the offensive was a failure and the 339 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:58.799 Vietnamese suffered huge losses, but politically it ended up being 340 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:02.559 a significant victory. US military propaganda had been claiming that 341 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.519 the war was nearly over and that the Vietnamese had 342 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:09.359 almost been defeated. This offensive showed that this was a lie, 343 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:13.359 and it helped significantly turn public opinion against the war itself, 344 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:18.000 including amongst US service personnel. Service members who knew what 345 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.200 was really going on. Returning home also had an impact. 346 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.599 As all these working class kids who had gone to 347 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:28.920 Vietnam began coming back. They had concluded that it was 348 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:32.359 a shuck, and the veterans against the war, veterans who 349 00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:36.720 opposed the war, who were overwhelmingly working class, began telling 350 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.880 their families and their communities, this is not what you heard. 351 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:42.440 This is not about protecting them. This is about all 352 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:44.960 kinds of horrible things that were doing to these people, 353 00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:50.160 and that had a powerful effect on working class communities. 354 00:22:50.519 --> 00:22:53.599 And so by the time you get to the early 355 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:58.839 nineteen seventies, you have overwhelming oppositions of the war among 356 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:03.440 the majority is a population, and at certain points the 357 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:07.720 opposition among working class people was actually greater than all 358 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:12.480 groups except ethnic minorities. Now, the officialdom of the labor 359 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:18.279 supported the war from the beginning and gradually began peeling off, 360 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:22.519 especially after nineteen sixty seven. Some means joined the anti 361 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.319 war movement and formed the Labor Against the War, fairly 362 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:31.680 broad alliance, but the official leadership continued to support the war, 363 00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:37.039 opposed Democratic candidates who opposed the war even though they 364 00:23:37.079 --> 00:23:41.960 had a traditional alliance with Democrats, and George me head 365 00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:47.079 of the AFLCIO, was still lobbying for financial support of 366 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:50.480 the war after the last American troop had been withdrawed. 367 00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:55.119 With this background, some really large and significant local and 368 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:57.559 national industrial disputes began to break out. 369 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.559 Well, as you go from ninety sixty five to nineteen seventy, 370 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:05.039 you're getting more and more economic pressures. Workers are falling 371 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:08.799 farther and farther behind, and at the same time, the 372 00:24:08.920 --> 00:24:12.720 general the spirit of revolt that we associate with the 373 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:18.000 nineteen sixties was coming into its own. So what started 374 00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:24.559 out as small localized actions began to express themselves on 375 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:29.839 a much larger scale, and because of the divisions between 376 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.359 rank and file workers and unions and union officials, which 377 00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:37.440 were always there, they were greater or lesser extent, but 378 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:40.599 became very, very pronounced by the time we get to 379 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:42.319 the end of the nineteen sixties. 380 00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:44.359 Because of that. 381 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:50.000 Many of the large strikes took the form of wildcat strikes, 382 00:24:50.039 --> 00:24:55.039 and the first really big one with tremendous impact was 383 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:56.680 by postal workers. 384 00:24:57.319 --> 00:25:00.839 Before we get to the Postal Workers strinth, numerous local 385 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:05.039 strikes by mostly black workers. For example, in Memphis, Tennessee, 386 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:10.119 in February nineteen sixty eight, mostly black sanitation workers walked out. 387 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:16.079 The Memphis strike is of course most famous because it 388 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:23.480 was supported very visibly by doctor Martin Luther King and 389 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:25.720 it was in the course of supporting it that he 390 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:30.640 was assassinated after doing one of his great speeches, and 391 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.799 it's remembered American history as part of the story of 392 00:25:34.039 --> 00:25:39.599 doctor king In. But it is a very fascinating confluence 393 00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:46.359 of organized labor and the black movement that illustrates a lot. 394 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:47.920 Of the themes of the time. 395 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:55.079 The Memphis sanitation workers had tried repeatedly to get a union. 396 00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:59.480 They had support from the state, county and municipal workers 397 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:05.079 union asks me it's called, and were never, however, able 398 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:07.839 to get a union due to the opposition of the 399 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:13.359 government that employed them, and they had notoriously terrible conditions. 400 00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:16.519 They were almost all black. The conditions were, as you 401 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:21.480