Today in Labor History January 22, 1969: African American workers at the Eldon Chrysler plant in Detroit marched on the autoworkers' union with a list of grievances during the ELRUM strike. A few days later, on January 27, they began a wildcat strike at the Eldon plant, which was highly segregated. At the time, 65% of Eldon employees were black. ELRUM, or the Eldon Revolutionary Union Movement, was part of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW). Both groups emerged from DRUM (the Dodge Revolutionary Movement), which formed in May, 1968, in response to the racism and disregard by the United Autoworkers toward black workers. DRUM launched a wildcat strike on July 8, 1968. LRBW were mostly communists. They opposed capitalist exploitation, union complacency, imperialism, state violence, and the collusion of the AFL-CIO with the FBI and CIA.
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