"Our thing is DRUM"
In Detroit, it was black workers, usually at the bottom rung of organised labor priorities, who took the lead. The group DRUM (later League Revolutionary of Black Workers) made history by closing down Dodge Main, Chysler’s flagship factory, as well as other Detroit-area factories, thus bringing national production to a standstill. In doing so, these workers jeopardised the long-standing relationship between the manufacturers and the union, where the latter guaranteed the domestication of workers’ on the shop floor against recognition as a union and increments in workers’ financial benefits linked to productivity. Black workers such as General Baker or Ron March, brought to the movement their background as young civil rights activists and the influence and the political language of Black Power.