Communists and Community
Activism in Detroit's Labor Movement, 1941-1956
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3191253 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Halpern (Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas), M B Halpern (Henderson State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 108 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 644-644 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaab321 |
| OpenAlex | W4226468435 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Ryan S. Pettengill's Communists and Community argues that the Communist party (Cp) and its cooperative organizations in Detroit led demonstrations, held picnics, and gathered petition signatures in grassroots community campaigns for civil rights and peace. They opposed police brutality and deportations of the foreign born and supported African Americans' access to housing and better jobs. Despite continuing grassroots mobilizations after World War II, Pettengill holds, Cold War anticommunism weakened the party's influence. By 1956, the author argues, its opponents had effectively killed the Cp. The United Auto Workers (Uaw) was left as the defender of working-class interest, but it relied on collective bargaining and the courts, and avoided community activism. Oddly, he fails to mention the Uaw's electoral and lobbying work. The Uaw's shying away from communist-style mass demonstrations, Pettengill concludes, left the working class without an effective antiracism strategy and vulnerable to
Communism · Grassroots · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Working class · Law · Public Administration · Race, History, and American Society
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |