Detroit (USA) was the center of world auto production when it erupted on the night of July 23, 1967. This was the biggest of over 100 anti-racist rebellions that rocked U.S. cities that decade. Seven thousand National Guard and U.S. Army troops were mobilized to put it down. By the time the rebellion ended 5 days later, the racist rulers had killed 43, injured 1,187 and arrested 7,231. Almost 3,000 buildings were destroyed.
The connection between cop brutality, racism and industrial exploitation was brought home like never before. The potential and necessity of communist revolution is its most important legacy.
I was a month shy of my 13th birthday when the Detroit rebellion broke out. We lived in the Jeffries projects, about a mile from one end of the rebellion marked by the Wayne County Jail. I woke up on July 24 to a tank parked out front of our house.
My uncle was not so lucky. He was arrested and thrown into one of the infamous âcagesâ that lined Michigan Avenue as he returned from work at a White Castle hamburger stand. Forty prisoners to a cage! It could have been worse. Curfew was at 7:00 pm. If caught outside we were subject to being shot by the National Guard.
He was 18 years old. He was scheduled to go to Vietnam that fall. He just told me that he would have gone to Canada if he had the money.
The rebellion was justified. In addition to the cop brutality that sparked the revolt, 60% of the black neighborhood I lived in were unemployed. Most people I knew had been laid off from the auto factories.
But after days of mass violent rebellion, burnings, death and repression, the revolt failed.  The only way we could have won is if we had built a movement to mobilize for communist revolution.
What if my uncle had gone into the army with the outlook of winning soldiers to turn the guns around on capitalism? What if he recruited soldiers to an organization like the International Communist Workersâ Party? A communist revolution will mean war against the bosses and their agents. We will need large sections of the army on the workersâ side [see box].
And what if all the adults I knew who worked in Auto had built party clubs in the massive factories they worked in? We could have attacked the very concept of wage labor. That would have been something!
Communism Will Destroy Bossesâ Racism
I had good friends who were Puerto Rican. The Puerto Ricans worked in the Detroit salt mines that made millions for the owners. The canaries sent down into the shafts often died, but the miners were sent to extract the salt anyway. Some never returned.
The Polish, Hispanic and black kids got along despite the racist propaganda on TV. We were all poor. If one family was hungry, we all got together to help them out.
Immediately following the rebellion, Puerto Rican and black students attended Jefferson Junior High School. But as we prepared for high school, the school district sent the Hispanic students back across the de facto Fort Street border between the Puerto Rican and black neighborhoods. That made it harder to maintain the bond with one of my best friends. None of this segregation was by accident. The ruling class was afraid.
In communism, we will not be afraid of working-class unity. It will be a pillar of our society. Schools, work and neighborhoods will all be integrated.
Mental and manual labor will also merge. Workers will teach students about the theory behind car manufacture and mining resources. Many languages will be taught by all to all.
Communism: To Each According to Need
Some small businesses put âSoul Brotherâ (black-owned business) in their windows to keep from being burned down. Mostly it didnât work. Once the fires started the whole block burned down.
Immediately, the big department stores and supermarkets jacked up prices. Some workers trucked in free food for the neighborhood. The trucks had signs that said, âTell that GROCER GO TO HELL.â
Right after the rebellion was squashed, the cops ransacked the Jeffries Projects. They confiscated any new items found, assuming you looted them. In communism, we wonât have cops to protect private property. No cops to terrorize and brutalize the masses!
There was a big Federal Department Store warehouse near where I lived. People broke in to get appliances and household goods. That wonât happen in communism because warehouses would only be there to distribute what the working class needs.
In â67, that warehouse was owned by the department store. The necessities were meant for sale. Communism doesnât produce goods for sale, but for need. No need to take what is already yours and your neighborâs!
Today, fifty years on, Detroit is a wasteland for those black auto workers and others of the working class. How could they let a whole cityâs worth of lives be destroyed? I actually know the answer to that: capitalism. But itâs infuriating.
To add insult to injury, the capitalist media is abuzz with the âRevitalization of Downtown Detroit.â Itâs supposed to be the âinâ place for knowledge workers and hipsters.
My brother was one of the âluckyâ ones. After four decades of racist super-exploitation at Ford, he managed to save a little money. He wanted to buy a parcel of land in the downtown area some years ago when the prices were cheap.
Wayne County Assessor Carl Mathews told him to his face that he couldnât. Venture Capitalist Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and Quicken Loans, had reserved the area for himself. Now heâs making billions building corporate headquarters and fancy condos and apartments. The workers that built âMotor Cityâ are left to rot!
Communism will end real estate speculation. Nobody will own land. Housing will be collective. So will factories and any buildings necessary for the working class to collectively run society. No more mortgages. No banks. No Quicken Loans. No Cavaliers. And no corporations to have headquarters.
There is no excuse anymoreâif there ever wasâ to stop at anything short of mobilizing for communism. Communist clubs in the key areas of industry and the army are more important than ever, and more possible. Herein lies the victory the Detroit rebels deserve.
Anti-Racist Rebellions Spread to US Troops
Several divisions of the US Armyâs 82nd Airborne Division were diverted to the Detroit rebellion from their scheduled deployment in Vietnam. Within 18 months, every major U.S. city broke out in anti-racist revolt. Thousands of U.S. soldiers rebelled themselves, refusing riot duty.
When I listened to my friendâs recollection of the Detroit rebellion, it reminded me of when the Army brass began training us for riot duty in the fall of â71. The officer in charge began by warning us to beware of students and gangsters that ârioted.â
I questioned him. I mentioned that, according to a recent issue of Scientific American, the Detroit rebels were either auto workers or laid-off auto workers .
Unbeknownst to me, the brass had prepared some right-wing troops to confront me. One of these right-wingers jumped up shouting, âShut up!â
âMake him!â retorted one of my friends.
You could hear the metal folding chairs hit the floor as the room split. We were on the verge of a riot ourselves. The brass got scared. Along with the Military Police, they ordered us to return to our barracks.
The brass never called us out for riot duty because they couldnât trust us to do their dirty work. Eventually thousands of troops at my base revolted against racism in the army and the racist Vietnam war. A few joined the party we were building that fought for socialism (not communism). We could have done much more with a party like the ICWP that mobilizes directly for communism. We will.
âAnother Boeing worker